No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

This paper focuses on high-resolution coastal stratigraphy data, which were revealed by the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) system. Surveys performed with GPR on the surface of prograded barriers reveal patterns of reflections that allow the interpretation of the geometry and stratigraphy of coastal deposits in a continuous mode. At the Curumim prograded barrier in southern Brazil (29°30′ S–49°53′ W), a two-dimensional transverse GPR survey revealed, with high precision, a serial of contacts between aeolian deposits of relict foredunes and relict beach deposits that have a strong correlation with sea level. In a 4 km GPR profile, a total of 24 of these contacts were identified. The high accurate spatial positioning of the contacts combined with Optical Stimulated Luminescence dating resulted in the first confident sea-level curve that tells the history of sea-level changes during the last 7 ka on the southernmost sector of the Brazilian coast. The curve shows that sea-level was still rising before 6 ka BP, with a maximum level of 1.9 m reached close to 5 ka BP; after that, sea-level started to falling slowly until around 4 ka BP when fall accelerated.

This paper describes the evolution of a sector of the southern coastal plain of the Pelotas Basin, southern Brazil, between the last Pleistocene sea-level lowstand and the Holocene highstand, based on geomorphology and high-resolution stratigraphy. A fluvial drainage system associated with an incised valley developed during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) was identified. Two highresolution 2D and 2.5D geophysical profiles using Ground-Penetrating Radar (GPR) show a Pleistocene fluvial system's former path, starting close to its present mouth inside Mirim Lagoon crossing the coastal barriers and reaching the inner continental shelf, covering some 60 km across the coastal plain. During the LGM, with the sea-level at −120 to −130 m and the coastline positioned close to the shelf edge (distant 200 km from the present coastline), the fluvial system excavated a ~31.5-m deep channel. Two cores, 36 and 32 m long, show that the paleochannel was filled with sedimentary deposits after 19.4 ka BP, and the facies succession represents the transition from fluvial, to estuarine, to the coastal barrier, and finally to inner shelf depositional environments, generated by processes connected to LGM and the Postglacial Marine Transgression (PMT). The study region behaved as a sediment by-pass zone, connecting the adjacent coastal plain's inner portion with the inner continental shelf. The studied area presents an unusual record of the LGM at a coastal plain domain.