Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
CONCLUSIONS
are thanked for their time in the fi eld and Tali
Babila is thanked for her help in the laboratory.
Peter Swart is thanked for providing stable isotope
data shown in Figure 13. The fi rst author is espe-
cially grateful to Laurent Chérubin for continued
inspiration and thought provoking discussions
throughout the various fi eld and data analysis
stages of the project. Robert Ginsburg is thanked
for his encouragement to always go after scien-
tifi c challenges and to try answering each time the
question: So What?
The present depositional buildups of Cape Sable
and the late Holocene geometry and stratigraphy
of southwest Florida are the result of complex
interplay between relative sea-level fl uctuations,
sediment production, distribution and accumu-
lation, antecedent topography and climate. They
preserve an excellent record of the principles
governing accumulation and progradation of a
low-energy mixed carbonate system. The follow-
ing conclusions are based mainly on the results
of this fi eld study but also well-founded on many
years of work in south Florida by the second
author and his former students.
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1
)
results in a nearly instantaneous destabil-
ization of the coastal system, erosion and
transport of sediment in the nearshore zone
and intracoastal redeposition of a shallowing-
upwards facies succession.
Transgressive recycling in tropical, low-energy
−
1
Rapid relative sea-level rise (>20 cm 100 yr
2
coastal systems can release substantial amounts
of organic material leading to deposition and
potential preservation of organic-enriched
carbonates.
Intertidal mudfl ats can accumulate fi ne-grained
3
material very rapidly, provided that sediment
supply is abundant and transport processes are
favourable (daily tides in this study).
A shallowing-upwards facies succession can
4
be the product of a small sea-level oscillation,
which is embedded within an overall rising
sea-level trend. A set of multiple shallowing-
upwards peritidal cycles, commonly inter-
preted in the stratigraphic record as an integral
part of coastal progradation during high-stand,
might be the depositional expression of a
transgression.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This paper forms part of a PhD dissertation
written at the University of Miami under the super-
vision of Harold Wanless and Eugene Rankey.
The work was supported by a research grant from
Everglades National Park and park personnel are
acknowledged for granting permits, boats and
a helicopter to collect within the park boundar-
ies. Additional fi nancial support was provided
by the Comparative Sedimentology Laboratory
at the University of Miami. All fi eld assistants
