Geomorphological Processes and Environmental Interpretation at Espalmador islet (Western Mediterranean)

Laura Del Valle Villalonga,Joan J Fornós,Alida Timar-Gabor

doi:10.3390/jmse7050144

Laura Del Valle Villalonga, Joan J Fornós + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse7050144

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Abstract

This study presents a sedimentological and stratigraphical description of the Pleistocene deposits cropping out in Espalmador islet (Illes Pitiüses). Four major sedimentary facies including the succession of aeolian, marine, colluvial and edaphic environments are described. The sedimentological and stratigraphical analysis of these deposits allows the reconstruction of the coastal Pleistocene environmental and geomorphological history of the Espalmador islet. The coastal relief and the fluctuations of the sea level mainly control the Pleistocene coastal landscape evolution on Espalmador. Episodes of aeolian activity and dune formation related to a predominant northwestern wind direction can be linked to periods of low sea level where a high amount of marine sediment is exposed on the shelf platform.

Highlights

Since the first half of the nineteenth century, the Quaternary is considered the “ice age”—fundamentally due to the existence of numerous periods of glaciation, when ice sheets many kilometers thick have covered vast areas of the continents in temperate areas
Carbonated aeolian deposits interbedded with marine deposits, colluvial deposits and palaeosols are characteristic for the coastal Pleistocene sediments of the Espalmador islet
The nature of the sediments implies a drop in sea level and the exposure of a high amount of marine sediments on the platform or exposed shelf areas

Summary

Introduction

Since the first half of the nineteenth century, the Quaternary is considered the “ice age”—fundamentally due to the existence of numerous periods of glaciation, when ice sheets many kilometers thick have covered vast areas of the continents in temperate areas. Quaternary sedimentary successions are characterized by the alternation of shallow marine deposits (i.e., beaches), aeolianites, colluvial and alluvial deposits or the formation of palaeosols [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24] These deposits form a complex stratigraphic architecture that reflects the alternation of glacial-interglacial cycles, that can be correlated with the highstands and lowstands of the sea level eustatic curve, on a regional as a global scale [15,16,25,26,27,28,29]. These successions are fundamental to understand and predict the environmental changes that will affect mainly the present-day coastal environments in the near future

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