Coastal barriers from Argentina: Buenos Aires, Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego

Abstract

Barriers, barrier islands and spits characterise low-lying coasts. However, they can grow along erosive coasts where there is a constant supply of sand, gravel, or both. At the Argentine coast, sandy barriers characterise the template coast of Buenos Aires. The availability of gravel at the Patagonian and Tierra del Fuego coasts induces the formation beach-ridge plains that can derived into coarse-grained spits. The morphology of these spits obeys to the basin depth and the availability of sediment. Recurved spits signify that the beach drift is locally modified by the action of waves or sediment-supply shortages. Some spits are today subject to local erosion (cannibalisation) that compensates these sediment deficits. Barriers and spits are ideal to locate harbours, marinas or touristic (resort) villages. However, the freshwater volumes inside their bodies are limited, even in areas where rain-fed aquifers have plenty of capacity. In this sense, resort villages are limited in their urban sprawl and planners should foresee these resource-based limitations.

Latitudinal pattern of the thermal sensitivity of running speed in the endemic lizard Liolaemus multimaculatus

“…2016). This coastline includes 3 barrier dune formations that extend from low (36°S) to high latitudes (41°S): the Eastern Barrier Dune, the Austral Barrier Dune, and the Patagones Barrier Dune (Isla 2017; Cortizo & Isla 2012; Bértola et al . 2021).…”

From Patagonia to Río de la Plata: Multistep long‐distance littoral transport of Andean volcaniclastic sand along the Argentine passive margin

“…Tidal range decreases southward from Puerto Madryn (mean spring and neap ranges ca 5 m and ca 3 m, respectively) to the mesotidal Río Chubut mouth (mean spring and neap ranges 3.8 m and 2.3 m), where mean annual wave height is ≤1 m and the highest breakers are observed in winter. Prevailing waves are from the north‐east and longshore drift is predominantly southward from the Peninsula Valdés to the Río Chubut mouth (Kokot et al ., 2005; Isla, 2017). The Patagonia coast farther south, characterized by pebbly beaches largely fed from erosion of sea cliffs, is tectonically and isostatically active with uplift rates up to 1.5 mm/year (Codignotto et al ., 1992; Pedoja et al ., 2011; Isla & Cortizo, 2014).…”

“…Although reversals of littoral drift are commonly documented by sand or gravel spits growing in opposite directions, sand drift is largely northward in the wave‐dominated Buenos Aires Province (Kokot, 1997; Isla, 2014) but mainly southward along the tide‐dominated Patagonia coast from Golfo San Matias to Tierra del Fuego (Fig. 8; Kokot, 2010; Isla, 2017).…”

Hydrochemical, Isotopic, and Geophysical Studies Applied to the Evaluation of Groundwater Salinization Processes in Quaternary Beach Ridges in a Semiarid Coastal Area of Northern Patagonia, Argentina

“…The Patagonian coast of Argentina constitutes an extensive coastal area, in which arid and semi-arid conditions predominate and coastal populations face serious freshwater supply problems [42,43]. Particularly on the coast of Patagonia, the uplift of the area resulted in the preservation of beach ridges generated during different Quaternary ingressions [44][45][46][47]. In the northern sector of the coast of Patagonia, in Bahía San Blas (Figure 1), beach ridge deposits can be found, separated by marsh and intertidal plain environments associated with the Jabalí channel (Figure 1).…”