High-Resolution Seismic Reflection Profiles for the Reconstruction of Postglacial Transgressive Shorelines

An example from Greece

Datos Bibliográficos

ID24085340
AutoresTjeerd H Van Andel (Stanford University), Nikolaos Lianos
Año1984
Volumen22
Número1
Páginas31-45
Fecha de publicación1984-07-01
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaQuaternary Research (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0033-5894 • E-ISSN: 1096-0287
EditorialCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1016/0033-5894(84)90004-8
OpenAlexW2060731524
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas15
Referencias citadas26

In 1982 we carried out a shallow-penetration, high-resolution seismic profiling study on the shelf of the southern Argolid, Peloponnesos, Greece, to identify and map the shores of the late Pleistocene and Holocene, and to establish their coastal environments. Portable equipment and a local boat were used. The lowest glacial shore occurs at −115 to −118 m, within the range of global values. The subsequent rise across the distinct old land surface left behind many shore features (scaps, beaches and beach ridges, channels and lagoons) now buried under a few meters of post-transgressive deposits. These features cluster at a small number of depths below present sea level, suggesting that the rise of the sea, usually too fast to leave an imprint, was episodically interrupted by brief stillstands or even temporary reversals of climatic or tectonic origin. The clusters can be roughly dated with reference to a global sea-level-rise curve; after 6000 yr B.P. sparse archaeological data establish a local curve. The seismic profiling technique, convenient and not costly, holds promise for the identification of postglacial shores elsewhere prior to sampling for dating. It has wide application for environmental reconstructions of vanished coastal zones as a basis for prehistoric resource assessments. These applications are illustrated with examples from this study.

Geography · Glacial period · Holocene · Marine transgression · Outcrop · Physical geography · Pleistocene · Sea level · Sedimentary depositional environment · Shore · Tectonics · Transgressive · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Marine and environmental studies · Maritime and Coastal Archaeology · Oceanography · Paleontology