Depositional environments in an extensive tide-influenced delta plain, Middle Devonian Gauja Formation, Devonian Baltic Basin

The Middle Devonian Gauja Formation in the Devonian Baltic Basin preserves tide-influenced delta plain and delta front deposits associated with a large southward prograding delta complex. The outcrops extend over 250 km from southern Estonia to southern Lithuania. The succession can be divided into 10 facies associations recording distributary channel belts that became progressively more tide influenced when traced southwards towards the palaeo-shoreline, separated by muddy intra-channel areas where deposition was characterized by crevasse splays, delta plain lakes, abandoned channel deposits and tidal gullies. Tidal currents influenced deposition over the entire delta plain, extending up to 250 km from the contemporary shoreline. Tidal facies on the upper delta plain differ from those on the lower delta plain and delta front. In the former case, deposition from river currents was only occasionally interrupted by tidal currents, e.g. during spring tides, resulting in mica and mudstone drapes, and distinctive graded cross-stratification. The lower delta plain was dominated by tidal facies and tidal currents regularly influenced deposition. There was a change from progradation to aggradation from the lower to the upper part of the Gauja Formation coupled with a vertical decrease in tidal influence and a decrease in coarse-grained sediment input. The Gauja Formation contrasts with established models for tide-influenced deltas as the active delta plain was not restricted by topography. The shape of the delta plain, the predominant southward (basinward)-directed palaeocurrents, and the thick sandstone succession, show that although tidal currents strongly influenced deposition at bed scale, rivers still controlled the overall morphology of the delta and the larger-scale bedforms. In addition, there are no signs of wave influence, indicating very low wave energy in the basin. The widespread tidal influence in the Devonian Baltic Basin is explained by changes in the wider basin geometry and by local bathymetrical differences in the basin during progradation and aggradation of the delta plain, with changes in tidal efficiency accompanying the change in basin geometry produced by shoreline progradation.