Chenier plain development in northern Sierra Leone, West Africa

Abstract

The coast of northern Sierra Leone, between the Scarcies and Mellacoree estuaries, forms a prograding muddy Holocene plain comprising two separate, as yet undated, clusters of sand cheniers. The general coastal morpho-stratigraphy and available data on regional climatic and sealevel history suggest that alternations between muddy progradation and chenier cluster formation have been controlled by a probable conjunction of several factors, including the local geomorphic framework, a climatically induced change in mud supply, and relative sealevel oscillations since the middle Holocene. The inner chenier cluster was apparently elaborated under conditions of efficient wave action over a deep, largely unfilled Mellacoree estuary and at a time of reduced mud availability. It peters out seaward, probably in response to several factors, including an increase in mud supply from the upland, a negative sealevel pulse resulting in higher rates of mud export from accreted inner tidal flats, increased muddy sedimentation over a shallower nearshore zone, and attenuated wave action as a result of energy capture by accreted estuarine shoals. The outer cluster, which partly fringes the coast, was formed in a mayor embayment representing the terminus of longshore sand drift. It is suggested that its formation may have been favoured by a higher sealevel resulting in efficient winnowing of sands from subtidal muds, a greater propensity for accretion of tidal flats landwards and, consequently, a lower mud supply to the foreshore. Although the timing of muddy progradation and chenier formation has not been determined, the foregoing interpretation suggests a complex sequence of events, reflecting as much the influence of local morphodynamic factors as external factors.