TY - JOUR AB - Existing facies models of tide-dominated deltas largely omit fine-grained, mud-rich successions. Sedimentary facies and sequence stratigraphic analysis of the exceptionally well-preserved Late Eocene Dir Abu Lifa Member (Western Desert, Egypt) aims to bridge this gap. The succession was deposited in a structurally controlled, shallow, macrotidal embayment and deposition was supplemented by fluvial processes but lacked wave influence. The succession contains two stacked, progradational parasequence sets bounded by regionally extensive flooding surfaces. Within this succession two main genetic elements are identified: non-channelised tidal bars and tidal channels. Non-channelised tidal bars comprise coarsening-upward sand bodies, including large, downcurrent-dipping accretion surfaces, sometimes capped by palaeosols indicating emergence. Tidal channels are preserved as single-storey and multilateral bodies filled by: (i) laterally migrating, elongate tidal bars (inclined heterolithic strata, 5 to 25 m thick); (ii) forward-facing lobate bars (sigmoidal heterolithic strata, up to 10 m thick); (iii) side bars displaying oblique to vertical accretion (4 to 7 m thick); or (iv) vertically-accreting mud (1 to 4 m thick). Palaeocurrent data show that channels were swept by bidirectional tidal currents and typically were mutually evasive. Along-strike variability defines a similar large-scale architecture in both parasequence sets: a deeply scoured channel belt characterised by widespread inclined heterolithic strata is eroded from the parasequence-set top, and flanked by stacked, non-channelised tidal bars and smaller channelised bodies. The tide-dominated delta is characterised by: (i) the regressive stratigraphic context; (ii) net-progradational stratigraphic architecture within the succession; (iii) the absence of upward deepening trends and tidal ravinement surfaces; and (iv) architectural relations that demonstrate contemporaneous tidal distributary channel infill and ti AU - Legler,B AU - Johnson,HD AU - Hampson,GJ AU - Massart,BYG AU - Jackson,CAL AU - Jackson,MD AU - El-Barkooky,A AU - Ravnas,R DO - 10.1111/sed.12037 EP - 1356 PY - 2013/// SP - 1313 TI - Facies model of a fine-grained, tide-dominated delta: lower Dir Abu Lifa Member (Eocene), Western Desert, Egypt T2 - Sedimentology UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/sed.12037 UR - http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/sed.12037/abstract VL - 60 ER -