Revisiting Huronian paleoslopes

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that the gradients of pre-vegetation fluvial systems were greater than those of modern rivers. If the measured thickness of crossbeds is first corrected for post-depositional compaction, using thin-section-based observations, the corrected thickness data can be applied to a new suite of formulae, based on observations of >4000 modern rivers, to provide more realistic paleohydrological reconstructions of ancient river systems. Using this approach, after correction for 36% compaction, the average slope of the rivers that deposited the Mississagi Formation was calculated as 0.0013 m/m (0.0005–0.0026), with an average bankfull channel depth of 2.67 m. The slope of Serpent Formation rivers, after correction for 33.5% compaction, averaged 0.0007 m/m (0.0003–0.0016), with an average bankfull channel depth of 5.85 m. The calculation of slopes using this approach on these Paleoproterozoic and other Precambrian systems indicates that primary river gradients were similar to modern rivers, falling well below the “depositional gap”, of 0.007–0.026 m/m, between modern rivers and arid-region fans, negating the long-held idea that pre-vegetation rivers had higher slopes than their modern counterparts.