Regressive and transgressive sequences in a raised Holocene gravelly beach, southwestern Crete |
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| Authors: | GEORGE POSTMA WOJCIECH NEMEC† |
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| Institution: | Comparative Sedimentology Division, Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Utrecht, Budapestlaan 4, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands;Geological Institute (A), University of Bergen, Allégaten 41, 5007 Bergen, Norway |
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| Abstract: | Both a modern and a raised, late Holocene gravelly beach have been studied along the cliffed coast near the village of Chora Sfakion in southwestern Crete, Greece. The Holocene beach shows the record of regional, well-documented relative sea-level changes, in the form of regressive and transgressive sequences. The texture, fabric and depositional architecture of these sequences are described and compared with those of the modern, microtidal beach there. The depositional history of the raised beach is discussed in terms of the sediment transport processes and relative sea-level changes. The regressive sequences of both the modern and the Holocene beach resemble those of the mesotidal beaches in the Sker district of southwest Wales, described by Bluck (1967). The transgressive sequence of the Holocene beach resembles the mesotidal beach sequence near Newton (southwest Wales), recognized by Bluck as another type of progradational (regressive) beach. Therefore, transgressive beach sequences in the stratigraphic record might easily be overlooked or misinterpreted as regressive. The stratigraphic depositional patterns of gravelly beach systems are, apparently, still poorly understood. |
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