Generic models of continental-margin evolution predict that siliciclastic fluxes to slopes should be maximal and minimal during major sea-level lowstands and transgressions, respectively. Here we document the opposite for the northeast Australian margin, the largest extant mixed siliciclastic-carbonate depositional system. Cores from slopes of this margin consistently contain siliciclastic-rich intervals, ϳ0.3-1 m thick, in the upper few meters. Radiocarbon dates of planktonic foraminifera show that this interval was deposited between 12 and 7 ka and represents greatly increased siliciclastic fluxes during late transgression. This massive terrigenous discharge to slopes occurred along at least 450 km of the margin, irrespective of modern variations in bathymetry or climate. Although we cannot dismiss a significantly different early Holocene climate with greatly enhanced sediment discharge, available data instead suggest that rivers aggraded on the shelf during lowstand because of an extensive subaerially exposed reef system. This phenomenon may occur on other margins rimmed by reefs, requiring a major revision of concepts used to interpret mixed siliciclastic-carbonate systems. Figure 1. Sediment accumulation on slopes of tropical mixed system as (A) conventionally modeled and (B) observed on northeast Australian margin, with (C) respect to relative sea level. MAR-mass-accumulation rate.

A large paleochannel on the northeastern Australian continental shelf has been imaged by a series of shallow seismic reflection profiles. The buried channel forms an important Pleistocene route of the Burdekin River and extends almost continuously for ~160 km from the present coast to the outermost reef. The channel floor profile steps across the shelf with alternating segments of gentle gradient (flats) and steeper gradient (ramps). Channel sinuosity as interpreted from seismic records varies among segments between 1 and 1.72, with no consistent relationship between sinuosity and gradient. The lower and upper parts of the channel fill have different geometry and reflection character, suggesting channel excavation and initial filling occurred during a different regime than final filling. In one section of the shelf, about the −50 m isobath, the channel is difficult to define and appears to have wandered significantly, either because it has been modified by shoreface erosion ca. 10.5 ka or because the river encountered a change in topography in front of karstified reefs. As the channel passes between the numerous outer shelf reefs, in water depths of 70-80 m, it becomes progressively smaller, conspicuously underfilled, and absent entirely over the outermost 10 km of the shelf. No discrete lowstand river mouth could be recognized on the present shelf edge. The elevations of flat segments on the channel floor profile show considerable similarity to published elevations of stillstands or brief rises in sea level attained during the long-term drawdown associated with the last glacial cycle (125-20 ka) and are interpreted to have formed during this stepwise drop in sea level. Channels were cut and partially filled during the fall and lowstand and then backfilled during the Holocene transgression. The ancestral channel of the Burdekin River therefore preserves a rare insight into the stratigraphic record of falling sea level during the last glacial.

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[1] In this study, we demonstrate the utility of amino acid geochronology based on single-foraminiferal tests in Quaternary sediment cores from the Queensland margin, Australia. The large planktonic foraminifer Pulleniatina obliquiloculata is ubiquitous in shelf, slope, and basin sediments of north Queensland as well as pantropical oceans. Fossil tests are resistant to dissolution, and retain substantial concentrations of amino acids (2-4 nmol mg À1 of shell) over hundreds of thousands of years. Amino acid D and L isomers of aspartic acid (Asp) and glutamic acid (Glu) were separated using reverse phase chromatography, which is sensitive enough to analyze individual foraminifera tests. In all, 462 Pulleniatina tests from 80 horizons in 11 cores exhibit a systematic increase in D/L ratios down core. D/L ratios were determined in 32 samples whose ages are known from AMS 14 C analyses. In all cases, the Asp and Glu D/L ratios are concordant with 14 C age. D/L ratios of equal-age samples are slightly lower for cores taken from deeper water sites, reflecting the sensitivity of the rate of racemization to bottom water temperature. Beyond the range of 14 C dating, previously identified marine oxygen-isotope stage boundaries provide approximate ages of the sediments up to about 500,000 years. For this longer time frame, D/L ratios also vary systematically with isotope-correlated ages. The rate of racemization for Glu and Asp was modeled using power functions. These equations can be used to estimate ages of samples from the Queensland margin extending back at least 500,000 years. This analytical approach provides new opportunities for geochronological control necessary to understand fundamental sedimentary processes affecting a wide range of marine environments.

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