LATE QUATERNARY DEPOSITIONAL SEQUENCE ON THE NORTH AQUITAINE CONTINENTAL-SHELF (ATLANTIC-OCEAN, FRANCE)

The Aquitaine shelf is covered by about 20 m of sand supposedly repres enting the entire Quaternary period. Sequential analysis of very high resolution seismic data and isotopic measurements at the bottom of the sand unit suggest that it represents a single sequence related to the last Weichselian glacio-eustatic cycle (40,000 years B.P. to present) . Sediment deposited over a fluvial incision consists of: regressive p erched shelf lowstand wedges and incised valley-fills, early transgres sive infills, outer shelf transgressive sand bodies and middle/inner s helf backstepping parasequences suggesting a stepped post-glacial sea level rise.