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Holocene and Pleistocene sea-level indicators at the coast of Jericoacoara, Ceará, NE Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Georg Irion ,
Jáder Onofre de Morais  and
Friederike Bungenstock
Georg Irion*
Affiliation:
Senckenberg Institute of Marine Science, Suedstrand 40, 26389 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
Jáder Onofre de Morais
Affiliation:
State University of Ceará/PROPGEO/LGCO, Av. Paranjana, 1700 – Campus do Itaperi – 607 40–000 Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil
Friederike Bungenstock
Affiliation:
Lower Saxony Institute for Historical Coastal Research, Victoriastrasse 26, 26382 Wilhelmshaven, Germany
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail address:[email protected] (G. Irion).
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Abstract

Beach-rock exposures provide a record of Holocene sea-level rise along the 560-km-long northeast-facing coast of Ceará, Brazil, that differs from the record available along the other 4300 km of Brazilian coastline further south. Whereas documentation is available from southern Brazil to show Holocene sea levels as much as 5 m above today's level, our observations along the northeastern coast indicate that sea level here was not above the present-day level during the Holocene. Near Jericoacoara, about 240 km northwest of Fortaleza, characterized by strong surf, Precambrian rocks crop out from under a temporary cover of sand in small protected locations with less surf. Here in this upper tidal zone beach rock is being formed, while it is being dismembered synchronously by erosion at lower tide levels. This shows a rising sea level. Along the entire coast of Ceará west of Ponta Grossa the absence of beach rock higher than spring tide level indicates that sea-level was not above its present-day level during the Holocene.

Notches in bedrock situated between 2 m and 6 m above spring-tide high-water level that we formerly described as Holocene, are now believed to be Sangamonian.

Keywords

BrazilCearáSangamonianHoloceneSea levelBeach rockNotches
Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 77 , Issue 2 , March 2012 , pp. 251 - 257
Copyright
University of Washington

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