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History of a Foreland Basin
 The mountain building is over and the only thing left is for the mountain to erode back down to a peneplain. Meanwhile the sediment eroded from the mountain has largely filled in the basin and a substantial meandering river system is building its way toward the foreland. This progressive building of environments across the basin is called progradation. Also observe that by this time the depositional environments have evolved to a long system. Deposition of the submarine fan has all but stopped; the basin to the west is just too shallow to provide the kinds of slopes turbidity currents require. Instead meandering river and shelf environments dominate the basin (compare with Stage III), and will finish filling in the basin.  Return to Stage I. Return to Stage H. |