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Terraces, reefs, and valleys along the Brazil northeast outer shelf: deglacial sea-level archives?

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Abstract

Morphological features on low-latitude continental shelves have recorded past sea level fluctuations. This study aims to recognize and interrogate, on the Rio Grande do Norte (RN, NE Brazil) outer shelves, specific seabed morphologies that could have been produced by the punctuated relative sea level rise of the last deglaciation. These sea floor morphologies, imaged by single-beam bathymetric data from two areas of the North and East outer Shelves, ~ 160 km apart, reveal terraces, submerged paleo-shorelines, reefs, and incised valleys, which act as regional archives of past sea levels. The North and East outer shelves, covered by carbonate sediments, display steep gradients (~ 0.5°), variable widths (up to 13 km), and are bound between a well-defined shelf break at 75 m water depth and a beachrock ridge at 25 m. A steep step on the sea floor occurs between depths of 60 and 70 m in both areas. Though interrupted by the Açu Incised Valley, two distinct continuous terraces, 3 and 4 km in width, at depths of 49 m (± 5 m) (T1n) and 33 m (±3 m) (T2n), respectively, extend for 60 km along the North Shelf. Three nearly continuous terraces occur along the East Shelf on either the north or south sides of the Natal Canyon. A first, 6 km wide, lower terrace occurs at a depth of 54 m (± 4 m) (T1e). A second terrace, 2 km wide, at 40 m (± 2 m) (T2e), and a third 2 km wide upper terrace at 30 m (±2 m) (T3e) are also found. Patch reefs scattered over the terraces rise in average to 3 m in height. Based upon their depth occurrences, the established limited neotectonics in the study areas, and correlations with well-established archives from other morphological features of similar outer shelves, we hypothesize that these reefs and terraces were likely formed during the last deglacial interval spanning from the end of the MWP-1A (70–60 m), through the MWP-1B (50–40 m), and to subsequent punctuated millennial sea level rise events (30–25 m) occurring prior to the 8.2 kyr cooling event.

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Acknowledgments

MP Gomes and H Vital thanks CNPq for their Research Fellowship. Thanks are also due to the GGEMMA group for their support during the data acquisition, and UFRN for the provided infrastructure for this research. Finally, thanks to the Editor Dr. A. Green, an anonymous reviewer and Dr. Alessio Rovere, whose comments significantly contributed to improve this manuscript. This is a contribution of Project Geohazards and Tectonics: Brazilian Equatorial Margin (88887.123925/2015-00 CAPES IODP Program), Ciências do Mar II (23038.004320/2014-11 CAPES) and INCT AmbTropic – Brazilian National Institute of Science and Technology for Tropical Marine Environments (565054/2010-4, 8936/2011, and 465634/2014-1, CNPq/FAPESB/CAPES).

Funding

This study was financed in part by PETROBRAS for bathymetric survey on the North shelf (LABGEOMAR 882004/FUNPEC), by the CNPq – Brazilian National Research Council for bathymetric survey on the East shelf and laboratory maintenance (grants PQ 303481/2009-9, 311413/2016-1; Universal 486451/2012-7) and by the CAPES – Brazilian Federal Agency for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education for A Droxler’s Research Visit to Brazil (IODP 88887.123925/2015-00).

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  1. Post-Graduate Program in Geodynamics and Geophysics (PPGG), Laboratory of Marine Geology and Geophysics and Environmental Monitoring (GGEMMA), Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), Natal, RN, Brazil

    Moab Praxedes Gomes & Helenice Vital

  2. Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    André Willy Droxler

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  1. Moab Praxedes Gomes
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  2. Helenice Vital
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Correspondence to Moab Praxedes Gomes.

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Gomes, M.P., Vital, H. & Droxler, A.W. Terraces, reefs, and valleys along the Brazil northeast outer shelf: deglacial sea-level archives?. Geo-Mar Lett 40, 699–711 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-020-00666-4

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