Assessing the suitability of Holocene environments along the central Belize coast, Central America, for the reconstruction of hurricane records

Abstract

Since the Belize coast was repeatedly affected by hurricanes and the paleohurricane record for this region is poor, sediment cores from coastal lagoon environments along the central Belize coast have been examined in order to identify storm deposits. The paleohurricane record presented in this study spans the past 8000 years and exhibits three periods with increased evidences of hurricane strikes occurring at 6000–4900, 4200–3600 and 2200–1500 cal yr BP. Two earlier events around 7100 and 7900 cal yr BP and more recent events around 180 cal yr BP and during modern times have been detected. Sand layers, redeposited corals and lagoon shell concentrations have been used as proxies for storm deposition. Additionally, hiatuses and reversed ages may indicate storm influence. While sand layers and corals represent overwash deposits, the lagoon shell concentrations, which mainly comprise the bivalve Anomalocardia cuneimeris and cerithid gastropods, have been deposited due to changes in lagoon salinity during and after storm landfalls. Comparison with other studies reveals similarities with one record from Belize, but hardly any matches with other published records. The potential for paleotempestology reconstructions of the barrier–lagoon complexes along the central Belize coast differs depending on geomorphology, and deposition of washovers in the lagoon basins is limited, probably due to the interplay of biological, geological and geomorphological processes.