Sediment transport patterns determined from grain size parameters: Overview and state of the art

Grain size trends have been applied in many diverse sedimentary environments to determine sediment transport paths, generally coinciding with information from tracer studies, current measurements and the orientation of sedimentary structures. The different methods proposed to date are critically analysed and compared with reference to recent field studies. It is concluded that the two-dimensional methods produce comparable results and may in fact complement each other.In spite of the advances, several problems still exist, which include the sampling method and density, the choice of trend types, the relative weight of grain size parameters and the interpretation of results. These are discussed together with possible solutions.