Evolution and Morphodynamics of a Prograded Beach‐Ridge Foreland,Northern Baffin Island,Canadian Arctic Archipelago |
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| Authors: | Dominique St‐Hilaire‐Gravel Donald L Forbes Trevor Bell |
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| Affiliation: | 1. School of Ocean Technology, Fisheries and Marine Institute of Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, Canada;2. Department of Geography, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St John's, Newfoundland, Canada;3. Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada |
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| Abstract: | Landward retreat (marine transgression) is a common response of coastal systems to rising relative sea level. However, given sufficient sediment supply, the coast may advance seaward. The latter response of gravel barriers has been recorded in parts of southeastern and northwestern Canada, where seaward‐rising sets of beach ridges are observed in areas of Holocene RSL rise. Cape Charles Yorke, northern Baffin Island, is a 5 km long gravel foreland characterized by seaward‐rising beach‐ridge crest elevations. The prograded morphology of the Cape Charles Yorke foreland is a prime example of coastal response to a combination of rising RSL and abundant sediment supply, an unusual and little‐documented pattern in the Canadian Arctic. The main gravel supply to Cape Charles Yorke is likely from eroding bedrock and raised marine deposits southwest of the foreland. Although not the dominant sediment source, the Cape Charles Yorke delta contributed to the formation of the foreland by sheltering it from easterly storm waves and providing an anchor point for the prograding ridges. The truncation of relict ridges by the modern shoreline suggests a recent regime shift from continuous deposition to predominant erosion. The cause and timing of this shift are unknown but could result from a recent dwindling in sediment supply, increased accommodation space, increased wave energy, and/or an accelerated rise of relative sea level. |
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| Keywords: | gravel beach progradation relative sea‐level rise coastal evolution Arctic coast multibeam dataset |
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