Age relationships of distributary channels on Amazon deep-sea fan: implications for fan growth pattern.

Relative age relationships between the major distributary channels suggest that the fan grows through formation of a succession of broad levee complexes, each of which consists of several individual leveed distributary channels whose levee systems overlap or coalesce with one another. Only one channel is apparently active at any given time on an actively growing levee complex. Eventually this channel is abandoned, probably through avulsion, and a new channel and associated levee system form nearby, thereby enlarging the levee complex. In this manner, a succession of overlapping levee complexes is formed through time, and the fan grows upward as well as radially outward downslope.-from Authors