Long-term erosion of the tidal flats King Sound, north western Australia

Abstract

King Sound in northwestern Australia, with a tropical semi-arid climate is situated in a macrotidal tide-dominated regime. The shores of King Sound are bordered by tidal flats that exhibit a considerable variation in geomorphology and stratigraphy. Erosion is the dominant geomorphic process forming the tidal flats today. Three types of erosion are important; these are sheet, cliff and tidal-creek erosion. Tidal-flat geomorphology at the local scale is an expression of which erosion type is dominant. The geomorphology at regional scale is largely an expression of the extent that erosion has gone to completion in removing Holocene, Pleistocene and bedrock stratigraphic units. Determination of erosion rates over the past few decades, extrapolation of these rates into the past, together with stratigraphic and diagenetic data point to a long-term erosional history for King Sound, King Sound itself appears to be formed largely as a result of long-term lateral erosion.