Rw. Parkinson et Jr. White, LATE HOLOCENE EROSIONAL SHOREFACE RETREAT WITHIN A SILICICLASTIC-TO-CARBONATE TRANSITION ZONE, EAST-CENTRAL FLORIDA, USA, Journal of sedimentary research. Section B, Stratigraphy and global studies, 64(3), 1994, pp. 408-415
This study has reconstructed the late Holocene evolution of a section
of the North American Atlantic coast barrier-island system in a silici
clastic-to-carbonate transition zone. A transgressive stratigraphy, an
alogous to that recognized beneath the siliciclastic barriers of the e
mbayed Atlantic and Gulf coasts, was identified in the study area and
generated by erosional shoreface retreat of the barrier island during
Holocene sea-level rise. Vibracores from the backbarrier revealed the
preservation of a thin (< 3.5 m) Holocene sediment succession consisti
ng of muddy skeletal sand overlain by intercalations of clean skeletal
sand and muddy skeletal sand capped by fibrous peat. In the foreshore
, the fibrous peat is compressed and abruptly overlain by coarse shell
hash grading upward into skeletal sand. The entire Holocene section r
ests unconformably upon a thin (< 0.25 m) quartz sand and featureless,
gently seaward-dipping Pleistocene limestone surface. Sedimentologic,
paleontologic, stratigraphic, and radiocarbon data suggest that this
sequence is transgressive and was generated during erosional shoreface
retreat of a wave-dominated, microtidal barrier-island system. The ba
sal, muddy skeletal sand is interpreted to have been deposited in a sh
allow (3 m) backbarrier lagoon. These sediments were buried during ove
rwash events that transported skeletal sand across the barrier and int
o the lagoon. Repeated overwash generated a shallowing-upward sequence
capped by organic-rich tidal-wetland sediment. Radiocarbon dates sugg
est that wetland sedimentation started between 1200 and 1960 yr B.P. L
andward retreat of the barrier is indicated by the foreshore unconform
ity (ravinement surface) that now truncates the fibrous peat. The pres
ervation potential of the entire Holocene paralic section is probably
low, given the lack of significant antecedent topographic relief and r
elatively slow rate of sea-level rise. The preservation potential shou
ld increase seaward, however, because the older paralic environments w
ould have been subjected to faster sea-level rise.