Deep incision in an Aptian carbonate succession indicates major sea‐level fall in the Cretaceous

Long‐term relative sea‐level cycles (0·5 to 6 Myr) have yet to be fully understood for the Cretaceous. During the Aptian, in the northern Maestrat Basin (Eastern Iberian Peninsula), fault‐controlled subsidence created depositional space, but eustasy governed changes in depositional trends. Relative sea‐level history was reconstructed by sequence stratigraphic analysis. Two forced regressive stages of relative sea‐level were recognized within three depositional sequences. The first stage is late Early Aptian age (intra Dufrenoyia furcata Zone) and is characterized by foreshore to upper shoreface sedimentary wedges, which occur detached from a highstand carbonate platform, and were deposited above basin marls. The amplitude of relative sea‐level drop was in the order of tens of metres, with a duration of <1 Myr. The second stage of relative sea‐level fall occurred within the Late Aptian and is recorded by an incised valley that, when restored to its pre‐contractional attitude, was >2 km wide and cut ≥115 m down into the underlying Aptian succession. With the subsequent transgression, the incision was backfilled with peritidal to shallow subtidal deposits. The changes in depositional trends, lithofacies evolution and geometric relation of the stratigraphic units characterized are similar to those observed in coeval rocks within the Maestrat Basin, as well as in other correlative basins elsewhere. The pace and magnitude of the two relative sea‐level drops identified fall within the glacio‐eustatic domain. In the Maestrat Basin, terrestrial palynological studies provide evidence that the late Early and Late Aptian climate was cooler than the earliest part of the Early Aptian and the Albian Stage, which were characterized by warmer environmental conditions. The outcrops documented here are significant because they preserve the results of Aptian long‐term sea‐level trends that are often only recognizable on larger scales (i.e. seismic), such as for the Arabian Plate.     

Evidence for carbonate platform failure during rapid sea‐level rise; ca 14 000 year old bioclastic flow deposits in the Lesser Antilles

Bioclastic flow deposits offshore from the Soufrière Hills volcano on Montserrat in the Lesser Antilles were deposited by the largest volume sediment flows near this active volcano in the last 26 kyr. The volume of these deposits exceeds that of the largest historic volcanic dome collapse in the world, which occurred on Montserrat in 2003. These flows were most probably generated by a large submarine slope failure of the carbonate shelf comprising the south‐west flank of Antigua or the east flank of Redonda; adjacent islands that are not volcanically active. The bioclastic flow deposits are relatively coarse‐grained and either ungraded or poorly graded, and were deposited by non‐cohesive debris flow and high density turbidity currents. The bioclastic deposit often comprises multiple sub‐units that cannot be correlated between core sites; some located just 2 km apart. Multiple sub‐units in the bioclastic deposit result from either flow reflection, stacking of multiple debris flow lobes, and/or multi‐stage collapse of the initial landslide. This study provides unusually precise constraints on the age of this mass flow event that occurred at ca 14 ka. Few large submarine landslides have been well dated, but the slope failures that have been dated are commonly associated with periods of rapid sea‐level change.     

Bifurcation and second‐order work in geomaterials

In this paper, the ability of a material rate‐independent system to evolve toward another mechanical state from an equilibrium configuration, with no change in the control parameters, is investigated. From a mechanical point of view, this means that the system can spontaneously develop kinetic energy with no external disturbance from an equilibrium state, which corresponds to a particular case of bifurcation. The existence of both conjugate incremental strain and stress such that the second‐order work vanishes is established as a necessary and sufficient condition for the appearance of this bifurcation phenomenon. It is proved that this fundamental result is independent of the constitutive relation of the rate‐independent material considered. Then the case of homogeneous loading paths is investigated, and, as an illustration, the subsequent results are applied to interpret the well‐known liquefaction observed under isochoric triaxial loading conditions with loose granular materials. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sedimentary indications and absolute chronology of Holocene relative sea‐level changes retrieved from coastal lagoon deposits on Samsø, Denmark

Coastal lagoons are a typical feature of the landscape in central Denmark. The lagoons formed when basins within the inherited glacial topography were flooded by the mid‐Holocene sea‐level rise. The transgression initiated coastal geomorphological processes and prompted marine sedimentation in the inundated areas. Despite their common occurrence and wide distribution in the area, coastal lagoons and their deposits have rarely been studied as sedimentary archives. The absolute chronology established for the basal marine deposits in sediment cores retrieved from coastal lagoons on the island of Samsø, southern Kattegat Sea, central Denmark, is evidence of a nearly synchronous onset of marine sedimentation at different elevations. This is interpreted as a new indication of a period of very rapid relative sea‐level (RSL) rise between 7.6 and 7.2 ka BP. Following a period of RSL highstand, a marked facies change in the deposits from an inactive lagoon yields consistent ages of around 4.1 ka BP and may be an indication of a marked RSL fall. This study illustrates the potential of coastal lagoons as sedimentary archives for the reconstruction of RSL in SW Scandinavia and in similar coastal environments elsewhere.     

Mid‐late Holocene sea‐level variability in eastern Australia

A re‐analysis of sea‐level data from eastern Australia based on 115 calibrated C‐14 ages is used to constrain the origin, timing and magnitude of sea‐level change over the last 7000 years. We demonstrate that the Holocene sea‐level highstand of +1.0–1.5 m was reached ～7000 cal yr bp and fell to its present position after 2000 yr bp . These findings are in contrast to most previous studies that relied on smaller datasets and did not include the now common conversion of conventional C‐14 ages to calendar years. During this ～5000 year period of high sea level, growth hiatuses in oyster beds and tubeworms and lower elevations of coral microatolls are interpreted to represent short‐lived oscillations in sea‐level of up to 1 m during two intervals, beginning c. 4800 and 3000 cal yr bp . The rates of sea‐level rise and fall (1–2 mm yr^?1) during these centennial‐scale oscillations are comparable with current rates of sea‐level rise. The origin of the oscillations is enigmatic but most likely the result of oceanographic and climatic changes, including wind strengths, ice ablation, and melt‐water contributions of both Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.     

Holocene relative sea‐level changes in Harris,Outer Hebrides,Scotland, UK

Evidence for relative sea‐level changes during the middle and late Holocene is examined from two locations on the Atlantic coast of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Scotland, using morphological mapping and survey, stratigraphical, grain size and diatom analysis, and radiocarbon dating. The earliest event identified is a marine flood, which occurred after 7982–8348 cal. a (7370 ± 80 ¹⁴C a) BP, when the sea crossed a threshold lying at ?0.08 m Ordnance Datum Newlyn (OD) (?2.17 m mean high water springs (MHWS)) before withdrawing. This could have been due to a storm or to the Holocene Storegga Slide tsunami. By 6407–6122 cal. a (5500 ± 60 ¹⁴C a) BP, relative sea levels had begun to fall from a sandflat surface with an indicated MHWS level of between 0.08 and ?1.96 m (?2.01 to ?4.05 m). This fall reached between ?0.30 and ?2.35 m (?2.39 to ?4.44 m) after 5841–5050 cal. a (4760 ± 130 ¹⁴C a) BP, but was succeeded by a relative sea‐level rise which reached between 0.54 and ?1.57 m (?1.55 to ?3.66 m) by 5450–4861 cal. a (4500 ± 100 ¹⁴C a) BP. This rise continued, possibly with an interruption, until a second sandflat surface was reached between 2.34 and ?0.26 m (0.25 to ?2.35 m) between 2952–3375 cal. a (3000 ± 80 ¹⁴C a) and 1948–2325 cal. a (2130 ± 70 ¹⁴C a) BP, before present levels were reached. The regressive episode from the earliest sandflat is correlated with the abandonment of the Main Postglacial Shoreline. It is maintained that the fluctuations in relative sea level recorded can be correlated with similar events elsewhere on the periphery of the glacio‐isostatic centre and may therefore reflect secular changes in nearshore sea surface levels. Despite published evidence from trim lines of differential ice sheet loading across the area, no evidence of variations in uplift between the locations concerned could be found. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Correlating Alpine glaciation with Adriatic sea‐level changes through lake and alluvial stratigraphy

We compare lake and alluvial stratigraphy along a frame connecting the southern Alpine foothills and the Adriatic Sea, with the aim of matching the effects of Alpine glaciation and sea‐level changes on sedimentation during the last glacial cycle. The palynostratigraphy of Lake Fimon provided proxies for regional vegetation and climate change and was coupled with sediment petrography, loss on ignition and magnetic susceptibility, disentangling alluvial phases from fluvioglacial activity related to culminations of the southeastern Alpine glaciers. The Fimon area was not reached by alluvial fans during the penultimate glacial maximum, nor by the sea transgression during the last interglacial, but a closed lake soon developed at the Eemian onset due to enhanced rainfall. Sea‐level fall at glacial inception triggered the entrenchment of the drainage network in the plain reaching the outer Fimon Basin. Slow aggradation, but no sign of fluvioglacial activity, lasted to 38.2 ± 1.45 cal. ka BP, when a major forest withdrawal took place, coeval to the spread of alluvial fans. By 27.5 ± 0.5 cal. ka BP the Fimon Basin was dammed by the Brenta outwash system. The main step of of forest recovery commenced at around (15.8) cal. ka BP, when apex trenching of the outwash fans was triggered by the glacier's decay. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Late quaternary sea‐level changes,crustal movements and coastal evolution in Northumberland,UK

Northumberland lies in the transition between Holocene emergence and submergence and is thus a critical zone for testing models of isostatic rebound. We have collected data from this area to reconstruct relative sea‐level changes and lateral coastline movements for the last 14000 y. These are deposits from tidal marsh, back‐barrier wetland and terrestrial environments producing 47 sea‐level index points from 12 sites. There is no unequivocal evidence for Late Devensian sea levels above present and the reliable sea‐level index points are restricted between −6 m and +2.5 m relative to present and 9.0–2.5 kyr cal. BP. Analysis of these quantifies differential responses to glacio‐ and hydroisostatic rebound, with the northern sites recording a mid‐Holocene sea‐level maximum ca. 2.5 m above present, whereas the southern sites show a maximum ca. 0.5 m above present. These observations show a reasonable fit with the predictions from quantitative models of glacio and hydroisostatic rebound, but there is currently no unique solution of Earth and ice model parameters that will explain all the sea‐level observations. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Beach erosion under rising sea‐level modulated by coastal geomorphology and sediment availability on carbonate reef‐fringed island coasts

This study addresses gaps in understanding the relative roles of sea‐level change, coastal geomorphology and sediment availability in driving beach erosion at the scale of individual beaches. Patterns of historical shoreline change are examined for spatial relationships to geomorphology and for temporal relationships to late‐Holocene and modern sea‐level change. The study area shoreline on the north‐east coast of Oahu, Hawaii, is characterized by a series of kilometre‐long beaches with repeated headland‐embayed morphology fronted by a carbonate fringing reef. The beaches are the seaward edge of a carbonate sand‐rich coastal strand plain, a common morphological setting in tectonically stable tropical island coasts. Multiple lines of geological evidence indicate that the strand plain prograded atop a fringing reef platform during a period of late‐Holocene sea‐level fall. Analysis of historical shoreline changes indicates an overall trend of erosion (shoreline recession) along headland sections of beach and an overall trend of stable to accreting beaches along adjoining embayed sections. Eighty‐eight per cent of headland beaches eroded over the past century at an average rate of ?0·12 ± 0·03 m yr^?1. In contrast, 56% of embayed beaches accreted at an average rate of 0·04 ± 0·03 m yr^?1. Given over a century of global (and local) sea‐level rise, the data indicate that embayed beaches are showing remarkable resiliency. The pattern of headland beach erosion and stable to accreting embayments suggests a shift from accretion to erosion particular to the headland beaches with the initiation of modern sea‐level rise. These results emphasize the need to account for localized variations in beach erosion related to geomorphology and alongshore sediment transport in attempting to forecast future shoreline change under increasing sea‐level rise.     

Late Quaternary sea‐level change and evolution of Belfast Lough,Northern Ireland: new offshore evidence and implications for sea‐level reconstruction

The interplay of eustatic and isostatic factors causes complex relative sea‐level (RSL) histories, particularly in paraglacial settings. In this context the past record of RSL is important in understanding ice‐sheet history, earth rheology and resulting glacio‐isostatic adjustment. Field data to develop sea‐level reconstructions are often limited to shallow depths and uncertainty exists as to the veracity of modelled sea‐level curves. We use seismic stratigraphy, 39 vibrocores and 26 radiocarbon dates to investigate the deglacial history of Belfast Lough, Northern Ireland, and reconstruct past RSL. A typical sequence of till, glacimarine and Holocene sediments is preserved. Two sea‐level lowstands (both max. ?40 m) are recorded at c. 13.5 and 11.5k cal a bp . Each is followed by a rapid transgression and subsequent periods of RSL stability. The first transgression coincides temporally with a late stage of Meltwater Pulse 1a and the RSL stability occurred between c. 13.0 and c. 12.2k cal a bp (Younger Dryas). The second still/slowstand occurred between c. 10.3 and c. 11.5k cal a bp . Our data provide constraints on the direction and timing of RSL change during deglaciation. Application of the Depth of Closure concept adds an error term to sea‐level reconstructions based on seismic stratigraphic reconstructions.     

Lateglacial and Holocene relative sea‐level changes and first evidence for the Storegga tsunami in Sutherland,Scotland

We reconstruct one of the longest relative sea‐level (RSL) records in north‐west Europe from the north coast of mainland Scotland, using data collected from three sites in Loch Eriboll (Sutherland) that we combine with other studies from the region. Following deglaciation, RSL fell from a Lateglacial highstand of +6?8 m OD (Ordnance Datum = ca. mean sea level) at ca. 15 k cal a BP to below present, then rose to an early Holocene highstand and remained at ca. +1 m OD between ca. 7 and 3 k cal a BP, before falling to present. We find no evidence for significant differential Holocene glacio‐isostatic adjustment between sites on the north‐west (Lochinver, Loch Laxford), north (Loch Eriboll) and north‐east (Wick) coast of mainland Scotland. This suggests that the region was rapidly deglaciated and there was little difference in ice loads across the region. From one site at the head of Loch Eriboll we report the most westerly sedimentary evidence for the early Holocene Storegga tsunami on the Scottish mainland. The presence of the Storegga tsunami in Loch Eriboll is predicted by a tsunami wave model, which suggests that the tsunami impacted the entire north coast of Scotland and probably also the Atlantic coastline of north‐west Scotland.

     

Discussing the definition of the second‐order work for unsaturated soils

The volumetric compaction due to wetting processes is a phenomenon observed quite often in unsaturated soils. Under certain circumstances, saturation events can result into a sudden and unexpected collapse of the system. These phenomena are usually referred to as wetting‐induced collapses, without providing any detailed theoretical justification for this terminology. In order to predict in a general fashion the occurrence of coupled instabilities induced by saturation processes, a generalization of the theoretical approaches usually employed for saturated geomaterials is here provided. More specifically, this paper addresses the problem of hydro‐mechanical instability in unsaturated soils from an energy standpoint. For this purpose, an extension of the definition of the second‐order work is here suggested for the case of unsaturated porous media. On the basis of some examples of numerical simulations of laboratory tests, coupled hydro‐mechanical instabilities are then interpreted in the light of this second‐order energy measure. Finally, the implications of the theoretical results here presented are commented from a constitutive modelling perspective. Two possible alternative approaches to formulate incremental coupled constitutive relations are indeed discussed, showing how the onset of hydro‐mechanical instabilities can be predicted using an extended form of Hill's stability criterion. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Practical second‐order reliability analysis applied to foundation engineering

A practical and efficient approach of implementing second‐order reliability method (SORM) is presented and illustrated for cases related to foundation engineering involving explicit and implicit limit state functions. The proposed SORM procedure is based on an approximating paraboloid fitted to the limit state surface in the neighborhood of the design point and can be easily carried out in a spreadsheet. Complex mathematical operations are relegated to relatively simple user‐created functions. The failure probability is calculated automatically based on the reliability index and principal curvatures of the limit state surface using established closed‐form SORM formulas. Four common foundation engineering examples are analyzed using the proposed method and discussed: immediate settlement of a flexible rectangular foundation, bearing capacity of a shallow footing, axial capacity of a vertical single pile, and deflection of a pile under lateral load. Comparisons with Monte Carlo simulations are made. In the case of the laterally loaded pile, the friction angle of the soil is represented as a one‐dimensional random field, and pile deflections are computed based on finite element analysis on a stand‐alone computer package. The implicit limit state function is approximated via the response surface method using two quadratic models. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Coastal lagoons and beach ridges as complementary sedimentary archives for the reconstruction of Holocene relative sea‐level changes

Coastal lagoons and beach ridges are genetically independent, though non‐continuous, sedimentary archives. We here combine the results from two recently published studies in order to produce an 8000‐year‐long record of Holocene relative sea‐level changes on the island of Samsø, southern Kattegat, Denmark. The reconstruction of the initial mid‐Holocene sea‐level rise is based on the sedimentary infill from topography‐confined coastal lagoons (Sander et al., Boreas, 2015b). Sea‐level index points over the mid‐ to late Holocene period of sea‐level stability and fall are retrieved from the internal structures of a wide beach‐ridge system (Hede et al., The Holocene, 2015). Data from sediment coring, georadar and absolute dating are thus combined in an inter‐disciplinary approach that is highly reproducible in micro‐tidal environments characterised by high sediment supply. We show here that the commonly proximate occurrence of coastal lagoons and beach ridges allows us to produce seamless time series of relative sea‐level changes from field sites in SW Scandinavia and in similar coastal environments.     

Discontinuous deformation analysis with second‐order finite element meshed block

The discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA) with second‐order displacement functions was derived based on six‐node triangular mesh in order to satisfy the requirement for the accurate calculations in practical applications. The matrices of equilibrium equations for the second‐order DDA were given in detail for program coding. By close comparison with widely used finite element method and closed form solutions, the advantages of the modified DDA were illustrated. The program coding was carried out in C++ environment and the new code applied to three examples with known analytical solutions. A very good agreement was achieved between the analytical and numerical results produced by the modified DDA code. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Holocene salt‐marsh sedimentary infilling and relative sea‐level changes in West Brittany (France) using foraminifera‐based transfer functions

In order to reconstruct former sea‐levels and to better characterize the history of Holocene salt‐marsh sedimentary infillings in West Brittany (western France), local foraminifera‐based transfer functions were developed using weighted‐average‐partial‐least‐squares (WAPLS) regression, based on a modern data set of 26 and 51 surface samples obtained from salt‐marshes in the bay of Tresseny and the bay of Brest, respectively. Fifty cores were retrieved from Tresseny, Porzguen, Troaon and Arun salt‐marshes, which were litho‐ and biostratigraphically analysed in order to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental changes. A total of 26 AMS ¹⁴C age determinations were performed within the sediment successions. The Holocene evolution of salt‐marsh environments can be subdivided into four stages: (i) a development of brackish to freshwater marshes (from c. 6400 to 4500 cal. a BP); (ii) salt‐marsh formation behind gravel barriers in the bay of Brest (from 4500 to 2900 cal. a BP); (iii) salt‐marsh erosion and rapid changes of infilling dynamics due to the destruction of coastal barriers by storm events (c. 2900?2700 cal. a BP); (iv) renewed salt‐marsh deposition and small environmental changes (from 2700 cal. a BP to present). From the application of transfer functions to fossil assemblages, 14 new sea‐level index points were obtained, indicating a mean relative sea‐level rise of around 0.90±0.12 mm a^?1 since 6300 cal. a BP.     

Late Holocene vertical land motion and relative sea‐level changes: lessons from the British Isles

Vertical land motion caused by continuing glacial isostatic adjustment is one of several important components of sea‐level change and is not limited just to previously glaciated regions. A national‐scale analysis for the British Isles shows an ellipse of present‐day relative uplift (relative sea‐level fall), ～1.2 mm a^?1, broadly centred on the deglaciated mountains of Scotland. The pattern of three foci of relative subsidence, ～1 mm a^?1, results from the additional interactions of the deglacial meltwater load on the Atlantic basin and the continental shelf, and the signal due to far‐field ice sheets. At a local scale, sediment compaction can more than double the rate of relative land subsidence. Relative land‐level change (the negative of relative sea‐level change) is not the same as vertical land motion. There is a spatial pattern in the difference between relative land‐level change and vertical land motion, with differences at present of approximately ?0.1 to ?0.3 mm a^?1 around the British Isles and +2.5 to ?1.5 mm a^?1 globally. For the wider scientific and user community, whether or not the differences are considered significant will depend upon the location, time frame and spatial scale of the study that uses such information. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.