DECELERATING HOLOCENE SEA-LEVEL RISE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SOUTHWEST FLORIDA COASTAL EVOLUTION: A TRANSGRESSIVE/REGRESSIVE STRATIGRAPHY l
Article
Parkinson, RW. (1989). DECELERATING HOLOCENE SEA-LEVEL RISE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SOUTHWEST FLORIDA COASTAL EVOLUTION: A TRANSGRESSIVE/REGRESSIVE STRATIGRAPHY l
. 59(6), 960-972. 10.1306/212F90C5-2B24-11D7-8648000102C1865D
Parkinson, RW. (1989). DECELERATING HOLOCENE SEA-LEVEL RISE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON SOUTHWEST FLORIDA COASTAL EVOLUTION: A TRANSGRESSIVE/REGRESSIVE STRATIGRAPHY l
. 59(6), 960-972. 10.1306/212F90C5-2B24-11D7-8648000102C1865D
The Ten Thousand Islands (TTI) are a myriad of low-relief mangrove islands that lie along the low energy, subtropical southwest Florida coast. The region has been subjected to a relative rise in Hoiocene sea level, which has continuously decelerated to its present rate. Data derived from surface and subsurface sampling indicate that the Holocene sediment package of the TTI area consists of two sediment sequences. The lower sequence is transgressive and was generated as coastal salt marsh and/or terrestrial environments were submerged and replaced by a shallow coastal marine setting. The upper sediment sequence consists primarily of 1) bingenic shallowing upwards sequences or 2) thickened mangrove peat layers, reflecting island emergence and shoreline stabilization, respectively. Island emergence compartmentalized the area, further reducing wave and current energy and promoting the infilling of the protected bays through deposition of organic-rich shelly mudstone and wackestone. Based on coastal stratigraphy and ~4Cdates, the formation of this transgressive/regressive sediment sequence is directly related to changing rates of Holocene sea-level rise, reported to have occurred between 3,500 and 3,200 vBv. Continued regressive sedimentation could eventually generate a 5-10 m thick transgressive/regressive sediment couplet, with an aerial extent of over 300 kin:, in roughly 10,000 years. This externally forced sediment couplet compares remarkably well to individual small scale transgressive/regressive cycles which repeat tens to hundreds of times throughout the geologic record (see James 1984). The results of this study thus support the allocyclic mechanism as a viable working hypothesis for the generation of these small scale rock cycles.
