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Southeastern Section - 54th Annual Meeting (March 17–18, 2005)

Paper No. 10
Presentation Time: 11:30 AM

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


SIMMS, Alexander Ray, Earth Sciences, Rice Univ, 6100 S. Main MS-126, Houston, TX 77005, ANDERSON, John B., Houston, TX 77005, RODRIGUEZ, Antonio B., Dept. of Geological Sciences, Univ of Alabama, Box 870338, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487 and TAVIANI, Marco, ISMAR-Marine Geology Division, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, via Gobetti 101, Bologna, 40129, johna@rice.edu

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.

Session No. 3

T9. Sea-level Changes and Coastal Evolution: Holocene and Modern
Thursday, 17 March 2005: 8:00 AM-12:30 PM
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 37, No. 2, p.8
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