Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Author Posting. © The Author(s), 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in The Holocene 26 (2016): 1438-1456, doi:10.1177/0959683616640048.
Description:
Major Mediterranean deltas began to develop during a period between 8000 and 6000
yr BP when the rate of fluvial sediment input overtook the declining rate of sea-level
rise. However, different authors have argued that the Ebro Delta primarily formed
during the Late Middle Ages as a consequence of increased anthropogenic pressure on
its river basin and these arguments are supported by the scarcity of previous geological
studies and available radiocarbon dates. To reconstruct the environmental evolution of
the Ebro Delta during the Holocene, we used micropalaeontological analysis of
continuous boreholes drilled in two different locations (Carlet and Sant Jaume) on the
central delta plain. Different lithofacies distributions and associated environments of
deposition were defined based on diagnostic foraminiferal assemblages and the
application of a palaeowater-depth transfer function. The more landward Carlet
sequence shows an older and more proximal progradational delta with a sedimentary
record composed of inner bay, lagoonal, and beach materials deposited between 7600
yr BP and 〉2000 yr BP under rising sea-level and highstand conditions. This phase
was followed by a series of delta-plain environments reflected in part by the Carlet
deposits that formed before 2000 yr BP. The Sant Jaume borehole is located closer to
the present coastline and contains a much younger sequence that accumulated in the
3 last 2.0 ka during the development of three different deltaic lobes under highstand sea40
level conditions. The results of the present study reinforce the idea that the Ebro Delta
dates to the early Holocene, similar to other large Mediterranean deltas.
Description:
Drilling and coring was funded by the US National Science Foundation 686 grant EAR-
0952146. Work on the cores presented in this study was partially financed by the
Formation and Research Unit in Quaternary: Environmental Changes and Human
Fingerprint (UPV/EHU, UFI11/09) and HAREA-Coastal Geology Research Group
(Basque Government, IT767-13) projects. It was supported by an IRTA-URV
Santander fellowship to Xavier Benito through “BRDI Trainee Research Personnel
Programme funded by University of Rovira and Virgili R+D+I projects” and the
European Community’s 7th Framework Programme through the grant to Collaborative
Project RISES-AM-, Contract FP7-ENV-2013-two-stage-603396.
Keywords:
Ebro Delta
;
Sedimentary sequences
;
Benthic foraminifera
;
Environmental evolution
;
Mediterranean Sea
;
Holocene
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Preprint
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