ABSTRACT

Tidal-flat sediments from the Dutch Wadden Sea, described by van Straaten, are compared with intertidal zone sediments in the Bay of Fundy. The tidal flats of the Dutch Wadden Sea form in the lee of barrier islands built by waves in a low-lying subsiding coastal area where sediment is abundant. Deposition occurs in the following four closely-related environments: (1) salt marshes, (2) high tidal flats, (3) low tidal flats and (4) tidal channels.

The intertidal zone in the Bay of Fundy is more complex because of larger coastal relief, presence of bedrock cliffs, and larger tidal ranges. The dominant environment of deposition is a wave-cut bench on which a thin veneer of locally derived sediment is being reworked by waves and rising and falling water. No comparable environment occurs in the Dutch Wadden Sea. Other intertidal environments from the Bay of Fundy include estuarine clay flats and tidal marshes, which resemble some of the high tidal flat areas of the Wadden Sea and elsewhere in the Netherlands. Tidal flats of the typical Wadden Sea type occur locally in the Bay of Fundy in the lee of the Five Islands in the Minas Basin, but the sediments deposited here show many differences which are controlled by the local geologic etting.