3 Sea-level Changes and Coastal Evolution: Holocene and Modern

Thursday, 17 March 2005
8:00 AM - 12:30 PM

RAPID CHANGES IN ESTUARY EVOLUTION WITHIN CORPUS CHRISTI BAY, TEXAS, USA

Paper number: 3-12
Program: THEME SESSIONS
Time: 11:30 AM – 11:50 AM

Authors

Abstract

Over the last 10 ka, the wave-dominated estuaries of the northwestern Gulf of Mexico have undergone several dramatic changes in response to sea-level and climatic oscillations. Using over 400 km of high resolution seismic, 53 cores up to 20 m in length, and over 40 radiocarbon dates, the history of one of these estuaries – Corpus Christi Bay – was studied in detail. Cores and seismic profiles show dramatic changes in lithofacies and seismic character, indicating changes in estuarine environments (i.e. bayhead deltas, oyster reefs, and tidal deltas) around 8 ka, 4.8 ka, and 2.5 ka. Km-scale shifts in the location of estuarine environments occurred at submillenial time scales even during a period of slow sea level rise. This is attributed to the important role of antecedent topography and climate change in estuarine evolution.