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Emergent Littoral Deposits in the Eastern Canary Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Joaquin Meco
Affiliation:
Beca de Investigación de la Excma. Mancomunidad de Cabildos de Las Palmas Museo Canario, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
Charles E. Stearns
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Tufts University, Medford, Massachusetts 02155

Abstract

K-Ar ages (A. Abdel-Monem, P. D. Watkins, and P. W. Gast, 1971, American Journal of Science 271, 490–521; this paper) and revised paleontological determinations (J. Meco, 1977, “Los Strombus neogenos y cuatenarios del Atlantico euroafricano”, Las Palmas, Ediciones del Excmo. Cabildo Insular de Gran Canaria) show that “Quaternary” (R. Crofts, 1967, Quaternaria 9, 247–260; G. Lecointre, K. J. Tinkler, and G. Richards, 1967, Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia Proceedings 119, 325–344) littoral deposits on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are early Pliocene and late Pleistocene. Early and middle Pleistocene strand lines are not represented. Early Pliocene littoral and marine deposits contain a characteristic fossil assemblage: Strombus coronatus, Nerità emiliana, Gryphaea virleti, Patella cf. intermedia, and Rothpletzia rudista. Differences in elevation record differential post-Pliocene uplift of the coastal platforms on which they lie. Late Pleistocene beach deposits at low elevations belong to two groups, an older with Strombus bubonius and a younger without. Differences in elevation of early Pliocene littoral deposits are reflected by differences in elevation of late Pleistocene beach deposits nearby.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

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