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Unraveling Sea-Level Variations and Tectonic Uplift in Wave-Built Marine Terraces, Santa María Island, Chile

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Julius Jara-Muñoz  and
Daniel Melnick
Julius Jara-Muñoz
Affiliation:
Institut für Erd- und Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
Daniel Melnick
Affiliation:
Institut für Erd- und Umweltwissenschaften, Universität Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany
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Abstract

The architecture of coastal sequences in tectonically-active regions results mostly from a combination of sea-level and land-level changes. The objective of this study is to unravel these signals by combining sequence stratigraphy and sedimentology of near-shore sedimentary sequences in wave-built terraces. We focus on Santa María Island at the south-central Chile margin, which hosts excellent exposures of coastal sediments from Marine Isotope Stage 3. A novel method based on statistical analysis of grain-size distributions coupled with facies descriptions provided a detailed account of transgressive–regressive cycles. Radiocarbon ages from paleosols constrain the chronology between > 53 and ~ 31 cal ka BP. Because the influence of glaciations can be neglected, we calculated relative sea-level curves by tying the onset of deposition on a bedrock abrasion platform to a global sea-level curve. The observed depositional cycles match those predicted for uplift rates between 1.2 and 1.8 m/ka. The studied sedimentary units represent depositional cycles that resulted in reoccupation events of an existing marine terrace. Our study demonstrates wave-built marine terrace deposits along clastic shorelines in temperate regions can be used to distinguish between tectonic uplift and climate-induced sea-level changes.

Keywords

Marine terracesWave-built terracesTerrace reoccupationTectonic upliftSea-level changeCoastal sedimentation
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 83 , Issue 1 , January 2015 , pp. 216 - 228
Copyright
University of Washington

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