Sediment dynamics of estuarine Holocene incised-valley fill deposits recorded by Siphonichnus (ancient red River, Gulf of Tonkin)

The Holocene muddy infill of the valley incised by the ancient Red River during Pleistocene sea-level lowstand records a change from fluvial to estuarine and finally marine depositional conditions. Siphonichnus , a mainly vertical trace fossil produced by burrowing bivalves, documents otherwise unrecorded episodes of enhanced erosion, bypass and deposition of, on average, rapidly aggrading (> 1 m kyr −1 ), mainly completely bioturbated sediments within the fluvial-marine transition zone (FMTZ), supposedly within the polyhaline domain. The producers of Siphonichnus moved nearly 1 m downward or upward in response to erosional or depositional phases, respectively. The fill of Siphonichnus burrows, in addition, records erosion and/or bypass of sediment: The traces were produced in mud, but many of them are filled with coarse silt and sand that is otherwise not present in the studied intervals in distinct layers. Obviously, this material was available when Siphonichnus was produced and connected to the sediment surface. In addition to seasonal erosion and deposition during freshet and its waning stage, Siphonichnus records exceptional events that displace the sediment surface by > 0.5 m. Such events occurred episodically at an estimated frequency of 1 event per several hundreds of years. The complete bioturbation of the deposits suggests apparent continuous accumulation, but in fact they represent a pile of stacked event deposits resulting from depositional phases and intermittent severe erosion.