Incised valleys are mountain-valley-like features that commonly result from river down cutting into coastal plains and

continental shelves A continental shelf is a portion of a continent that is submerged under an area of relatively shallow water, known as a shelf sea. Much of these shelves were exposed by drops in sea level during glacial periods. The shelf surrounding an island ...

in response to marine regression. They are the key evidence to identify

sequence boundary In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is called t ...

on seismic profiles and outcrops. The magnitudes of their down cutting have been used to estimate the global sea-level variations.Dalrymple, Robert, et al. 1994. Incised-Valley Systems: Origin and Sedimentary Sequences。SEPM SPECIAL PUBLICATION，Volume 51. ISBN electronic: 9781565760905

Geological definition

In contrast to mountain valleys, which owe their topography to structural movements, the formation of incised valleys is primarily in response to erosional base level drops during sea-level falls. Since sea-level fluctuations are most manifested in coastal areas, they are prominent in shallow water environments, where prior depositional surfaces are subject to subaerial erosion and fluvial systems continue carving downward. As sea-level rises, the incised valleys are drowned and filled with non-marine though estuary to open marine sediments.Vail, P., et al. 1977 Seismic Stratigraphy: Applications to Hydrocarbon Exploration (AAPG Memoir 26), Subsequently, the term of incised valley has been extensively used to describe outcrops.Slatt, R. M, 2013. Stratigraphic Reservoir Characterization for Petroleum Geologists, Geophysicists, and Engineers.in Developments in Petroleum Science, Vol. 61. Published by Elsevier

Global distribution

Ancient channelized features in outcrops have long been reported in literature, but their significances in eustatic sea-level variation and chronostratigraphy have not been recognized until Vail et al (1977) put them in the context of sequence stratigraphy through seismic stratigraphy. With the development of offshore petroleum exploration, incised valleys have been widely identified on multi-channel seismic data coverage on continental shelves. Quaternary incised valleys, in particular, have been reported worldwide.Wang,Ru, Colombera, Luca, and Mountney, N.P., 2020. Quantitative analysis of the stratigraphic architecture of incised-valley fills: A global comparison of Quaternary systems, Earth-Science Reviews.Vol. 200 Because of extensive seismic data coverage on the continental shelf, most recent rivers along the US Gulf Coast have been recognized with their own incised valley extending to the continental shelf break.Kindinger, Jack, 2017. Evolution and History of Incised Valleys: The Mobile Bay Model , USGS Publication (https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/incised-valleys/)Anderson, John., et al. 2015. Recycling sediments between source and sink during a eustatic cycle: Systems of late Quaternary northwestern Gulf of Mexico Basin. Earth-Science Reviews, Vol. 153

Depth dimension

Based on the estimation of continental ice volume, eustatic sea-level variations are calculated in the range of 200 meters. This is consistent with the observed depth magnitudes of Quaternary incised valleys. In northern Libya, a

Late Miocene The Late Miocene (also known as Upper Miocene) is a sub-epoch of the Miocene epoch (geology), Epoch made up of two faunal stage, stages. The Tortonian and Messinian stages comprise the Late Miocene sub-epoch, which lasted from 11.63 Ma (million ye ...

incised valley has been mapped with 150 kilometer length and at least 700 meter depth, far exceeding the Quaternary eustatic sea-level variations.Barr, F. T. and Walker, B. R. 2004. LATE TERTIARY CHANNEL SYSTEM IN NORTHERN LIBYA AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ON MEDITERRANEAN SEA LEVEL CHANGES. in Petroleum Geology of Libya, ed. Hallett, Don. Publ. Elservier. It turns out that during the Late Miocene, the Mediterranean Sea was blocked from the Atlantic at Gibraltar Strait and the Mediterranean became a deep but shallow water basin by evaporation. This caused a regional erosional base level dropped more than 1000 meters. This is the well known geological event called the Messinian salinity crisis.Manzi, Vinicio, et a.2020. The Messinian salinity crisis in the Adriatic foredeep: Evolution of the largest evaporitic marginal basin in the Mediterranean. Marine and Petroleum Geology Vol. 115

References

{{reflist Sedimentology