The El Coyote fan delta: A wave-dominated example from the Gulf of California, Mexico

Modern fan deltas from the Gulf of California are common along the high-rel ief cliffed peninsular margin. Most of the fan deltas are wave dominated, a ffected also by the longshore drift. Human impact on these fan deltas is mi nimal. Thus, El Coyote is an example useful for obtaining a better understa nding of fan delta depositional systems in the stratigraphic record. Local rapid changes reflect the interaction of short-term summer flash floods and wave energy which rapidly removes the evidence of high discharges. The Baj a California peninsula has been relatively stable, at least in the last few hundred thousand years, with an uplift rate of 100 mm/ka. Thus, changes in sea level and climate have been recorded on the fan delta as: (1) Pleistoc ene marine and fluvial terraces (possible stages 5e or 5c), (2) erosion of the subaerial portion due to lowering of sea level from a + 1 to 1.5 high s ea-level standard in the last 6000 years and a decrease in the rate of sedi ment discharge, and (3) the submerged fan form at a water depth of 40 m rel ated to the high sea-level stands of stages 2 (28 ka) and 3 (40-45 ka). (C) 1999 INQUA/Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.