Palaeoclimatic significance of co-occurring wind- and water-induced sedimentary structures in last-interglacial coastal deposits from Bermuda and the Bahamas: response to Hearty et al.'s comment

Abstract

Abstract We respond to Hearty et al.'s objections to our interpretation of upper Pleistocene coastal landforms from Bermuda and the Bahamas as aeolian dunes rather than wave-induced deposits. Their remarks concern the origin of fine-scale laminae and fenestral pores observed in these landforms, the apparent lack of steeply dipping foresets, the inference that carbonate coastal dunes can migrate, the vicinity of wave-deposited boulders that we did not mention, and finally, the palaeoclimatic reconstruction we derived from our interpretation. Although, we do not exclude—and never did—that occasional storm-generated waves washed up and over these dunes and created some scours, we maintain that these controversial deposits have an aeolian origin.