Dillenburg & Hesp (2009) - Geology and Geomorphology of Holocene Coastal Barriers of Brazil

Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences 107
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Sérgio R. Dillenburg · Patrick A. Hesp
Geology
and Geomorphology
of Holocene Coastal
Barriers of Brazil
123
Dr. Sérgio R. Dillenburg Dr. Patrick A. Hesp
Universidade Federal do Louisiana State University
Rio Grande do Sul Dept. Geography & Anthropology
Instituto de Geociências Baton Rouge LA 70808
Av. Bento Gonçalves 9500 227 Howe Russell Complex
Porto Alegre-RS USA
Brazil pahesp@lsu.edu
sergio.dillenburg@ufrgs.br
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Preface
This is the first book to cover the Holocene geology and geomorphology
of the 9,200 kilometers of the Brazilian coast. It is written for third and
fourth year undergraduates, post-graduate students, scientists and manag-
ers. It characterizes the Brazilian coast in terms of the Holocene geology,
geomorphology, oceanographic and climatic conditions, and the location,
morphology and evolution of the barrier types. Separate chapters outline
the types of barriers and coastal dynamics in each state, beginning in the
south and proceeding to the north. Some emphasis is placed on the
stretches of coast where the detailed morphology and stratigraphy of bar-
riers has been previously determined.
To date, the Brazilian coastal barriers have been largely ignored by the
international community, partly perhaps because much of the past research
has tended to concentrate on barrier islands, of which there are very few in
Brazil. In contrast, the Brazilian coastal barriers display a much wider
range of types than is generally assumed. The biggest and most spectacular
transgressive dunefield barriers in the world exist in Brazil, and dominate
the southern and northeastern coasts. Many have never been described be-
fore.
This volume provides a wealth of information on Holocene barrier
types, evolution and dynamics. It provides managers, ecologists, biologists
and botanists with much needed information on the geology, geomorphol-
ogy and dynamics of the genesis, types, functioning and ecosystems of the
Holocene barriers extending along the entire Brazilian coast.
The book has eleven chapters, written by thirty contributors. Each one is
an outstanding researcher in coastal environments, Holocene geology
and/or geomorphology. In the following, Chap. 1 provides a brief review
of coastal barrier definitions and types, and discusses the principle factors
controlling their evolution and formation. The second chapter presents a
broad-scale overview of the Brazilian coast, identifying the main factors
acting to differentiate various sectors along that coastline, and the factors
that control the large-scale development of these coastal depositional sys-
tems. The following nine chapters outline the types and evolution of bar-
riers of the southern, southeastern, northeastern, and northern coastal re-
gions of Brazil.
VI Preface
Acknowledgements. We thank all our colleagues who struggled

through this production with us. Your patience has been nothing short of
wonderful. We sincerely thank the Brazilian scientific agencies, and our
Universities for providing funding for many of us to conduct research in
various parts of Brazil. We particularly wish to thank Mary Lee Eggart for
her superb cartographic work and assistance, Eduardo G. Barboza and Ma-
ria Luiza C. C. Rosa for their editorial assistance, and Janet Sterritt from
Springer for her patience, support and help getting this work published. As
usual, responsibility for all deficiencies and errors rests with the editors.
Fig. 3.8 – Thanks to Wiley for permission to reprint figure 4 from Hesp
et al. (2007) Morphology of the Itapeva to Tramandaí transgressive dune-
field barrier system and Mid- to Late seal level change. Earth Surface
Processes and Landforms 32:407–414 (Copyright year 2006, Wiley Inter-
science). Fig. 3.20 – Thanks to Elsevier for permission to reprint figure 6
from the paper of Dillenburg SR, Tomazelli LJ, Barboza EG (2004) Bar-
rier evolution and placer formation at Bujuru Southern Brazil. Marine Geol-
ogy 203:43–56 (Copyright year 2003, Elsevier).
Sérgio R. Dillenburg and Patrick A. Hesp
July, 2008
List of Contributors
Angela B. Almeida, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de

Geociências, Curso de Pós-Graduação em Geologia, Rua Barão de
Geremoabo s/n, 40170-290, Salvador, Bahia, Brasil,
angela.brito@petrobras.com.br
Ana C. S. Andrade, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Departamento de

Geografia, Avenida Marechal Rondon s/n, 49100-000, São Cristóvão,
Sergipe, Brasil, acsaa@hotmail.com
Rodolfo J. Angulo, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências

da Terra, Centro Politécnico, BR-277, Caixa Postal 19001, 81531-970,
Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil, angulo@ufpr.br
Nils E. Asp Neto, Universidade Federal do Pará, Campus Universitário

de Bragança, Alameda Leandro Ribeiro s/n, 68600-000, Bragança, Pará,
Brasil, nilsasp@ufpa.br
Mario L. Assine, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Instituto de

Geociências e Ciências Exatas, Avenida 24-A 1515, 13506-900, Rio Claro,
São Paulo, Brasil, assine@rc.unesp.br
Ricardo N. Ayup-Zouain, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,

Instituto de Geociências, Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9500, Caixa Postal
15001, 91509-900, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil,
ricardo.ayup@ufrgs.br
Eduardo G. Barboza, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,

eduardo.barboza@ufrgs.br
Abílio C. S. P. Bittencourt, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de

Geociências, Rua Barão de Geremoabo s/n, 40170-290, Salvador, Bahia,
Brasil, abilio@cpgg.ufba.br
VIII List of Contributors
Vanda Claudino-Sales, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento

de Geografia, Campus do Pici, Bloco 911, 60115-170, Fortaleza, Ceará,
Brasil, vcs@ufc.br
Luiz C. P. Clerot, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto

de Geociências, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências, Avenida
Bento Gonçalves 9500, 91509-900, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul,
Brasil, lclerot@yahoo.com.br
Marcelo C.L. Cohen, Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de

Geociências, Campus da UFPA, Av. Augusto Correa 1, 66075-110,
Belém, Pará, Brasil, mcohen80@hotmail.com
Francisco R. Costa, Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de

Geociências, Campus Universitário de Marabá (Campus II), 68503-080,
Marabá, Pará, Brasil, frc@ufpa.br
Maria Cristina de Souza, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de

Ciências da Terra, Centro Politécnico, BR-277, Caixa Postal 19001,
81531-970, Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil, cristinasouza@ufpr.br
Gilberto T. M. Dias, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Departamento

de Geologia, Avenida General Milton Tavares Souza s/n, 24210-346,
Niterói, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, gilbertotmd@globo.com
Sérgio R. Dillenburg, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,

sergio.dillenburg@ufrgs.br
Daniel R. do Nascimento Jr., Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de

Geociências, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geoquímica e Geotectônica,
Rua do Lago 562, 05508-080, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil,
danieljr@usp.br
José M. L. Dominguez, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de

Geociências, Campus Universitário de Ondina, Rua Barão de Geremoabo
s/n, 40170-290, Salvador, Bahia, Brasil, landim@ufba.br
Paulo C. F. Giannini, Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de

Geociências, Rua do Lago 562, 05508-080, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil,
pcgianni@usp.br
List of Contributors IX
Carlos C. F. Guedes, Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de

Geociências, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geoquímica e Geotectônica,
Rua do Lago 562, 05508-080, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil,
ccfguedes@usp.br
Patrick A. Hesp, Louisiana State University, Department of Geography

and Anthropology, 227 Howe Russell Geoscience Complex, 70803, Baton
Rouge, Louisiana, USA, pahesp@lsu.edu
Björn Kjerfve, Department of Oceanography and Department of Geo-

graphy, College of Geosciences, Texas A&M University, College Station,
TX 77843, USA, kjerfve@tamu.edu
Ruben J. Lara, Center for Tropical Marine Ecology, Fahrenheitstrasse 6,

28359, Bremen, Germany, ruben.lara@zmt-bremen.de
Guilherme C. Lessa, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de

Geociências, Campus Universitário de Ondina, Rua Barão de Geremoabo
s/n, 40170-020, Salvador, Bahia, Brasil, gclessa@gmail.com
Luiz P. Maia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Instituto de Ciências do

Mar, Avenida Abolição 3207, 60165-081, Fortaleza, Ceará, Brasil,
parente@ufc.br
C. Thaís Martinho, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,

Instituto de Geociências, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geociências,
Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9500, 91509-900, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do
Sul, Brasil, ctmartinho@yahoo.com
Graziela Miot da Silva, Nicholls State University, Physical Sciences,

st
906 East 1 Street, 70310, Thibodaux, Louisiana, USA, grazie-
la.silva@nicholls.edu
Pedro W. M. Souza-Filho Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de

Geociências, Campus da UFPA, Avenida Augusto Correa 1, 66075-110,
Belém, Pará, Brasil, walfir @ufpa.br
Ana P. B. Tanaka, Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Geociências,

Programa de Pós-Graduação em Geoquímica e Geotectônica, Rua do Lago
562, 05508-080, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brasil,
anapaulabtanaka@yahoo.com.br
X List of Contributors
Luiz J. Tomazelli, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto

de Geociências, Avenida Bento Gonçalves 9500, Caixa Postal 15001,
91509-900, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil,
luiz.tomazelli@ufrgs.br
Helenice Vital, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte,

Departamento de Geologia, Campus Universitário, Caixa Postal 1596,
59072-970, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil, helenice@geologia.ufrn.br
Contents
Preface ....................................................................................................... V
List of Contributors ............................................................................... VII
Contents ................................................................................................... XI
1. Coastal Barriers – An Introduction .................................................... 1

1.1 Introduction ..................................................................................... 1
1.2 Origin of Coastal Barriers ................................................................ 2
1.3 Geologic, Oceanographic and Climatic Controls of Barriers .......... 4
1.3.1 Sea Level ............................................................................... 6
1.3.2 Substrate Slope ...................................................................... 6
1.3.3 Sediments .............................................................................. 7
1.3.4 Waves and Tides.................................................................... 8
1.3.5 Winds..................................................................................... 8
1.3.6 Antecedent Topography ........................................................ 9
1.4 Summary ......................................................................................... 10
References ............................................................................................ 10
2. The Coastal Zone of Brazil ................................................................ 17

2.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 17
2.2 Geological Background ................................................................. 19
2.3 Major Coastal Processes ................................................................ 19
2.4 Sediment Supply ............................................................................ 24
2.5 Sea-Level History .......................................................................... 24
2.5.1 High Sea Levels Prior to 120,000 yrs BP ............................ 24
2.5.2 The High Sea Level of 120,000 yrs BP ............................... 25
2.5.3 The High Sea Level of 5,600 cal yrs BP .............................. 25
2.6 Coastal Typologies ........................................................................ 26
2.6.1 The Strike-Fed Sandy Coast of Rio Grande do Sul ............. 26
2.6.2 The High-Relief Coast of Southeastern Brazil .................... 28
2.6.3 The Dip-Fed Wave-Dominated Deltaic Doast
of Eastern Brazil .................................................................. 29
XII Contents
2.6.4 The Sediment Starved Coast of Northeastern Brazil ........... 31

2.6.5 The Mesozoic Rifted Coasts: Camamu – Recôncavo
(Bahia state) and Potiguar Basins (Rio Grande do
Norte state) .......................................................................... 31
2.6.6 The Tidal Embayment of the Amazon ................................ 37
2.7 Concluding Remarks ..................................................................... 43
References ............................................................................................ 46
3. The Holocene Coastal Barriers of Rio Grande do Sul..................... 53

3.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 53
3.2 Regional Setting ............................................................................ 53
3.2.1 Geologic Setting .................................................................. 53
3.2.2 Oceanographic Setting......................................................... 54
3.2.3 Climatic Setting ................................................................... 54
3.2.4 Coastal Sediments ............................................................... 56
3.2.5 Holocene Sea Level History...................................................57
3.3 The Holocene Barrier .................................................................... 57
3.3.1 Sector 1 – Torres to Tramandaí ........................................... 60
3.3.2 Sector 2 – Tramandaí to Mostardas ..................................... 60
3.3.3 Sector 3 – Mostardas to Estreito .......................................... 60
3.3.4 Sector 4 – Estreito to Verga................................................. 61
3.3.5 Sector 5 – Verga to Chuí ..................................................... 61
3.3.6 The Regressive Barrier of Torres–Tramandaí ..................... 63
3.3.7 The Transgressive/Stationary Barrier of
Tramandaí–Mostardas......................................................... 68
3.3.8 The Transgressive Barrier of Mostardas–Estreito ............... 77
3.3.9 The Regressive Barrier of Estreito–Verga........................... 84
3.4 Summary........................................................................................ 87
References ............................................................................................ 88
4. The Holocene Barrier Systems of the Santa Catarina Coast,

Southern Brazil ................................................................................... 93
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................... 93
4.2 Geological Setting ......................................................................... 93
4.2.1 Tectonics ............................................................................. 94
4.2.2 Basement Rocks .................................................................. 97
4.3 Climate .......................................................................................... 97
4.4 Waves, Tides and Littoral Drift ................................................... 100
4.5 Sea Level ..................................................................................... 102
4.6 Barrier Types of the Guaratuba (PR) to Torres (SC) Region ...... 102
4.6.1 Province I .......................................................................... 102
4.6.2 Province II ......................................................................... 103
Contents XIII
4.6.3 Province III ........................................................................ 108

4.6.4 Province IV........................................................................ 122
4.7 Discussion and Conclusion .......................................................... 127
References .......................................................................................... 129
5. The Holocene Barrier Systems of Paranaguá and Northern

Santa Catarina Coasts, Southern Brazil......................................... 135
5.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 135
5.2 Regional Setting .......................................................................... 138
5.2.1 Geological Background ..................................................... 138
5.2.2 Holocene Paleo-Sea Level Trend ...................................... 138
5.2.3 Climate and Oceanography ............................................... 139
5.2.4 Fluvial Discharge and Sediment Yield .............................. 141
5.3 The Coastal Plains ....................................................................... 143
5.3.1 The Estuaries ..................................................................... 143
5.3.2 The Paleo-Estuarine Plains ................................................ 144
5.3.3 The Barriers ....................................................................... 145
5.4 The Holocene Barriers ................................................................. 150
5.4.1 Sedimentary Composition ................................................. 152
5.4.2 Sedimentary Facies ............................................................ 153
5.4.3 Barrier Thickness and Limiting Surfaces .......................... 159
5.4.4 Barrier Evolutionary Model .............................................. 161
5.4.5 The Paranaguá Barrier in Perspective ............................... 168
5.5 Summary ...................................................................................... 171
References .......................................................................................... 172
6. Sedimentology and Morphological Evolution of the Ilha

Comprida Barrier System, Southern São Paulo Coast ................. 177
6.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 177
6.2.1 Physiographical Scenario .................................................. 178
6.2.2 Climatic and Oceanographic Aspects ................................ 181
6.2.3 Holocene Paleosea-Level Trend ........................................ 184
6.2.4 Stratigraphy of Quaternary Coastal Deposits .................... 185
6.3 Present Depositional Systems ...................................................... 186
6.3.1 Beach-Dune ....................................................................... 186
6.3.2 Lagoon ............................................................................... 193
6.4 Old Depositional Systems............................................................ 197
6.4.1 Paleobeaches and Paleodunes............................................ 197
6.4.2 Paleolagoon ....................................................................... 213
6.5 Proposed Evolutionary Model ...................................................... 214
References .......................................................................................... 219
XIV Contents
7. Barrier and Beach Ridge Systems of the Rio de Janeiro Coast .... 225
7.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 225
7.2 Geologic Setting .......................................................................... 228
7.3 Relative Sea Level Change .......................................................... 230
7.4 Physical Forcing Functions ......................................................... 231
7.5 Beach ridge Plains ....................................................................... 232
7.6 Coastal Dunes .............................................................................. 235
7.7 Coastal Barriers ........................................................................... 235
7.7.1 Barrier Islands and Spits .................................................... 235
7.7.2 Single Transgressive Barriers ............................................ 240
7.7.3 Double Transgressive Barriers .......................................... 242
7.8 Evolution and Chronology of the Rio de Janeiro Barriers........... 244
7.9 Conclusions ................................................................................. 248
References .......................................................................................... 248
8. The Holocene Barrier Strandplains of the State of Bahia............. 253

8.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 253
8.2.1 Geology ............................................................................. 253
8.2.2 Atmospheric Circulation, Waves and Tides ...................... 255
8.2.3 Sediment Dispersal ............................................................ 258
8.2.4 Climate .............................................................................. 258
8.2.5 Continental Shelf Physiography and Sedimentation ......... 258
8.2.6 Sea-Level History and Coastal Evolution ......................... 259
8.3 The Caravelas Strandplain ........................................................... 261
8.3.1 Development of the Abrolhos Inner Reef Tract ................ 261
8.3.2 Quaternary Evolution of the Caravelas Strandplain .......... 262
8.4 The Jequitinhonha Strandplain .................................................... 270
8.5 The Lagoa Encantada Bay ........................................................... 276
8.6 The Itapicuru Strandplain ............................................................ 280
8.7 Discussion.................................................................................... 282
References .......................................................................................... 285
9. The Mesotidal Barriers of Rio Grande do Norte ........................... 289

9.1 Introduction ................................................................................. 289
9.2 Geological and Geomorphological Coastal Setting ..................... 289
9.2.1 Potiguar Basin ................................................................... 292
9.2.2 Pernambuco-Paraíba Basin ................................................ 293
9.3 Climate ........................................................................................ 293
9.4 Coastal Processes ......................................................................... 294
9.4.1 Winds................................................................................. 294
9.4.2 Waves ................................................................................ 294
Contents XV
9.4.3 Currents ............................................................................. 295

9.4.4 Tides .................................................................................. 295
9.5 Sediment Characteristics ............................................................. 296
9.6 Sea Level Changes....................................................................... 297
9.7 Barriers of Rio Grande do Norte ................................................. 298
9.8 Rio Grande do Norte Barrier Examples....................................... 299
9.8.1 Natal Reef Barrier (Beachrocks) ....................................... 299
9.8.2 Natal Barrier Dune System – Attached Barrier ................. 301
9.8.3 São Bento-Caiçara do Norte (Prograded or
Regressive) Barrier............................................................ 305
9.8.4 Galinhos Spit-Barrier Island System ................................. 306
9.8.5 Açu River Mouth............................................................... 309
9.9 Evolution of the RN Holocene Coastal Barrier ........................... 314
References .......................................................................................... 319
10. The Holocene Barriers of Maranhão, Piauí and Ceará States,

Northeastern Brazil .......................................................................... 325
10.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 325
10.2 Geology ..................................................................................... 325
10.3 Climate....................................................................................... 326
10.4 Littoral Dynamics ...................................................................... 327
10.5 Coastal Gemorphology and Barriers of Maranhão State ........... 330
10.6 Coastal Geomorphology and Barriers of Piauí State ................. 332
10.7 Coastal Geomorphology and Barriers in the State of Ceará ...... 333
10.7.1 Attached Barriers ........................................................... 333
10.7.2 Barrier Spits ................................................................... 338
10.7.3 Foredune Plain Prograded Barriers ............................... 341
10.8 Discussion: Dunes in the Tropics .............................................. 341
10.9 Conclusions ............................................................................... 342
References .......................................................................................... 343
11. The Subsiding Macrotidal Barrier Estuarine System

of the Eastern Amazon Coast, Northern Brazil ............................. 347
11.1 Introduction ............................................................................... 347
11.2 Regional Setting ........................................................................ 348
11.2.1 Structural Setting ........................................................... 348
11.2.2 Continental Shelf Morphology and Sedimentology ...... 350
11.2.3 Climate .......................................................................... 352
11.2.4 Oceanography ................................................................ 352
11.3 Data Sources .............................................................................. 355
11.4 Evolution of the Barrier-Estuarine System ................................ 366
XVI Contents
11.5 The Amazon Mangrove Coast in Perspective............................ 369

11.6 Conclusions ............................................................................... 372
References .......................................................................................... 372
Subject Index .......................................................................................... 377

Chapter 1
Coastal Barriers – An Introduction
Sérgio R. Dillenburg and Patrick A. Hesp
1.1 Introduction
Coastal barriers are the most important depositional elements or geomor-

phological features of low gradient, wave dominated coasts. They occur
worldwide, especially on trailing edge coasts, where coastal topographies
are, in general, gentler and where sediments tend to be more abundant. De-
spite a great number and quite variable definitions presented by many au-
thors in the past decades, there seems to be a consensus that a coastal bar-
rier is a shore parallel structure, formed by an accumulation of sand,
gravel, shells, and small amounts of organic material due to the action of
waves, tides and winds. It has sub-aerial and sub-aqueous (shoreface)
parts, with the first, depending on position, being permanently or partially
exposed above sea-level during high tides. There are a large range of types
ranging from narrow islands far offshore the mainland to those attached to,
and climbing bedrock cliffs. Thus, while some authors still adhere to the
idea that barriers must be backed by a lagoon or swamp (e.g. Bird 2005), a
barrier can be separated/distinguished from adjacent older land by (i) a la-
goon, bay, or wetland, or (ii) by age, lithology and/or form.
The literature on coastal barriers is dominated by a particular type of
barrier: the barrier island. This is due to the combination of four factors:
(i) the barrier island is the most common type of coastal barrier in the
USA, especially on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, (ii) the relative paucity of
studies on west coast USA barriers, and other barrier coasts in the past
(with some notable exceptions; e.g. Jelgersma and van Regteren Altena
1969), (iii) many of the pioneer studies on barriers, and particularly barrier
islands, were conducted in the USA, and (iv), the great global influence of
the North American geological school. As pointed out by Carter (1988,
p. 132), these factors lead to the fashion of speaking of barriers as barrier
islands, or vice versa (e.g. McCubbin 1982), implying that both forms are
2 S.R. Dillenburg and P.A. Hesp
one and the same. Barrier islands, in fact, only constitute less than 6.5% of
all continental shorelines based on an estimate by Stutz and Pilkey (2001),
which is an over-estimate since it erroneously, includes 890 km of the
southern Brazilian coastline.
In this book, following Oertel (1985), a barrier island is considered as
just one type of coastal barrier that is completely disconnected from the
mainland by a lagoon, bay, salt marsh or wetland, and has inlets that sepa-
rate one barrier island from another one, or from a laterally adjacent main-
land (cf. Hesp and Short 1999).
Worldwide, coastal barriers are easily recognized and commonly also de-
nominated barriers, barrier islands, bay barriers, barrier bar etc. All denomi-
nations have in common the word barrier, introduced by Johnson (1919) due
to the physical protection (as a physical barrier) that they provide to the
mainland from sea level rise and storms. Following Johnson’s definition,
strandplains, which may be comprised of beach and foredune ridges, but al-
so may contain dunefields, are also called barriers in this book (Fig. 1.1).
1.2 Origin of Coastal Barriers
The origin of coastal barriers has been discussed at least since the paper of
de Beaumont (1845), which was followed later by Gilbert (1885) and
McGee (1890). Gilbert (1885) originally defined a “barrier” as “a conti-
nuous outlying ridge at some distance from the waters edge” backed by a la-
goon (p. 87). He stated that the “barrier is the functional equivalent of the
beach” (p. 88). This barrier eventually became known as the “barrier island”
(Price 1951; Shepard 1952, 1960, p. 197). In Gilbert’s classification, the
“beach” was located on older material without a landward lagoon; in essence
what some authors would term a “bayhead beach” (Johnson 1919, p. 283) or
“mainland beach” (Roy et al. 1994, p. 148). According to Gilbert (1885), a
“bar” was created where a spit connected an island with the shore, another
island, or two portions of the same shore. In the latter case the “bar” formed
across the mouth of a bay or river forming a lagoon to landwards (p. 92).
This “bar” (or “offshore bar” of Davis (1912) and others) was eventually al-
so termed a barrier, or barrier spit (if connected at one end to land), or bay
barrier (if connected at both ends) (Shepard 1960).
From the work primarily of de Beaumont (1845), Gilbert (1885), Davis
(1912) and Johnson (1919) has emerged the three main hypothesis for
coastal barrier formation, which were respectively summarized by Reinson
(1992) as: (i) aggradation and emergence of bars (but note that Gilbert and
1 Coastal Barriers – An Introduction 3
Fig. 1.1 Simplified models of some of the major barrier types. (1) Prograded bar-
rier spit. The mainland may also have a barrier attached to older landforms or se-
parated by a lagoon; (2) Prograded barriers with foredune plain or beach ridge
plain (a) or multiple phases of transgressive dunefields (b); (3) Aggradational bar-
rier; (4) Retrogradational barrier or barrier islands (a and b); (5) Retrogradational
and/or attached barrier translating over Pleistocene barrier; (6) Attached barrier
comprising phases of parabolic dunes also forming a headland bypass dunefield
Johnson originally used the term “bar” for what is now regarded as a “bar-
rier”); (ii) spit elongation or progradation, and, in the case of barrier island
formation, followed by segmentation of the spit due to inlet channel for-
mation, and, (iii) isolation of beach and beach-dune complexes due to
coastal submergence. In the nineteen sixties and early seventies there was
an intensive discussion on these three hypothesis, with coastal scientists
arguing in favor of one or other, and taking into account, for instance, the
kind of barrier substrate expected for the three hypothesis: if marine or
continental (see Hoyt 1967; Fisher 1968; Schwartz 1971, 1973; and re-
views e.g. in Davis 1994; Hesp and Short 1999; and Davis and Fitzgerald
2004). Later it was recognized that the barriers may have multiple causali-
ty, that many owe their existence to translation up the shelf from early gla-
cial lowstand positions, and the most common barrier substrate should be
the continental one (a coastal plain substrate) due to the fact that, no matter
what the process of barrier formation, they migrate landwards over coastal
plain deposits as a consequence of sea level rise (Zenkovich 1967; Field
and Duane 1976; Oertel et al. 1992).
Coastal barriers may have formed close to the edge of many continental
shelves at about 18 ka, when sea level was just starting to rise. During the
course of the Postglacial Marine Transgression (PMT) the existent barriers
migrated landwards, recycling coastal plain deposits (Swift 1976a; Sanders
and Kumar 1975; Streif 1989; Roy et al. 1994). The Tramandaí barrier in
southern Brazil, for example, has migrated continuously at least since 10
ka (Travessas 2003, see Chap. 3 in this volume). Thus, the simple conclu-
sion is that many modern barriers were probably formed and evolved at
their present positions as a consequence of both barrier migration during
the PMT and coastal processes combined with sediment supply conditions
that may have then kept the barrier stable, retrograding or prograding dur-
ing the last 7–6 ka.
1.3 Geologic, Oceanographic and Climatic Controls

of Barriers
Barriers can exhibit variable stratigraphies and morphologies, different

along- and cross- shore dimensions, and also different physical relations
with the mainland (from attached, to welded, to islands). In terms of a stra-
tigraphic framework, the basic ones are the transgressive and regressive
types (Kraft and Chazastowski 1985). A transgressive stratigraphy results
when the barrier translates landwards either due to a sea level rise or to a
negative balance in sediment budget under a stable or quasi-stable (rising
or even slowly falling) sea level condition. The former shows the lagoon-
al/estuary sediments at relatively high depths under barrier sandy sedi-
ments, while in the negative sediment supply condition shows lagoon-
al/estuary sediments at more shallow depths under the barrier and
frequently outcropping close to the present sea level (usually in the fore-
shore zone). In the condition where the rate of rising sea level keeps pace
with rates of sediment input (positive balance in sediment budget), an ag-
gradational barrier could form (Galloway and Hobday 1983; Morton
1994). Transgressive barriers usually have a simple morphological surface,
but this can depend on the rate of transgression, stage, and the volume of
subaerial sediment involved. In the simplest case with minimal sediment
involved, the profile will comprise the beach, possibly small and laterally
discontinuous foredunes or scattered nebkha, and washover terraces, sheets
or fans (Hayes 1994; Ritchie and Penland 1990). The rate and stage of
transgression may also be factors. If a barrier is slowly transgressing, or re-
trograding, then it may develop more substantial dune forms, and even
prograde for a time, before a major storm/hurricane event occurs to reverse
this trend. If more subaerial sediment is involved, transgressive barriers
may display significant dunefields. For example, the Leschenault barrier in
Western Australia is retrograding (Semeniuk 1985) and transgressing at a
–1
rate around 1 m year and comprises a large-scale active blowout and pa-
rabolic dunefield (see Fig. 14.19 in Hesp and Short 1999).
Regressive barriers may comprise sand or gravel ridges formed by wave
processes (beach ridges in a strict sense; see Hesp et al. 2005; Hesp 2006),
or by aeolian processes (from foredunes to transgressive dunefields). Note
the term “transgressive dunefield” here refers to relatively moderate to
large-scale, coastal aeolian dunefields (Hesp and Thom 1990). Mixed
transgressive/regressive, or stable or stationary barriers (Roy et al. 1994),
such as the barriers to the south of Tramandaí (Rio Grande do Sul) (see
Chap. 3 for details) could display more complex surfaces, especially
when moderate to strong winds blowing landwards favor the formation
of different dune forms on the barrier surface (foredunes, blowouts para-
bolics, transverse dunes, barchans and transgressive dune sheets and du-
nefields). Barrier cross-shore dimensions are a function of the type of
barrier, with transgressive barriers commonly being narrower than re-
gressive barriers (but again this depends on the amount of subaerial se-
diment involved, and perhaps the magnitude and frequency of hurri-
canes/major storms). Alongshore dimensions are mainly a function of
tidal range. In general, the higher the tidal range, the shorter the barrier
length (Nummedal et al. 1987; Davis and Hayes 1984; Boyd et al. 1992;
Hayes 1994).
The most critical factors determining the characteristics of coastal barriers

are sea-level behavior, substrate morphology (antecedent topography),
availability of sediments (especially sands), waves, tides and winds. Pri-
mary factors such as substrate gradient, sediments and waves will produce
a shoreface-beach, with no dunes and no inlets (Hesp and Short 1999).
Secondary factors such as tides and winds will only modify this basic model
by breaching inlets and forming dunes. The following section briefly re-
views the contribution of each of these factors to barrier characteristics.
1.3.1 Sea Level
On trailing edge, wave dominated coasts (the main site of coastal barriers),
sea level behavior is the most important factor controlling barrier evolution
when it is rising or falling rapidly. Under such conditions, barriers will
show transgressive (retrograding) and regressive (prograding) morphologic
and stratigraphic characteristics, respectively. However, when sea-level is
rising or falling slowly, or is stable (or quasi-stable), temporal and spatial
variations in the coastal sediment budget could dominate the style of bar-
rier evolution and barrier type (Roy et al. 1994).
1.3.2 Substrate Slope
The substrate of a barrier is the surface over which barrier and lagoon-
al/estuary deposits are formed. It corresponds to the antecedent topography
that is drowned by a rising sea level. This topography could be older
basement rocks, or Pleistocene coastal or fluvial deposits (Demarest and
Leatherman 1985; Hesp and Short 1999; Dillenburg et al. 2000). On autoc-
thonous continental shelves (Swift 1976b), the shelf morphology approx-
imately resembles the substrate morphology over which the barriers have
translated in the course of the PMT (Roy et al. 1994; Dillenburg et al.
2000). Thus, on such shelves, alongshore variations in the substrate mor-
phology of modern barriers may correspond to similar variations on the ad-
jacent shelf morphology. Such variations could strongly influence wave
energy levels along the coast (Wright 1976), which in turn could determine
variations in both onshore and alongshore sediment supply (i.e. in the
coastal sediment budget), and in barrier size (McCubbin 1982). The influ-
ence, and importance of substrate slope (including shelf slope) on barrier
evolution has been stressed by many coastal scientists (e.g. Penland et al.
1985; Roy et al. 1994; Schwab et al. 2000; Cowell and Thom 1994; Co-
well et al. 2003a, b).
The effect of substrate slope has been discussed since Gilbert (1885,
p. 90), but the most detailed study of the influence of substrate slope on
barrier formation and evolution was presented by Roy et al. (1994) follow-
ing earlier work by Cowell et al. (1992). This study showed that coastal
barriers preferentially develop in a very narrow window of substrate slope
values (from 0.05º to 0.8º). On very low slopes (< 0.01º), bottom-friction
effects reduce incident wave energy levels, reducing landward sand trans-
port to a point that submerged sand banks will be formed instead of coastal
barriers. On increasing slopes, the amount of sand transported seawards
increases to a point that above a slope of 0.8º the sand that would build the
barrier is accumulated on the shelf as shelf sand bodies.
1.3.3 Sediments
Barriers are mainly formed of sands, although some barriers from mid to
high latitudes are mainly formed by mixed sand-gravel or occasionally
dominated by gravels such as the ones of Nova Scotia and other paragla-
cial and arctic coasts (McCann 1979; Boyd et al. 1987; Forbes et al. 1991;
Ruz et al. 1992; Forbes and Syvitski 1994; Hill et al. 1994), the United
Kingdom (Steers 1964; Carr and Gleason 1972; Carter and Orford 1984),
New Zealand (Hartstein and Dickinson 2000) and Argentina (Kokot et al.
2005). On many of these barriers, most of the coarse sediments come from
coarse glacial deposits, which were reworked and concentrated by waves
during the course of the Postglacial Marine Transgression.
The availability of sediments (especially sands) is crucial for barrier de-
velopment. These sands could originate from the continental shelf, the ero-
sion and reworking of any kind of adjacent coastal morphologies and pro-
jections (drumlins and headlands), river sediments, and in situ carbonate
production (Hesp and Short 1999). These different sources of sediments
compose the sediment budget, which is one of the main controls, if not the
main control on barrier evolution under conditions of a stable or quasi-
stable sea level (Davies 1980; Psuty 1988; Roy et al. 1994; Dillenburg
et al. 2004). Under such conditions a barrier shoreline tends to aggrade or
remain stable (balanced budget), prograde (positive balance), or retrograde
(negative balance).
On tectonically active coasts, the shelf and nearshore slope may be al-
tered, and the sediment supply changed due to tectonic events (Ota and
Kaizuka 1991; Ota et al. 1988). Rebound or subsidence may also act to
significantly alter sediment supply (Pirazzoli 1994).
1.3.4 Waves and Tides
Wave action is obviously crucial in the formation of coastal barriers. It

provides a major control on the sediment budget and therefore on the type
of barrier. The rate of onshore-longshore transport is directly related to the
level of wave energy (Hesp and Short 1999). Differences in modal wave
height/energy and in the angle of wave attack along the coast determine
surfzone-beach types, and the long term modal operation of these can de-
termine dune and barrier development (Short and Hesp 1982; Hesp 1988).
Wave energy differences may determine either positive or negative bal-
ances in the sediment budget, which in turn could result in the temporal
variations of barrier type, and spatial coexistence of progradational and re-
trogradational barriers (Dillenburg et al. 2000, 2003). This relation be-
tween alongshore changes in sediment budget and the type of barrier was
previously reported by Ritchie and Penland (1990) in a study of a Louisiana
(USA) barrier.
Tides are not essential for barrier development. However, surfzones and
beaches can be significantly controlled by tidal range (Masselink and Short
1993; Anthony and Orford 2002), and barrier configuration can change
significantly. The role of tides in modifying barrier morphology is demon-
strated by the models of Hayes (1979), later revised by Davis and Hayes
(1984). On wave-dominated coasts with a microtidal regime, the lower tid-
al prism results in the existence of long barriers with very few inlets (Davis
and Hayes 1984; Davis and Fitzgerald 2004). However, as the tide energy
increases relative to wave energy, the greater tidal prism requires more in-
lets for the exchange of water, which results in shorter barriers (a condition
that favors barrier island formation). Also, under high tide energy condi-
tions, higher flow velocities along the inlets tend to distort the barrier
form, building recurved spits, and storing more sediment in flood tide del-
tas. In coastal areas where the tidal range and energy is large in relation to
wave energy, barriers may not always form. In summary, the relative in-
fluence of wave and tidal processes controls coastal morphology.
1.3.5 Winds
Wind is not essential for barrier formation. However, it is of great impor-

tance, and much more than has been referred to in the literature during all
or some stages (or specific periods) of barrier evolution. On low-gradient,
wave-dominated coastal areas where sea level have been stable or quasi-
stable (~ ± 1–3 m) in the last 7–6 ka, where a significant amount of sand is
available in the coastal system, and where wind blows landwards with
moderate to high energy, barriers do not only exhibit dunes as a “decora-

tion” over the surface, but aeolian processes can be almost entirely respon-
sible for the building of the emerged part, and sometimes a portion of the
submerged part of the barrier. Examples include south, eastern and western
Australia (Thom et al. 1992; Short 1988a, b; Semeniuk et al. 1989; Hesp
and Short 1999), New Zealand (Brothers 1954; Shepherd 1987; Hesp
2005), South Africa and Namibia (Tinley 1985) Chile and Peru (Araya-
Vergara 1986), USA (Cooper 1958; Orme 1990), Mexico west and east
coasts (Inman et al. 1966; Hesp 2004), parts of Europe (Jelgersma and van
Regteren Altena 1969; Bressolier et al. 1990; Borowka 1990; Christiansen
et al. 1990), and many of the barriers of S, SE and NE Brazil (Jimenez
et al. 1999; Travessas et al. 2005; Maia et al. 2005; see subsequent chap-
ters in this book). On the stretch of coast between Cidreira and Tramandaí,
RS, southern Brazil, and immediately to the south, the huge volume of
sand that was transported landwards in the Late Holocene has built the bar-
rier up to 20 m high, enlarged its width up to 8 km, and in some places has
promoted the complete sedimentation of the lagoonal system. Changes in
shoreline orientation result in changes in the relative orientation of the pre-
vailing winds to the coast and have produced tremendous changes in the
type of dune forms.
Changes in the climate over time might effect changes in storminess and
wave climate, and changes in precipitation, water table heights and vegeta-
tion, thus potentially producing variations in sediment delivery, barrier
progradation rates, erosion episodes, degree of stabilization or de-
stabilization, and dune types.
1.3.6 Antecedent Topography
The antecedent topography is the former emergent coastal area that is

completely or partially submerged under conditions of rising sea level. It is
usually referred to as a geological inheritance factor influencing barrier
evolution. The submerged coastal area will influence barrier evolution by
providing the substrate slope and the general morphology of the continen-
tal shelf, which in turn will control wave energy and consequently sedi-
ment supply. Partially submerged coastal areas may become headlands and
cliffs, or even more gentle forms of the shoreline (e.g. gentle embayments
and coastal projections). Closer spaced headlands will favor the develop-
ment of shorter embayed barriers (or welded barriers – Davis and Fitzge-
rald 2004), while gentler forms of shoreline will favor the development of
larger and curvilinear barriers.
1.4 Summary
The Postglacial Marine Transgression has been the main forcing function
operating to translate barriers up the glacially exposed continental shelf.
Geological inheritance and shelf slope has been critical in determining
where the barriers are geographically positioned as sea level roughly stabi-
lizes (+/– 1–3 m) or slows down considerably. Shelf slope may even de-
termine whether a barrier can form or not. The sediment supply, wave and
wind energy and direction, and tidal range are then critical in determining
continued barrier evolution and style (aggradation, progradation or retro-
gradation). Sea level changes, tectonic events, rebound or subsidence, and
the direction and strength of longshore currents may variously play a role
in continued barrier evolution. In addition, climate changes may drive
changes in storminess, and rainfall (and hence changes in sediment supply,
and impacts on vegetation and landform stability), producing changes in
barrier form and surficial landform type.
The various combinations and relative importance of these factors leads
to the development of a wide variety of barrier types ranging from those
sited far offshore as barrier islands, to those extending across the mouths
of embayments from headland to headland (welded barriers), to those now
emplaced on clifftops (attached barriers), and with an extensive array of
subaerial landform types ranging from beach ridges, foredunes, cheniers,
foredune/blowout complexes, parabolic dunefields, transgressive dune-
fields, to complex combinations of these types.
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transgression and stillstand, South Australia. Geogr Rev 78:119–136
Short AD (1988b) Holocene coastal dune formation in southern Australia – a case
study. Sedim Geol 55:121–142
Short AD, Hesp PA (1982) Wave, beach and dune interactions in south eastern
Australia. Mar Geol 48:259–284
Steers JA (1964) The coastline of England and Wales. Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge
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relative rise of sea level in East Frisia on the German North Sea coast. In:
Proceedings of KNGMG Symposium ‘Coastal Lowlands, Geology and
Geotechnology’ (1987). Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 213–223
Stutz ML, Pilkey OH (2001) A review of global barrier island distribution. J Coast
Res SI 34:15–22
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sediment transport and environmental management. John Wiley & Sons, New
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(eds) Marine sediment transport and environmental management. John Wiley
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Geomorphology and quaternary geology of the port Stephens-Myall lakes
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National Scientific Programme Report. Council for Scientific and Industrial
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costeira entre Tramandaí e Cidreira (RS). MSc. dissertation, Universidade
Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre
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Zenkovich VP (1967) Processes of coastal development (Translated by OG Fry
and JA Steers). Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh
Chapter 2
The Coastal Zone of Brazil
José M. L. Dominguez
2.1 Introduction
2
Brazil has an area of 8,512,000 km which represents almost 50% of South
America. Brazil’s coastal zone extends for approximately 9,200 km and
presents a very diverse suite of coastal environments that evolved during
the Quaternary, in response to changes in climate and sea level, interacting
with varying sediment supply and a geologic heritage that dates back from
the South America to Africa break up, during the Mesozoic.
There have been many attempts to classify coastal environments (e.g.
Shepard 1952, 1963; Inman and Nordstrom 1971; Davies 1972; Hayes
1979; Davis and Hayes 1984; Hesp and Short 1999). Nowadays, the most
widely used classification scheme is the one proposed by Boyd et al.
(1992), which groups coastal environments using relative wave/tide energy
and fluvial discharge in a temporal framework including transgression and
progradation. As Cowell et al. (2003a, b) have pointed out, these tradition-
al approaches have tended to promote a reductionist view involving sepa-
rate analysis of the classical morphologies. These authors have also stated
that this approach has proved incapable of solving or even properly ad-
dressing, large-scale coastal problems.
The classification schemes using the relative energy of waves and tides
superficially aspire to provide a mechanistic explanation to the origin of
different coastal environments. In fact they just provide statistical answers
to the problems posed (Cox 2007). See as an example the classification of
Australian coastal depositional environments by Harris et al. (2002). In
many of such analyses circular arguments abound, in which the same in-
formation is used both as evidence and hypothesis (Cox 2007).
Summerfield (2005) in a recent paper has called attention to the long-
standing dichotomy between historical and functional approaches in geo-
morphology. From the 1960s, geomorphology had turned away from the
18 J.M.L. Dominguez
long temporal and large spatial scales of evolutionary geomorphology to-

wards landscape analysis at the short-temporal (and predominantly small
spatial scales) at which measurements of modern geomorphic processes
could be made (Summerfield 2005). There was a reductionist belief that
“advances in understanding long-term landscape development were to be
attained by a quantitative understanding of modern geomorphic processes”
(Summerfield 2005), which in the context of this book translates as
wave/tidal action.
Phillips (2007) has presented “The Perfect Landscape” metaphor ac-
cording to which each landscape is the result of the combined, interacting
effects of multiple environmental controls and forcings that produce an
outcome that is highly improbable, in the sense of the likelihood of dupli-
cation at any other place or time. In this respect, historical/geological con-
tingencies play an important role in producing different coastal geomor-
phologies. A visit to Google Earth® is enough to for one to realize how
different the world’s coastal zones are, corroborating Phillips’s contention
that each landscape is in fact unique. It is very hard to explain these differ-
ences just in terms of a relative energy of waves and tides, even consider-
ing the transgressive–progradational third dimension.
Having these preliminary thoughts in mind, this chapter presents an
overview of the Brazilian coastal zone which hopefully will provide the
adequate background information for those reading the subsequent chap-
ters. In this, the presently available classificationn schemes are avoided.
Instead the approach is more descriptive than processes oriented (waves +
tides), and will exploit aspects such as the Sloss variables (rates of sea-
level change, fluid power available for sediment transport, and the supply
rate and grain size of sediment) (Sloss 1962) and geological herit-
age/antecedent geology (i.e. historical contingencies) in providing explana-
tions for the different coastal landscapes present in Brazil. Thus, the ap-
proach has a strong historical component (i.e. it attempts to set the present
in context as the result of a series of changes over as long a time scale as is
needed).
It should also not be forgotten that many aspects of the modern coastal
landscapes represent a rare moment in the Quaternary in a sense that we
are in a highstand period. During the entire Quaternary period the average
position of the shoreline was located 30 m below the present shoreline on
the continental shelf (Masselink and Hughes 2003). Additionally, most of
the coastal zone of Brazil has experienced an incipient forced regression
related to a ~2–5 m drop in sea level during the last 6.0–5.0 ka.
2 The Coastal Zone of Brazil 19
2.2 Geological Background
Figures 2.1 and 2.2 present simplified depictions of the geology and relief
of Brazil, respectively. Brazilian geology is dominated by three major Pa-
leozoic/Mesozoic intracontinental sedimentary basins (the Amazon, Paraná
and Parnaíba basins) (Pedreira et al. 2003; Zalan 2004). These basins,
along with the foreland basins of the Andean mountain belt have condi-
tioned the major drainage systems of the South American continent, par-
ticularly the Amazon and the De La Plata rivers, which are responsible for
massive influxes of sediments to the coastal zone (Fig. 2.2). The rest of the
country is dominated by high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Brazilian
shield. Within this shield there are four important cratonic areas (the São
Francisco, São Luís, Rio de la Plata, and the Amazonia craton). These
Archean to Mesoproterozoic continental blocks are stitched together by
Neoproterozoic collisions (Goodwin 1996). These collisions yielded the so
called Brasiliano orogens of South America (Alkmim et al. 2001).
In some sectors of the eastern and the northeastern Brazil coastal zone,
failed rifts (aulacogens) or the rifted portion of Mesozoic sedimentary ba-
sins formed during the South America/Africa break up, outcrop along the
coastal zone (e.g. Reconcavo, Camamu and Almada basins in the state of
Bahia, and Potiguar basin in the Rio Grande do Norte State) (Fig. 2.1). On
the southeastern coast of Brazil, the coastline is bordered by a high-relief
area comprising high grade metamorphic rocks. This high relief area is in-
terpreted by some authors to result from a Late Cretaceous uplift, followed
by gravitational collapse along faulted blocks (Zalan and Oliveira 2005).
Along the remainder of the coastal zone the basement rocks have been
covered by Tertiary sediments of Miocene-Pliocene age, collectively
named the Barreiras Formation, which gave origin to the coastal tablelands
of eastern-northeastern-northern Brazil. In northern Brazil the Parnaíba
and Amazon intracratonic basins intercept the coastal zone.
During the Quaternary, changes in relative sea level and climate have
added the younger morphological elements of the Brazilian coastal zone,
including strandplains (prograded barriers), tidal flats, wetlands and coast-
al dune fields.
2.3 Major Coastal Processes
Climate (wind speed and precipitation) and associated oceanographic

processes affecting the coastal zone of Brazil (waves and coastal currents)
are controlled by three major components: the cold fronts, the trade winds
and the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) (Fig. 2.3).
20 J.M.L. Dominguez
Fig. 2.1 Simplified geology of Brazil with location of the state capitals
Fig. 2.2 Digital elevation model showing location of major rivers and drainage
divides (thick broken lines). Also shown are the major coastal typologies dis-
cussed in the text. Arrows indicate major sediment pathways both on the continent
and along the coastal zone
22 J.M.L. Dominguez
Cold fronts resulting from the northward displacement of polar air

masses are active all year around. During the austral winter they reach lati-
tudes of 10°S or even lower. During the summer these cold fronts are gen-
erally weaker and take a SW–NE orientation over the ocean, rarely cross-
ing the tropic.
Trade winds also blow all year around originating in the South Atlantic
high-pressure cell. During the austral winter, south of 20°S, they blow
mostly from the northeast. North of that region they blow predominantly
from the east-southeast. This divergence zone of the trade winds migrates
north during the summer reaching a position around 12°S.
The ITCZ varies its position throughout the year, penetrating the South
American continent during the summer and fall, and moving north, away
from the coast, during the austral winter and spring. Higher precipitation
and reduced wind speeds are associated with the ITCZ.
It rains all year around along the coastal zone, with the exception of
northern Brazil where up to six dry months are observed. In the interior of
the continent the rainy season takes place during the summer which cor-
responds to the period of highest discharges for those rivers emptying into
the coastal zone.
Wave climate is controlled by this atmospheric circulation. Major me-
chanisms of wave formation are intrinsically associated with the cold
fronts and the trade winds. Wave heights along the coastal zone average 1–
2 m, with periods of 5–7 s. Because of these different mechanisms of wave
formation, the central portion of the Brazilian coastline is subjected to two
competing wave systems: east-northeastern and south-southeastern waves,
with important implications to sediment dispersal (Martin et al. 1998; An-
drade et al. 2003; Dominguez et al. 2006).
Tidal range progressively increases from south (less than 1 m) to north
(greater than 6 m) (Salles et al. 2000) (Fig. 2.3).
Aeolian processes are important along the southern and the northern
coast of Brazil as a direct consequence of the combined effects of in-
creased wind speed/frequency and duration of the dry season (Amarante
et al. 2001). In those regions, winds are particularly strong during austral
winter and spring when average speeds between 7 and 9 m/s are recorded
at 50 m height. Major coastal dune fields are present along those sectors of
the coastline associated with the strongest winds, even in areas of high an-
nual total precipitation.
Fig. 2.3 Major processes acting on Brazil’s coastal zone

24 J.M.L. Dominguez
2.4 Sediment Supply
The sediment load of a river is controlled by a variety of factors. The most

significant factors are the size of a drainage basin (Wilson 1973; Milliman
and Syvitski 1992) and large scale relief within the basin (Pinet and Sou-
riau 1988; Milliman and Syvitski 1992). As pointed out by Syvitski et al.
(2003) precipitation although important is somewhat captured through ba-
sin relief.
Figure 2.2 shows the distribution of these two parameters. The northeas-
tern region of Brazil is a sediment starved coastal zone, a result of the
combination of low relief, small drainage basins and a semiarid climate
(Dominguez and Bittencourt 1996). In this region Quaternary coastal de-
posits are scarce and the coastline is characterized by the presence of (i)
actively retreating cliffs carved into the Barreiras Formation, (ii) beach
rocks (cemented upper shoreface sediments) and (iii) coral-algal reefs built
on top of the beach rocks and abrasion terraces (Dominguez and Bitten-
court 1996). The eastern coast receives considerable volumes of sediment
as a result of the presence of large rivers draining high-relief, humid areas.
The southeastern and southern coasts of Brazil, in spite of the presence of
high relief, high-precipitation areas bordering the coastal zone do not re-
ceive significant fluvial discharges since all major rivers drain towards
the interior of the continent, to the Parana-De la Plata drainage basin
(Fig. 2.2).
The northern coast receives the largest volumes of sediment in the entire
coast of Brazil because of the presence of the Amazon and other associated
rivers (e.g. Tocantins, Parnaíba) (Fig. 2.2). Major dispersal pathways of
sediments along the coast are shown also in Fig. 2.2.
2.5 Sea-Level History
During the last 420 ka, at least five major sea-level highstands related to
interglacial periods are reported (OIS 1, 5, 7, 9 and 11) (Hearty 1998). Se-
dimentary records of some of these episodes are present along most of the
coast of Brazil, with the exception of its northern portion.
2.5.1 High Sea Levels Prior to 120,000 yrs BP
Sedimentary records (sand terraces and deposits) from the coastal plains of
south-southeastern Brazil have allowed the identification of two high sea
levels, which were interpreted to be older than 120,000 yrs, based on trun-
cation relationships and other geomorphologic criteria (height) (Villwock
et al. 1986; Martin et al. 1988). More recently Barreto et al. (2002) have
identified and dated using thermoluminescence 206–220 ka old coastal de-
posits in northeastern Brazil which they correlated to OIS 7c.
2.5.2 The High Sea Level of 120,000 yrs BP
The records of this high sea level are preserved as terraces of essentially
sand composition occurring almost continuously from 5° to 35°S. In the
region of Olivença (14°S), a coral reef was found underneath these terrac-
es. Five samples of coral of the genus Siderastrea, randomly collected at an
abandoned “rock quarry” and entirely composed of aragonite, were dated
by the Io/Th method, providing an average value of 123,500 ± 5,700 yrs
BP (Bernat et al. 1983), which coincides with a well defined highstand, in
various regions of the world (OIS 5e) (Bloom et al. 1974; Chappell and
Shackleton 1986). At that time, the relative sea level stood 8 ± 2 m above
the present level. More recently Barreto et al. (2002) have presented lumi-
nescence datings of sand deposits (117–110 ka) from the northeastern Bra-
zil (Rio Grande do Norte State) which they correlated to OIS 5e. Corre-
lated sand deposits were described in detail by Tomazelli and Dillenburg
(2007) in southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul State).
2.5.3 The High Sea Level of 5,600 cal yrs BP
On the northeastern and southeastern coast of Brazil, the final portion of

the Late Quaternary transgression is well known, thanks to the numerous
reconstructions of ancient positions of the relative sea level. Using these
reconstructions, it has been possible to delineate curves or sketches of
curves of relative sea-level fluctuations for the last 5,600 cal yrs BP (Mar-
tin et al. 1979, 1986, 2003; Suguio et al. 1980, 1985; Dominguez et al.
1990; Angulo and Lessa 1997; Angulo et al. 2006; Bezerra et al 2003;
Caldas et al. 2006). Although these curves are very similar to each other,
they show differences in vertical amplitudes. These curves show that the
Postglacial Marine Transgression peaked approximately 5,600 cal yrs BP
when sea level stood 2–5 m above the present level.
Records of higher than present sea levels are apparently absent from the
northern coast of Brazil, from Piauí State to Amapá (Cohen et al. 2005;
Souza Filho et al. 2006).
Summing up the coastal zone of Brazil in general has been subjected to
an incipient forced regression, during the last 5,600 cal yrs BP, related to
the 2–5 m drop in relative sea-level. As a result of this drop, the Brazilian
coastal zone is nowadays characterized by rare barrier islands and estuaries
(in a geologic sense) (Dominguez et al. 1992, 1987). Bays are still present
26 J.M.L. Dominguez
along rifted coasts or associated with unfilled incised valley systems, al-
though smaller ones have already been completely filled (see Dominguez
et al. this volume).
The coastal zone is thus characterized by progradation with local devel-
opment of extensive strandplains (prograded barriers), and attached bar-
riers dominated by small to large-scale dunefields, except in those sedi-
ment-starved areas.
2.6 Coastal Typologies
The major coastal typologies present in Brazil are outlined below. The
coast has been subdivided into segments that present relatively unique cha-
racteristics, which differentiate them apart. These characteristics illustrate
the interaction of several of the factors discussed above. This is not in-
tended to be a classificatory scheme, since it is possibly not applicable to
any place else, but to the Brazil’s coastal zone. It is more an illustration of
the variability of settings of this region. Each typology identified is unique,
it is a “perfect landscape” in the sense advocated by Phillips (2007) since it
results from the interaction of a unique set of processes acting on different
first-order geological templates. The names used to describe each typology
refer to geographical-geological features, intrinsically derived from histor-
ical contingencies. Sometimes a modifier associated with a major dispersal
agent (waves and tides) is added to the typology name.
2.6.1 The Strike-Fed Sandy Coast of Rio Grande do Sul
This region is characterized by the largest Quaternary coastal sandy pro-

2
gradation in Brazil (total area: 33,000 km ) (Fig. 2.4). The coastline forms
two broad arches separated by the Rio Grande Inlet. The plain is made up
of a series of barriers which are separated by low-lying areas occupied by
freshwater wetlands and large fresh-water bodies, with no exchange to the
sea, but for the Rio Grande and Tramandaí inlets (Villwock et al. 1986;
Tomazelli et al. 2006). These authors have identified and mapped in rela-
tive detail (1:50,000) four barrier/lagoonal systems in aerial photographs
and satellite images, and have tentatively associated each of them with the
four major sea-level highstands during the last 400,000 yrs (OIS 11, 9, 5
and 1). No datings are however available to test this hypothesis, with the
exception of the most external barrier, associated with the Holocene
highstand. The barrier systems tend to diverge and increase in width
northwards, following the dominant sediment transport (Figure 2.4B). Tra-

vessas (2003), Travessas et al. (2005) and Dillenburg et al. (Chapter 3,
this volume) have demonstrated that the Holocene barrier has migrated
landward from an offshore position during Early to Middle Holocene
(10–6 ka).
Sediment supply to build this large coastal plain came possibly from de
La Plata river located south with contribution of local rivers (Camaquã and
Jacuí). The La Plata is the second largest river system in South America
6 2 3
(Drainage basin: 3.1 × 10 km , Discharge: 17,000 m /s, Sediment load:
6
91 × 10 t/yr) (Syvitski et al. 2005), and has delivered large volumes of se-
diments to the coastal zone during the Quaternary. These sediments were
predominantly dispersed northwards during lower sea levels (Milliman
1975; Rocha et al. 1975; Urien et al. 1978) and later moved onshore by
wave action. In a sense the coast of Rio Grande do Sul is the antipode of
the muddy coast of the Amapá-Guianas fed by the Amazon river fine
grained sediment load (see below).
Fig. 2.4A The strike-fed sandy coast of Rio Grande do Sul

28 J.M.L. Dominguez
Fig. 2.4B Detail of the northern Portion showing sand deposits attributed to OIS 1,
5, 9 and 11
2.6.2 The High-Relief Coast of Southeastern Brazil
This coast is characterized by a high relief area (Serra da Mantiqueira and

Serra do Mar mountain ranges) bordering the coastline (Figs. 2.2 and 2.5).
This high relief area was thought to be the result of the erosional retreat of
the major bounding fault scarps of the Santos basin, whose original posi-
tion is located in the middle of the present day continental shelf (Williams
and Hubbard 1984; Almeida and Carneiro 1998). More recently, however,
Zalan and Oliveira (2005), based on new evidence, have proposed that the
Serra do Mar and Serra da Mantiqueira have evolved in two stages. The
region first experienced a major uplift by the end of the Cretaceous (89–65
Ma), possibly related to alkaline magmatism (underplating), giving origin
2
to a mega-plateau (300,000 km ). This uplift was followed during the Ce-
nozoic (58–20 Ma) by a gravitational collapse of this megaplateau origi-
nating a series of rifts parallel to the coast, some of them presently located
on the continental shelf. The original eastern limit of Serra do Mar, coin-
cides with the hinge zone of the Santos and Campos basins. A major con-
sequence of this uplift is that rivers in this region flow towards the conti-
nent interior. The inundation of this relief, characterized by a succession of
alternating grabens and horsts, during the Quaternary gave origin to a
coastal zone characterized by numerous islands and bays. The Serra do
Mar escarpment is actually a fault scarp, and all major bays and estuaries
along the coastal zone are flooded rifts, such as the Guanabara and Parana-
guá bays (Zalan and Oliveira 2005) (Fig. 2.6A and B). Most of these bays
are still far from infilled with sediments.
2.6.3 The Dip-Fed Wave-Dominated Deltaic Doast

of Eastern Brazil
In this section of the coast the major escarpment typical of rifted passive
continental margins (Seidl et al. 1996; Matmon et al. 2002; Gilchrist and
Summerfield 1994) retreated back from the coastal zone almost 500 km
(Figs. 2.2 and 2.7). All major rivers emptying into this section of the coast
have their headwaters in this escarpment, except for the Paraíba do Sul and
the São Francisco rivers. The Paraíba drains the Taubaté-Resende rift of
the Serra do Mar-Mantiqueira system. The São Francisco has most of its
course oriented south-north occupying the low lying area between the
Chapada Diamantina/Serra do Espinhaço mountain chain and the Western
Bahia Highlands (Chapadão Ocidental da Bahia). Also from this sector, up
to the coast of Pará, the coastal zone is bordered by Miocene-Pliocene se-
diments, known as the Barreiras Formation.
The origin of the Barreiras Formation is still not completely understood.
Traditionally it has been interpreted as the result of deposition in alluvial
systems. More recently, however, several papers have shown that in north-
ern-northeastern Brazil, deposition took place in transitional coastal envi-
ronments such as estuaries and tidal flats (Rossetti 2006 and DF Rossetti,
personal communication). According to these more recent interpretations
most of the Barreiras Formation is the result of a coastal onlap associated
with Middle-Lower Miocene high sea levels (Arai 2006).
The combination of large drainage basins with high intrabasin relief
have resulted in large sediment yields for the major rivers emptying on this
section of the coast of Brazil, resulting in classical examples of wave-
dominated deltas (Figs. 2.7 and 2.8) (Dominguez et al. 1987): Paraíba do
2 3
Sul (Drainage basin: 57,000 km , Discharge: 874 m /s, Sediment load: 10.9
6 2 3
× 10 t/yr), Doce (Drainage basin: 83,000 km , Discharge: 847 m /s, Sedi-
6 2
ment load: 11.9 × 10 t/yr), Jequitinhonha (Drainage basin: 70,315 km ,
3 6
Discharge: 464 m /s, Sediment load: 7.89 × 10 t/yr) and São Francisco
6 2 3
(Drainage basin: 640,000 × 10 km , Discharge: 2,789 m /s, Sediment load:
6
21.17 × 10 t/yr) (Syvitski et al. 2005). It has been questioned if these
features could be classified as deltas since they do not present
30 J.M.L. Dominguez
Fig. 2.5 The high relief coast of Southeastern Brazil
characteristics typical of river deltas and such designation could result in

misinterpretations (Dominguez 1996; Bhattacharya and Giosan 2003).
During construction of these beach/dune-ridge strandplains (prograded
barriers), changes in patterns of coastwise sediment dispersion, modulated
by changes in atmospheric circulation, and river discharge have resulted in
dramatic changes in coastline orientation and shoreline erosion which
bears no resemblance to the classical strike-fed, autocyclic deltaic sedi-
mentation models (Dominguez and Wanless 1991; Dominguez et al. 1987;
Suguio and Martin 1982). Nevertheless, in the context of this chapter they
can be considered as deltas in a sense that those rivers are apparently the
major sediment suppliers to the coastal zone. These deltas have evolved
during the Late Quaternary as a combination of forced shoreline prograda-
tion immediately after the highstands, followed by long periods of river
incision during the prolonged drops in sea-level. During the post-glacial
rises in sea level the incised valleys were rapidly flooded and infilled as
soon as rates of sea level rise decelerated (see e.g. Dominguez et al. this
volume).
Because of a well-known tendency in drainage basin area to decrease in
size towards the coast (Wilkinson and McElroy 2007), in between the largest
river mouths, the coastal zone is generally starved of sediments with the
coastal tablelands (Barreiras Formation) and, secondarily Cretaceous and
Precambrian rocks reaching the shoreline and, forming in many places, ac-
tively retreating sea cliffs (Figs. 2.9 and 2.10). Therefore, in between these
major wave-dominated deltas the shoreline during the Holocene exhibited
limited progradation or is actively retreating (transgressive/retrograding
barriers).
2.6.4 The Sediment Starved Coast of Northeastern Brazil
This is probably the section of the Brazilian coastline that receives, in the
present day, the smallest volumes of sediments from the hinterland, as a
result of the small size of the drainage basins, in association with low
intrabasinal relief and low precipitation values. This coast is thus characte-
rized by a long term trend of shoreline retreat (Dominguez and Bittencourt
1996), displaying cemented upper shoreface sands (“beach rocks”) and ac-
tive sea cliffs carved into the Barreiras Formation (Figs. 2.2, 2.11 and
2.12). Unfilled estuaries are present along the coast such as in the Alagoas
state near Macéio. Transgressive/retrograded barriers, some attached bar-
riers, or very narrow prograded barriers dominate this section of the coast.
Transgressive dunefields are common on the seaward margins particularly
in the transition of this sector to the Amazon embayment (see below), as a
result of strong winds coinciding with a prolonged dry season.
2.6.5 The Mesozoic Rifted Coasts: Camamu – Recôncavo

(Bahia state) and Potiguar Basins (Rio Grande do Norte state)
Most of the Mesozoic portion (rift phase) of the Brazilian marginal basins
are presently buried under younger sediments on the continental margin,
with very limited outcrops along the coastal zone. A major exception to
this is the coast between Itacaré and Salvador (Bahia) where the Mesozoic
rift borders the coastal zone deeply influencing its physiography. In this
section of the coast the differential erosion between the high-grade meta-
morphic rocks of the Precambrian basement and the less resistant sedimen-
tary rocks of the Camamu-Reconcavo rifted basins, exhumed a framework
of faulted blocks that comprise the architecture of these basins (Gonçalves
et al. 2001; Magnavita et al. 2005; Cupertino and Bueno 2005) and which,
when invaded by the sea during the Quaternary highstands, gave origin to
some of the largest bays of Brazil (Figs. 2.2 and 2.13). Coastal circulation
and sedimentation in these regions are strongly influenced by tides (Amo-
rim 2005; Lessa et al. 2001).
32 J.M.L. Dominguez
Fig. 2.6A Paranaguá bay
Fig. 2.6B Guanabara bay

Fig. 2.7 The dip-fed wave-dominated deltaic coast of Eastern Brazil. Thin broken
lines show major drainage divides
34 J.M.L. Dominguez
A B
C D
Fig. 2.8 Major wave-dominated deltas of Eastern Brazil. (A) Paraíba do Sul.
(B) Doce. (C) Jequitinhonha. (D) São Francisco. See Fig. 2.7 for location
The other example is the Potiguar basin in the Rio Grande do Norte
State. This basin comprises a lower unit deposited in a rift environment
covered by shallow water limestones deposited during the drift phase of
this basins’ evolutionary history (Soares and Rossetti 2005). Just in this
sector and controlled by the architecture of the rifted blocks of the Potiguar
basin are two of the largest estuaries/bays of northeastern Brazil (The Açu
and the Apodi) both not yet completely filled (Figs. 2.2 and 2.14).
Fig. 2.9 Away from the major river mouths the coastal zone is starved of sedi-
ments as in this example south of the Jequitinhonha delta. See also Fig. 2.10
36 J.M.L. Dominguez
Fig. 2.10 Another example of sediment-starved coast away from a major river
delta. Note the large bay at Vitória city and smaller unfilled estuaries immediately
north
Fig. 2.11 The sediment-starved coast of Northeastern Brazil. Thick broken lines
indicate major drainage divides
2.6.6 The Tidal Embayment of the Amazon
This sector extends approximately from the Parnaiba river to the Orange
cape, and it is characterized by a broad re-entrant in the coastal zone which
extends for more than a 1,000 km of shoreline (Figs. 2.2 and 2.15). In this
region the Amazon and Parnaíba intracratonic Paleozoic/Mesozoic sedi-
mentary basins reach the coastal zone. The hydrography that developed in
association with these intracratonic basins drain more that half of the Bra-
zilian territory including the largest river in the world, the Amazon (Drai-
6 2 3
nage basin: 6.1 × 10 km , Discharge: 207,700 m /s, Sediment load: 1,154
6
× 10 t/yr) (Syvitski et al. 2005). This river, together with the Tocantins
2 3
(Drainage basin: 764,213 km , Discharge: 12,369 m /s, Sediment load:
6 6 2
22.33 × 10 t/yr) and the Parnaiba (Drainage basin: 322,887 × 10 km ,
3 6
Discharge: 846 m /s, Sediment load: 10.14 × 10 t/yr) (Syvitski et al. 2005)
bring to the coastal zone the largest sediment load in the entire South
America. Another important aspect of this coast is the occurrence of the
highest tides in Brazil (Cartwright et al. 1991; Sales et al. 2000), with tidal
ranges varying from 3 to 6 m (Fig. 2.3). Sandy strandplains (prograded
38 J.M.L. Dominguez
barriers) are almost absent from this section of the Brazilian coastal zone.
Even in the so-called wave-dominated Parnaíba delta (Fig. 2.16), beach-
dune ridges capping sandy deposits are not visible. Instead they are re-
placed by actively migrating dunes and gegenwalle ridges (also referred to
by Jimenez et al. 1999 as vegetation marks) interspersed with mangroves
swamps.
A B
C D
Fig. 2.12 Major characteristics of sediment starved coasts: (A) Active sea cliffs
cut into the coastal tablelands (south of Maceio). (B) Coral-algal reefs (south of
Recife). (C) Major beach-rock blocking estuary entrance (north of João Pessoa).
(D) Retreating sea-cliff truncating parabolic dunes on top of the coastal tablelands
(south of Natal)
Two contrasting styles of sedimentation are observed between the sec-

tors of the coast located east (updrift) and west (downdrift) of the Amazon
river (Fig. 2.15).
Fig. 2.13 The Mesozoic Rifted Coast: Camamu-Recôncavo basin. See Fig. 2.2 and
2.7 for location
40 J.M.L. Dominguez
Fig. 2.14 The Mesozoic Rifted Coast: Potiguar basin. See Figs. 2.2 and 2.11 for
location
The eastern sector is characterized by narrow estuaries carved into the

Barreiras Formation (Fig. 2.17). Close to the Pará river mouth the Barrei-
ras Formation reaches the coastal zone forming active cliffs, with limited
shoreline progradation. Eastwards, mangroves prograde over subtidal
sands with the shoreline advancing locally up to 30 km (Souza Filho et al.
2006). In planform, however, the shoreline exhibits a similar geometry,
which might possibly suggest that the morphology of the coastal zone is
largely controlled by the antecedent topography of the Barreiras Forma-
tion. This initial topographic control could possibly be amplified and per-
petuated by the action of the tides. This pattern extends onto the continen-
tal shelf up to the shelf break, resembling the classical tidal ridge
morphologies such as those observed in the Yellow Sea (Park et al. 2006)
and East China Sea (Liu et al. 2007). Unfortunately, there is not enough in-
formation on the shelf to confirm if these features exhibit an erosional or a
depositional character. Mangrove development seems to have occurred
particularly after 2,060 cal yrs BP (Souza Filho et al. 2006). The largest re-
entrant of this eastern sector of the Amazon embayment is the Maranhão
Gulf (Fig. 2.18), associated with a large incised valley, not completely
infilled, which extends almost 200 km inland. This valley has possibly
resulted from large scale erosion of the sedimentary rocks of the Parnaiba
basin (São Luís-Grajaú basin – Góes and Rossetti 2001) during sea-level
lowstands. This incised valley has a clear expression in the continental
shelf bathymetry extending almost to the shelf break. The outer eastern
margin of this valley has been partially infilled by the aeolian sands of the
actively migrating Lençois Maranhenses dune field.
Fig. 2.15 The tidal embayment of the Amazon
On the western sector of the Amazon embayment, at Amapa State, the

style of sedimentation is completely different from the eastern sector with
a muddy shoreline and the absence of re-entrants (Fig. 2.19). The geology
of the hinterland is dominated by Precambrian basement rocks with very
short rivers and the Barreiras Formation is absent. Tidal range is somewhat
similar and even larger than in the eastern sector. The observed differences
between the eastern and western sectors possibly arise from two factors: (i)
the absence of a drainage system with large valleys intersecting the coastal
zone, and (ii) the huge volumes of muddy sediments delivered by the
Amazon river and diverted westward by the dominant coastal currents (Hu
et al. 2004; Nikiema et al. 2004). The presence of these fluid muds even
enhances tidal amplitude by decreasing bottom friction (Beardsley et al.
1995; Gabioux et al. 2005). In spite of higher tidal amplitudes and the
fact that the tidal ellipses are predominantly oriented perpendicular to the
42 J.M.L. Dominguez
isobaths (Beardsley et al. 1995), sediment dispersal is predominantly lon-

gitudinal to the shoreline favoring formation of mud capes and banks def-
lected westwards into the downcurrent direction (Allison et al. 1995; Le-
febvre et al. 2004; Plaziat and Augustinus 2004). Additionally the damping
effect of these muds results in reduced wave action, and the shoreline is
devoid of sand beaches/barriers (Rine and Ginsburg 1985).
Fig. 2.16 The Parnaíba river delta, marks the eastern limit of the Amazon embay-
ment. Prograded spits and transgressive dunefields interspersed with mangrove
systems dominate the Holocene coastal fringe
At the Amazon and Tocantins/Pará river mouths lower tidal ranges are
observed possibly because the tide behaves at these places as a damped
progressive wave (Beardsley et al. 1995). Despite its huge sediment load,
the Amazon River has not produced extensive shoreline progradation at its
river mouth and according to some authors is presently building a sub-
aqueous delta on the inner and middle shelf (Nittrouer et al. 1986; Nittrou-
er and DeMaster 1996; Hübscher et al. 2002).
However, looking from another perspective, the entire Amazon embay-
ment is, in a sense, the Amazon delta, since the shoreline on both sides of
the river mouth has prograded up to 30 km. From this broader perspective
the “Amazon Delta” even exhibits an asymmetry akin of that observed in
Fig. 2.17 The updrift side of the Amazon embayment is characterized by narrow
estuaries
the other wave-dominated deltas of the eastern Brazilian coast (sandier up-
drift side vs muddier downdrift side).
Finally another aspect of this coastal segment which differentiates it
from the rest of Brazil, as mentioned before, is the lack of testimonies of
Quaternary highstands. This absence has been explained as a result of local
subsidence (Souza Filho 2000; Souza Filho et al. 2006). Additionally ma-
thematical models of Earth-ice-ocean interactions incorporating rotational
feedback (Peltier 2007), predict for northern Brazil, Holocene sea levels
barely above the present level.
2.7 Concluding Remarks
This brief overview of the Brazilian coastal zone shows that sediment
supply and geologic heritage (antecedent geology) are fundamental con-
trols of the first-order hierarchy of coastal landscapes. Quaternary sea-
level history, waves and tides, although significant, play a secondary role.
44 J.M.L. Dominguez
Fig. 2.18 Maranhão, the largest incised valley of the Amazon embayment
On the Brazilian coast large bays/estuaries are present in two major sce-
narios: (i) as a result of differential erosion between the high-grade meta-
morphic rocks and the less resistant sedimentary rocks. This scenario is fa-
vored where rifted sedimentary basins, formed during continental break
up, intersect the coastal zone as is the case in the Camamu-Reconcavo and
Potiguar basins; and (ii) as a result of Cenozoic tectonics (gravitational
collapse of uplifted high-grade basement rocks) leading to formation of
continental rifts as in the case of the Serra do Mar/Mantiqueira of sou-
theastern Brazil.
These bays are usually unfilled with marine sediments, since rivers en-
tering them are characterized by small sediment loads. Exceptions howev-
er do occur as exemplified by the case study of the Lagoa Encantada bay
in Bahia state (Dominguez et al. this volume). Sand barriers in these set-
tings will usually be narrow as in the case of wave-dominated estuaries or
even absent.
Strandplains (prograded barriers) in general, will be well developed in
two scenarios: (i) in association with wave-dominated deltas, which in the
case of eastern Brazil, was favored in those sectors of the coast where the
major escarpment formed during continental break-up has retreated signif-
icantly from the coastline to allow the development of large drainage
basins, and (ii) downdrift of large river systems. The Rio Grande do Sul is
the largest prograded coastal plain in Brazil, extending continuously for
more than 600 km, and seems to be a direct result of the large sediment
loads of the La Plata river.
Fig. 2.19 Downdrift of the Amazon, mud flats and capes (e.g. Orange Cape) occur
As already mentioned, because of the tendency of drainage basins to de-

crease in size as the coastal zone is approached, in between these major
rivers the coast is usually starved of sediments. In these sediment starved
coasts, in general, sand barriers will be either attached, narrow or absent.
The Amazon embayment receives one of the largest sediment loads in
the world, and exbibits a well-marked difference between its updrift (east-
ern) and downdrift (western) sides. These differences derive primarily
from the dominant transport of the muddy sediment loads of the Amazon
river to the west. It also reflects, in a sense, the role of the antecedent geol-
ogy which is different between the two sides, with the Precambrian base-
ment on the downdrift side and sedimentary rocks on the updrift side. In
the Amazon embayment the combination of excessive loads of fine-
grained sediments and large tidal ranges, have precluded the development
of sandy strandplains. On the updrift side, very narrow and short sand
46 J.M.L. Dominguez
accumulations, exhibiting a tendency to erosional retreat (transgressive

barriers) are present but they comprise a very small percentage of the
coastal landscape.
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Federal do Rio Grande do Sul
Urien CM, Martins LR, Martins IR (1978) Modelos Deposicionales en la
Plataforma Continental de Rio Grande do Sul, Uruguay y Buenos Aires.
Actas, 7 Congresso Geológico Argentino, Neuquén 2, pp 639–658
Villwock JA, Tomazelli JL, Loss EL, Dehnhard EA, Horn Filho NO, Bachi FA,
Dehnhard BA (1986) Geology of the Rio Grande do Sul coastal province. In:
Rabassa J (ed) Quaternary of South America and Antarctic Peninsula, vol 4.
Balkema, Rotterdam, pp 79–97
Wilkinson BH, McElroy BJ (2007) The impact of humans on continental erosion
and sedimentation. Geol Soc Am Bull 119:140–156
Williams BG, Hubbard RJ (1984) Seismic stratigraphic framework and deposi-
tional sequences of the Santos Basin, Brazil. Mar Petrol Geol 1:90–104
Wilson L (1973) Variations in mean annual sediment yield as a function of mean
annual precipitation. Am J Sci 273:335–349
Zalan PV (2004) Evolução fanerozóica das bacias sedimentares brasileiras. In:
Mantesso-Neto V, Bartorelli A, Dal Ré Carneiro C, Brito Neves BB (eds)
Geologia do Continente Sul-Americano: evolução da obra de Fernando Flávio
Marques de Almeida. Beca, São Paulo, Brazil, pp 595–612
Zalan PV, Oliveira JAB (2005) Origem e evolução estrutural do Sistema de Riftes
Cenozóicos do Sudeste do Brasil. Bol Geoc Petrobras 13:269–300
Chapter 3
The Holocene Coastal Barriers
of Rio Grande do Sul
Sérgio R. Dillenburg, Eduardo G. Barboza, Luiz J. Tomazelli,

Patrick A. Hesp, Luiz C. P. Clerot and Ricardo N. Ayup-Zouain
3.1 Introduction
Coastal barriers represent the main depositional system of the coastal plain
of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). During the Late Quaternary (last 400 ka), four
barrier-lagoon systems were formed on this coast in association with four
sea level highstands (Villwock and Tomazelli 1995). The juxtaposition of
their sedimentary deposits formed the widest coastal plain of Brazil (up to
80 km wide). The Holocene Barrier system has received most of the atten-
tion of coastal geology researchers in the last fifteen years, resulting in a
great improvement in information regarding its geological structure and
evolution. In the following we outline the geology of the Holocene coastal
barriers of Rio Grande do Sul, the southernmost state of Brazil.
3.2 Regional Setting
3.2.1 Geologic Setting
The southern Brazilian continental margin is a rifted plate boundary (trail-

ing edge) formed in Early Cretaceous times. In the vicinity of Rio Grande
do Sul (29° to 34º south latitudes) deposition of a large amount of post-rift,
mainly clastic sediments, produced a wide (100–200 km), shallow
(100–140 m) and gently sloping (0.03º–0.08º) continental shelf. On land, a
low-relief coastal plain was formed during the Quaternary by juxtaposition
of sedimentary deposits of four barrier-lagoon systems designated I (old-
est) to IV (youngest) by Villwock et al. (1986) (Fig. 3.1). The coastal plain
54 S.R. Dillenburg et al.
ranges from 20 to 80 km wide and is bordered landward by bedrock high-

lands. At the northern end of the coastal plain the highlands consist of
Paleozoic and Mesozoic volcanic and sedimentary rocks of the Paraná
Basin that locally reach heights of 1,000 m, while to the south, igneous
and metamorphic rocks of the Precambrian shield form lower highlands
(Tomazelli et al. 2000). In general the landward border of the coastal plain
corresponds to the western margins of a series of lagoons that are large in
the south and central part of RS and small in the north.
3.2.2 Oceanographic Setting
Rio Grande do Sul has a uniform and gentle undulating barrier coast,
oriented NE–SW and subject to dominant swell waves generated in south-
ern latitudes and wind-generated waves produced by strong spring-summer
sea breezes from the northeast. The average significant wave height is
1.5 m, measured in 15–20 m water depth at the northern littoral of RS
(Motta 1969). Due to changes in coastline orientation and in inner shelf
morphology and gradient, the beaches of RS are exposed to significantly
different degrees of wave power. The significant wave height measured at
the breaker line can vary from up to 60% alongshore (Calliari and Klein
1993; Dillenburg et al. 2005; Martinho 2008). During autumn and winter
storms (April to July) wave height may frequently exceed 2.0 m and sea
level can surge up to 1.3 m along the coast (Barletta and Calliari 2001;
Calliari et al. 1998). The coast is microtidal with semidiurnal tides that
have a mean range of only 0.5 m. Consequently, sediment transport and
deposition along the open coast is primarily dominated by wave action. A
net northward littoral drift is evident in coastal geomorphic features
(Tomazelli and Villwock 1992), and confirmed by field measurements
(Toldo et al. 1993). Beaches vary from dissipative to intermediate mor-
phodynamic stages.
3.2.3 Climatic Setting
The climate is humid temperate with generally warm to hot temperatures

in summer and cool temperatures in winter. The NE wind is dominant, es-
pecially from September to March. From April to August winds from S
and SW are dominant. Rainfall ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 mm and is
evenly distributed throughout the year. Higher precipitation occurs at the
northern littoral of RS (Torres to Tramandaí) due to the influence of the
highlands (500–700 m) that are closer to the coast (15–20 km), causing a
local increase in rainfall.
3 The Holocene Coastal Barriers of Rio Grande do Sul 55
Fig. 3.1 Location and general geology of Rio Grande do Sul coast. (Modified from
Tomazelli and Villwock 1996)
The atmospheric circulation at Rio Grande do Sul is strongly affected by

the impact of ENSO. Obstruction of S–SW frontal systems can last for
many days or even weeks resulting in an increase in rainfall in southern

Brazil during El Nino events. This obstruction is due to the strengthening
and southwards shift of the subtropical jet at higher levels, which occurs
more frequently in the fall and less frequently in winter and spring
(Krusche et al. 2002; Grimm 2003). Wind data shows an intensification of
wind speeds from all directions and in all seasons in the El Nino year of
1997, especially from the NE, N, and W. However, SW winds were more
frequent and stronger during the fall, winter, and spring in 1999 (La Nina
year) (Esteves et al. 2006), corroborating with the findings of intense cyc-
logenesis in La Nina years reported by Tozzi (2002). Changes in the at-
mospheric circulation driven by ENSO also affect the wave climate and
longshore currents of RS. During El Nino events, the longshore current is
dominant to the SW, while during La Nina it is dominant to the NE. These
reversals in the direction of the longshore current might be the main factor
driving annual shoreline changes in RS (Esteves et al. 2006).
3.2.4 Coastal Sediments
The continental margin of Rio Grande do Sul was formed by the deposi-
tion of a huge amount of terrigenous sediment since the opening of the
South Atlantic Ocean started at 130 Ma (Urien et al. 1976). On the conti-
nental slope, a sedimentary thickness of at least 10 km was revealed by
seismic reflection records (Fontana 1990). The Cenozoic sediments of the
continental margin are essentially terrigenous sands and muds, with minor
shell debris (less than 5%). Holocene coastal sediments are dominated by
very fine to medium quartz sands (barrier deposits), and fine to medium
quartz sands and muds (lagoonal deposits). Local exceptions are the large
amounts of biogenic calcium carbonates occurring as modern beach sedi-
ments (shells and shell debris) at Albardão (southern littoral of RS). As a
barrier coastline, the present-day beach system of RS receives very little
sand from inland sources, as most of the sediment load carried by the few
streams and rivers (Camaquã and Jacuí) draining to the coastline is trapped
in the adjacent lagoons and other backbarrier environments (Tomazelli
et al. 1998). During the Middle and Late Holocene the coastal sediment
budget has varied along the coast mainly due to variations in the littoral
drift and in cross-shore sediment changes between the inner shelf and the
beach system (Dillenburg et al. 2000).
3.2.5 Holocene Sea Level History
The postglacial sea level history of the Rio Grande do Sul coast extends
from about 17.5 ka when the sea level was about 120–130 m lower (Corrêa
1995) (Fig. 3.2). After that time, sea level rose at an average rate of
1.2 cm/yr, but varying from 0.6 cm/yr (14–12 ka) to 1.9 cm/yr (8.0–6.5 ka)
and even higher immediately after the start of the Postglacial Marine
Transgression (PMT). There are no reliable data on sea-level behaviour
during the Middle to Late Holocene time along the RS coast. However,
sea-level curves for areas further to the north indicate that at the culmina-
tion of the PMT (5–6 ka), sea level reached approximately 2–5 m above its
present level, subsequently followed by a slow sea-level fall (Martin et al.
1979, 2003; Angulo and Lessa 1997; Angulo et al. 1999, 2006). This gen-
eral sea-level behaviour also probably applies to the northern coast of Rio
Grande do Sul (Fig. 3.2a, b).
3.3 The Holocene Barrier
The Holocene barrier system of Rio Grande do Sul occupies the entire
620 km length of coast. Discontinuities in the barrier occur only at two
sites: in the south, at Cassino, where the inlet of the Patos Lagoon is lo-
cated, and in the north, at the inlet of Tramandaí Lagoon (Fig. 3.1). Both
inlets are permanently open because of a continuous and large discharge of
fresh water through their entrances. The entire coastline is gently undulat-
ing and consists of two large subdued seaward projections and two land-
ward re-entrants. This is the longest barrier system of South America and
certainly one of the longest in the world. Its principal characteristics are
shown in Fig. 3.3, and five barrier sectors are generally described below
from north to south.
Note that the barriers in southern Brazil have been occasionally
mis-named, often based on a simple overview of images, or the presence
of lagoons behind the barrier. For example, Shepard (1960, his Fig. 16)
states that the barriers of Rio Grande do Sul are barrier islands, and Stutz
and Pilkey (2001) include 890 km of the southern Brazilian barriers in
their estimate of barrier islands, whereas they are clearly not barrier isl-
ands.
Fig. 3.2 (a) Holocene sea-level curves for the east coast of Brazil. Solid curve af-
ter Corrêa (1990). Dotted curve after Martin et al. (1979). Dashed curve after An-
gulo and Lessa (1997), (b) sea-level envelop for the Brazilian coast north of 28°S
(solid line) and south of 28°S (dashed line). (Modified from Angulo et al. 2006)
Fig. 3.3 Pleistocene and Holocene barriers along the southern Brazilian coast from
Torres to Chuí. The first map (I) displays the northernmost sector and (II, III, and
IV) the progressively more southern sectors. General morphological barrier types
are indicated for the Holocene barrier. This re-interpretation of the Dillenburg
et al. (2000) Figure indicates that the barrier system comprises relict (vegetated)
transgressive dunefields, active transgressive dunefields, or a complex barrier type
comprising both foredune ridges and transgressive dunefields. (Modified from
Hesp et al. 2005)
3.3.1 Sector 1 – Torres to Tramandaí
The coast from Torres to Tramandaí (90 km) is slightly concave with the
barrier showing a regressive nature. During barrier progradation in the last
7 ka (Dillenburg et al. 2006), phases of dune transgression formed a rela-
tively unusual prograded barrier type in the form of multiple transgressive
dune fields each separated by precipitation ridges (Hesp et al. 2005). Bar-
rier width ranges from 5 to 2 km. From Torres to Xangri-lá, the modern
phase of dunes transgression forms a ridge approximately 800 m wide. To
the south of Xangri-lá down to Tramandaí, this modern phase covers the
whole barrier (Fig. 3.3I).
3.3.2 Sector 2 – Tramandaí to Mostardas
From Tramandaí to Mostardas (150 km) the coastline is slightly convex-

seaward; the barrier ranges from 2 to 6 km in width and is completely cov-
ered by transgressive dunes, and in many places the dunes extend onto the
Pleistocene barrier (Fig. 3.3I, II). At Jardim do Éden beach, located 7 km
south of Tramandaí, this barrier sector shows evidence of long term barrier
recession attested by lagoonal muds presently outcropping at the foreshore,
while at Cidreira, located 30 km to the south of Tramandaí, the barrier
shows evidence of a long term barrier recession as well, but with records
of a small recent phase of progradation (Travessas 2003). At Dunas Altas,
50 km south of Cidreira, the highest foredunes of the RS coast occur, sug-
gesting medium-term shoreline stability or perhaps slight erosion. The out-
standing features of this sector are the huge transgressive dunefields that
represent the main sandy deposits of the inland part of the barrier.
3.3.3 Sector 3 – Mostardas to Estreito
Subtle coastal convexity continues from Mostardas to Estreito (120 km).

Here the Holocene barrier is less than 2 km wide and its emerged part is
composed completely of transgressive dunes (Fig. 3.3II, III). In the north,
the barrier dunes transgress into the Holocene interbarrier lagoon, but in
the south they onlap the Pleistocene barrier. Lagoonal muds and peats out-
crop along most of the foreshore and backshore, and provide clear evi-
dence of a long-term and widespread erosional trend along this coastal sec-
tor. In some places, to the south of Bujuru, Holocene lagoonal deposits
were completely eroded and the barrier is onlapping the Pleistocene barrier
(mainland beach barrier configuration; cf. Roy et al. 1994). In addition,
sandy deposits of the Pleistocene barrier outcrop at the backshore. This
sector is the longest coastal stretch where retrogradational barriers and

transgressive dunefields coexist.
3.3.4 Sector 4 – Estreito to Verga
The coastal sector from Estreito to Verga (140 km) is concave, and here
the barrier shows a regressive nature in the form of a strandplain that va-
ries from 2 to 14 km in width (Fig. 3.3III, IV). Phases of transgressive
dunes are present interspersed with sets of foredune ridges.
3.3.5 Sector 5 – Verga to Chuí
From Verga to Chuí (120 km) the coast is strongly convex-seaward. The
barrier ranges from 2 to 5 km wide and is composed of transgressive dunes
as far south as Hermenegildo (Fig. 3.3IV). At Hermenegildo, and for
10 km to the south, lagoonal mud and peat outcrop at the foreshore indicat-
ing a long-term recession of the barrier. Near Chuí the barrier becomes
progressively narrower and finally becomes a mainland beach barrier. This
is the least studied coastal sector of the Rio Grande do Sul coast.
In summary, there is a correlation between coastal configuration in plan-
view and the nature of the coastal barriers. Coastal re-entrants (concave
sectors of coast) are dominated by regressive barriers with either suites of
relict and active transgressive dunefields or complex barriers comprising
both relict foredune ridges and dunefields, whereas protruding sectors of
coast typically have transgressive barriers capped with transgressive dunes.
A correlation also exists between the coastal configuration and the mor-
phology of the continental shelf. Along coastal re-entrants the shelf is wid-
er and more gently sloping, whereas along coastal projections it is narrow-
er and steeper (Dillenburg et al. 2000). The above longshore differences in
the morphologies of the coast and of the continental shelf has determined
the existence of gradients in wave height/energy along the coast (Dillen-
burg et al. 2003, 2005; Martinho 2008) (Fig. 3.4). Also, the approach an-
gles of the most powerful waves (southerly) attacking the coast are higher
on coastal projections and lower on coastal re-entrants (Lima et al. 2001;
Martinho 2008). Since the wave energy and the angle of wave attack are
the main longshore components of wave power (Swift 1976), there is
strong evidence that the temporal long-term coexistence of regressive and
transgressive barriers along the RS coast could be a product of the exis-
tence of longshore gradients in wave power.
Fig. 3.4 Beach locations along the Rio Grande do Sul with values of significant
wave height (H1/3). Heights increase from embayments to coastal projections.
(After Dillenburg et al. 2005)
The following provides a detailed description of the stratigraphy

and morphology of the Holocene barriers for specific sites in coastal
sectors 1–4.
3.3.6 The Regressive Barrier of Torres–Tramandaí
The Holocene barrier between Torres and Tramandaí occurs in a slightly

concave coastal sector. Here the barrier was named a prograded transgres-
sive dunefield barrier by Hesp et al. 2005. It is essentially a regressive bar-
rier, that during progradation was covered by aeolian deposits in the form
of transgressive dunefields. These dunefields display high to low precipita-
tion ridges along the landward margins of each dunefield phase, are conti-
nuous to semi-continuous in a shore parallel direction, are generally low
and hummocky, and on average spaced from 80 to 600 m apart (Fig. 3.5).
They were formed by phases of dunes transgression that seem to corres-
pond (each phase) to a time span of approximately 500–600 yrs. They
were at first incorrectly described as beach ridges by Villwock (1984), and
later reinterpreted and described by Hesp et al. (2005) (Fig. 3.6). Eighty
percent of the barrier surface (Torres to Xangri-lá) shows relict (vegetated)
transgressive dunefields, while the remaining twenty percent (Xangri-lá to
Tramandaí) is completely covered by a modern and active phase of dune
transgression (Fig. 3I). This sector of the barrier has been studied in detail
at Curumim and Tramandaí.
3.3.6.1 Curumim
Curumim is located right in the center (middle part) between Torres and
Tramandaí, where the barrier shows its maximum progradation (4.7 km).
The barrier here was studied in detail by Dillenburg et al. (2006); Hesp
et al. (2005, 2007).
The geological cross-section of Fig. 3.7 depicts the stratigraphy of the bar-
rier at Curumim. Due to limitations of the drilling equipment the barrier sub-
strate was not achieved by any drill hole. The progradational (regressive) na-
ture of the barrier is revealed by the relation between two main facies: a basal
shoreface-foreshore-backshore facies that is covered by a top aeolian facies.
The shoreface-foreshore-backshore facies has a light gray to green col-
or, well to moderately sorted, rounded to sub-rounded, quatzose, fine to
very fine and relatively highly compacted sands, with a minimum thick-
ness varying from 12 m (FS-01) to 17 m (FS-05). Its basal limit was not
achieved in any of the four drillings. Modal grain size coarsens upward in
this facies probably reflecting the upward change from lower (very fine
sand) to upper shoreface and foreshore (fine sand). At a depth of 9 to 12 m
(inside this facies), debris and well preserved shells of marine molluscs of
Olivanicillaria urceus, Mactra sp and Donax sp are recorded in all drill
14
holes. Four C datings of well preserved shells from each drill hole gave
Fig. 3.5 Vertical aerial photograph of the Holocene barrier at Curumim illustrating
the multiple phases of prograded transgressive dunefields (each separated by pre-
cipitation ridges). The large arrow indicates the position on the barriers separating
the relatively straight long, continuous phases from the shorter, discontinuous,
crescentic and lobate phases. The small arrows indicate the locations of active wa-
shouts cutting through the dunes. Line A indicates the position of the stratigraphic
section shown in Fig. 3.7, and lines B and C indicate the position of the two sur-
vey lines shown in Fig. 3.8, and the three TL dated phases (P1, P4 and P10) (on
Fig. 3.8) are also shown. (Modified from Hesp et al. 2007)
Fig. 3.6 Morphology of the edge of the modern transgressive dunefield showing
the low precipitation ridge forming on the downwind margin
decreasing ages for shoreface deposits from west to east, allowing a chro-
nological reconstruction of barrier progradation (Fig. 3.7).
The aeolian facies is formed as faint yellow, well sorted, rounded to
sub-rounded, quartzose, fine and relatively low compacted sands. This
aeolian facies mainly corresponds to multiple phases of transgressive
dunefields formed during barrier progradation in the last 7 ka.
No significant change in grain size occurred during progradation in the
last 7,000 cal yrs BP, in both facies. This fact might indicate constancy in
sediment sources and/or in wave power (Dorneles et al. 2006).
The ages obtained for the barrier shoreface sands indicate that prograda-
tion started during the slowing sea-level rise (7,185–5,575 cal yrs BP) of
the PMT. Because of a significant positive sediment budget, the barrier
prograded at a rate of 1 m/yr from 7,185 to 5,575 cal yrs BP. Subsequent
barrier progradation was influenced by both sediment budget and sea-level
fall. From 5,575 to 4,480 cal yrs BP the barrier prograded at a rate of
1.3 m/yr. From 4,480 to 3,325 cal yrs BP the barrier prograded at a rate of
0.9 m/yr, and finally from 3,325 cal yrs BP to present, the rate of prograda-
tion was around 0.2 m/yr. These decreasing rates of barrier progradation
after 4,480 cal yrs BP were produced by a reduction in the sediment budg-
et and/or by a progressive increase of the accommodation space on the in-
ner shelf.
Fig. 3.7 Cross section of the Holocene barrier at Curumim (see transect location
on Fig. 3.5). (Modified from Dillenburg et al. 2006)
Based on both air photographs and field data, multiple phases of trans-
gressive dunefields were identified on the barrier’s surface in the form of
relatively wide coast-parallel dunefields and ridges.
Figure 3.7 shows a section of the Holocene barrier near Curumim which
displays a typical morphology of much of the barrier system. The first few
ridge lines present on the left side of the photograph are relatively straight
or linear, trending south–north. The seaward half of the barrier comprises
ridges which are more irregular, discontinuous alongshore, and have
crescentic and lobate morphologies. The active (white on the photograph)
portion displays sets of discontinuous, triangular-shaped dunefields with
transverse and barchanoidal transverse dunes and separated by wash-outs
(small streams cutting seawards). The inner ridges mostly appear to be
parallel, regularly spaced ridges (and therefore approximate the form of
“beach ridges”) on a large scale aerial photograph or satellite image.
However, measurement of ridge spacing shows that the ridges are on
average spaced from 400 to 600 m apart on the landward half of the
barrier, and 80 to 400 m apart on the seaward half of the barrier. They are
therefore very widely spaced compared to most beach ridge or foredune

plains. They are in fact transgressive dunefield precipitation ridges (Hesp
et al. 2005). TL ages of these ridges are consistent with the chronology of
14
barrier progradation determined by the C. (Figs. 3.7 and 3.8).
Fig. 3.8 Topographic surveys of the two lines indicated on Fig. 3.5. The individual
phases (P1 to P11) and the locations of the three TL dated dunes are indicated.
Phase 8 is shown as two parts due to uncertainty as to whether it is one, or two
separate phases. (After Hesp et al. 2007)
3.3.7 The Transgressive/Stationary Barrier

of Tramandaí–Mostardas
The outstanding feature of this slightly convex-seaward coastal sector (150

km long) is the huge transgressive dune deposits of the barrier. Figure 3.9
shows the location of stratigraphic sections at Tramandaí, Jardim do Éden
and Cidreira, which will be presented and described below.
3.3.7.1 Tramandaí
Tramandaí is located at the southern end of the Torres–Tramandaí gentle

embayment. The barrier here was studied in detail by Dillenburg (1994,
1996), Lorscheitter and Dillenburg (1998), Oschmann et al. (1999), Tra-
vessas (2003), and Travessas et al. (2005).
The lithofacies architecture of this barrier is depicted in Fig. 3.10.
Lithofacies Descriptions
Lithofacies 1 (Pleistocene substrate deposits): basically formed by mod-

erately sorted and compacted, pale green and fine quartz sands (95–90%),
with 3–5% of glauconite minerals, and minor amounts of mud (5–10%).
These sands were interpreted as shoreface deposits of the Pleistocene bar-
rier formed at approximately 120–125 ka (Dillenburg et al. 2000).
Lithofacies 2 (lagoonal margin and lagoonal floor deposits): the first is

formed by moderately sorted and compacted, grey and fine quartz sands;
while the second is formed by a grey to black mud, with shells and debris
of Erodona mactroides, Nucula semiornata, Tagelus plebeios and Tellina
sp. Sparse and interspersed centimeter lens of sand occur in these mud
14
deposits. Palynological data and C datings at the base of the lithofacies
indicates a great influence of marine waters in the lagoonal system at
11,280–10,510 cal yrs BP.
Lithofacies 3 (washover/flood tidal delta deposits): formed by moderately

sorted, grey to pale green fine quartz sands, showing moderate to high
compaction. Rich laminae of heavy minerals occur towards the base of the
lithofacies.
Lithofacies 4 (beach deposits): moderately sorted, pale yellow and slightly

green fine quartz sands, showing a high content of heavy minerals towards
the base.
Fig. 3.9 Location of drilling profiles at Tramandaí, Jardim do Éden and Cidreira
Lithofacies 5 (dune deposits): formed by well sorted, pale yellow fine

quartz sands, with very low compaction.
Fig. 3.10 Stratigraphic cross section of the Holocene barrier at Tramandaí (see
drilling profile location on Fig. 3.9). (Modified from Travessas et al. 2005)
14
By the lithofacies, stratigraphic analysis and C dating three important
evolutionary stages of the barrier system were identified: stage 1 between
10,895 and 7,355 cal yrs BP, stage 2 from 7,355 to 5,430 cal yrs BP, and
stage 3 from 5,430 cal yrs BP to the present:
Stage 1 (10,895–7,355 cal yrs BP)

The PMT sea level had started to inundate this area at about 11 ka when
the palaeo-shoreline was positioned around –16 m. On a very low gradient
and wave dominated coast such as Rio Grande do Sul, existent coastal bar-
riers have migrated landwards in response to sea level rise. Drill hole 10
(Fig. 3.10) shows the most ancient age of Holocene lagoonal sediments
(base of Lithofacies 2) ever found in the region (10,895 cal yrs BP).
Palynological analysis of the base of this drill hole shows an abundant
presence of marine palynomorphs (Medeanic and Dillenburg 2001), such
as would be expected in lagoonal sedimentation during a sea level rise
when the barrier may be smaller (low dunes) and narrower, potentially
with more inlets, and consequently producing a more important marine in-
fluence into the lagoon. As the Holocene sedimentation started with shal-
low, sandy, lagoonal margin deposits, and taking into account that the Ho-
locene/Pleistocene boundary is located at a depth of about –16 m in drill
hole 10, it is reasonable to state that, at about 10,895 cal yrs BP, sea level
was near –16 m. Thus, approximately not long before or after this time and
at this depth, coastal submergence of the area began. There is no record of
marine Holocene sediments lying between the Pleistocene substrate and
the basal lagoonal deposits, what indicates that the flooding of the Tra-
mandaí lagoon occurred by lagoonal waters, as a consequence of the mi-
gration of a barrier induced by sea-level rise.
From 10,895 to 7,355 cal yrs BP the present barrier/lagoon area was
dominated by essentially lagoonal depositional processes (Litohofacies 2).
There is no information about when, where and by which process the bar-
rier was formed.
Stage 2 (7,355–5,430 cal yrs BP)

As a consequence of barrier migration induced by sea-level rise, deposits
of a washover/flood-tidal delta started to be formed over lagoonal margin
and lagoonal floor sediments from approximately 7,355 to 5,430 cal yrs
BP. The barrier emplacement at its present position is well marked by the
interlayering of these types of barrier and lagoonal deposits.
The deposition of 3 m thick lagoonal sediments (Lithofacies 2) over the
washover/flood tidal delta deposits indicates a cessation of washover
processes and/or of construction of a flood tidal delta during the final stag-
es of the PMT. It also indicates a phase of barrier aggradation (vertical
growth) representing equilibrium between rates of sea level rise and of
sand input (cf. Galloway and Hobday 1983). In summary, this stage out-
lines the emplacement of the barrier-lagoon system at its present position
as a consequence of barrier migration, followed by a phase of barrier ag-
gradation occurring during the final stages of the PMT.
Stage 3 (5,430 cal yrs BP to the present)

After 5,430 cal yrs BP, the sea level curve for the region (see Fig. 3.2) in-
dicates an overall sea level fall down to the present level. During this
stage, the silting and segmentation process of a larger lagoon existing at
the end of the PMT took place more rapidly, resulting in the formation of
small coastal water bodies interconnected by channels (see Fig. 3.1). Seg-
mentation was a combination of both silting and formation and prograda-
tion of sandy spits from the mainland. All the spits have in common an in-
itiation from a projection of the Pleistocene barrier, and a NW–SE
orientation (Dillenburg 1996). According to Tomazelli and Villwock
(1992), the NW–SE orientation of spits is due to the action of lagoonal
waves produced by the strong winter NE wind. At the northeast margin of
the lagoon, the Tramandaí river delta prograded rapidly due to a very high
sedimentation rate on the prodelta environment (modern rates of 4.2–4.4
mm/yr, Dillenburg and Burnett 1995).
The barrier seems to have prograded a little during this very slow sea
level fall. According to Dillenburg et al. (2000) barrier progradation due to
a sea level fall of 2 m would have been on the order of approximately
600 m at Tramandaí. The geological section of Fig. 3.10 shows aeolian
deposits (Lithofacies 5) covering beach deposits (Lithofacies 4), which is
an unquestionable record of a phase of progradation. According to Traves-
sas (2003), the barrier at Tramandaí prograded 310 m. This quasi-stable
behavior of the barrier should be seen as a resultant behavior of its shore-

line in the long term. During this time it may have had alternate phases of
small progradation and retrogradation, which is the typical behaviour of a
stationary (Dickinson et al. 1972; Roy et al. 1994) or aggradational (Mor-
ton 1994) barrier. The most important geomorphological changes on the
barrier after 5,430 cal yrs BP corresponds to the formation of thick (~5 m)
transgressive dunefield deposits (Lithofacies 5), which have probably en-
larged the width of the barrier to the west.
3.3.7.2 Jardim do Éden
The barrier at Jardim do Éden shows the largest and most preserved trans-
gressive dunefield of this coastal sector (Fig. 3.9). The barrier here was
studied in detail by Travessas (2003) and Travessas et al. (2005). The stra-
tigraphy of the barrier at Jardim do Éden is depicted in Fig. 3.11.
Fig. 3.11 Stratigraphic cross section of the Holocene barrier at Jardim do Éden
(see drilling profile location on Fig. 3.9). (Modified from Travessas et al. 2005)
Lithofacies 1 (Pleistocene substrate deposits): basically formed by mod-
erately sorted and moderately to very compacted, pale green and fine to
very fine quartz sands.
Lithofacies 2 (lagoonal margin and lagoonal floor deposits): formed by

moderately sorted and moderate to slightly compacted, grey to very pale
green and fine quartz sands, interlayered with dark grey organic muds with
a high content of shell debris. Organic muds located under and above litho-
facies 3 were respectively dated at 6,845 and 6,551 cal yrs BP.
Lithofacies 3 (washover/flood-tidal delta deposits): formed by moderately

sorted, grey to pale green fine quartz sands, with a moderate to high com-
paction.
Lithofacies 4 (beach deposits): a mixture of moderately sorted, pale yellow

and slightly green, fine quartz sands, with a moderate to high compaction.
Lithofacies 5 (dune deposits): formed by well sorted, pale yellow fine

quartz sands, with a very low compaction.
The transgressive dunes at Jardim do Éden are covering lagoonal depo-

sits from the present shoreline up to the western end of the barrier, com-
prising a width of 2.5 km, and a maximum thickness of aeolian deposits of
11 m. Under these aeolian sands, lagoonal deposits are interlayered with
remnants of washover fans/flood-tidal delta deposits. These deposits are
marking the initiation of the transgressive phase of the barrier which oc-
curred approximately between 6,845 and 6,551 cal yrs BP. The covering of
the washover fans/flood-tidal delta deposits by lagoonal floor muds indi-
cates a phase of barrier aggradation after 6,551 cal yrs BP. The outcrop-
ping of the upper lagoonal muds at the present foreshore zone, dated at
6,551 cal yrs BP (Figs. 3.11 and 3.12), indicates that at this time the barrier
was located seawards, and that sometime after that, the barrier started to
recede. What is interesting to note here is that barrier recession took place
under a Brazilian wide sea level fall (see Fig. 3.2). After the maximum of
the PMT and up to the present time, sea level fell very slowly. Under this
condition, a negative imbalance in sediment budget dominated coastal evo-
lution (rate of beach erosion higher than rate of sea level fall), and deter-
mined a shoreline recession (barrier transgression) (Travessas et al. 2005).
The outcropping of lagoonal muds (dated at 6,551 cal yrs BP) at the
present sea level provides support to a barrier transgression controlled by a
negative sediment budget and not due to a sea level rise. If sea level rise
was the main control on barrier transgression, lagoonal muds would have
outcropped somewhere at the shoreface.
Fig. 3.12 Outcrop of lagoonal muds dated at 6,551 cal yrs. BP, in the foreshore
zone of Jardim do Éden beach
At the maximum of the PMT, the stratigraphy of the barrier at Jardim do

Éden was probably very similar to the present stratigraphy at Tramandaí.
The further erosion of the barrier at Jardim do Éden has resulted in its
present stratigraphy (Fig. 3.13).
3.3.7.3. Cidreira
The barrier in Cidreira also shows a large transgressive dunefield, which is
the southern continuation of the dunefield of Jardim do Éden (Fig. 3.14). A
profile of drill holes at Cidreira was performed 25 km to the south of Jar-
dim do Éden. It revealed a stratigraphic section siginificantly different
from Jardim do Éden (Fig. 3.15).
Lithofacies 1 (Pleistocene substrate deposits): formed by poorly sorted and
very compacted, pale yellow to orange fine to very fine quartz sands mixed
with approximately 15% mud (silt and clay).
Lithofacies 2 (lagoonal margin and lagoonal floor deposits): formed by

poorly sorted and moderately to slightly compacted, pale green, fine quartz
sands, interlayered with slightly compacted, dark grey organic muds, and
slightly compacted, beige to pale green, muddy sands with heavy minerals
Fig. 3.13 Evolutionary models of the Holocene barrier of Rio Grande do Sul along
the coast between Tramandaí and Cidreira (schematic – not to scale): (A) barrier
at Tramandaí at the end of the Postglacial Marine Transgression (~5.6 cal ka); (B)
barrier at Tramandaí showing that a little progradation occurred from 5.6 cal ka to
the present; (C) dashed lines represents the Jardim do Éden barrier relative posi-
tion at 5.6 cal ka, showing a similar stratigraphy to the barrier at Tramandaí. From
5.6 cal ka to the present, the barrier was almost completely recycled (eroded); (D)
dashed lines represents Cidreira barrier at 5.6 cal ka, also similar to Tramandaí
barrier. From 5.6 cal ka to the present, the barrier was completely recycled
(eroded), but shows a very little recent progradation. (Modified from Travessas
et al. 2005)
Fig. 3.14 Transgressive dunefield comprising the Holocene barrier at Cidreira

(photo courtesy of Nelson Gruber)
Fig. 3.15 Stratigraphic cross section of the Holocene barrier at Cidreira (see drill-
ing profile location on Fig. 3.9). (Modified from Travessas et al. 2005)
(1%). Two organic mud samples of the top of the lagoonal floor deposits
were dated at 7,245 and 7,306 cal yrs BP.
Lithofacies 3 (beach deposits): a mixture of moderately sorted, very com-

pacted, grey, fine to very fine quartz sands.
Lithofacies 4 (dune deposits): formed by well to very well sorted, mod-

erately to slightly compacted, beige to yellow, fine quartz sands, with loca-
lized heavy minerals laminae.
The stratigraphy of the Holocene barrier at Cidreira is quite simple

compared to Tramandaí and Jardim do Éden. The barrier here also has a
transgressive nature as in Jardim do Éden, and its emerged portion is al-
most completely formed by aeolian deposits (transgressive dunes) that are
partially covering lagoonal deposits. According to Travessas et al. (2005),
the present stratigraphy resulted from a shoreline recession controlled by a
negative sediment budget. By simulating barrier evolution during the early
and middle Holocene (~10–6 ka), Travessas et al. (2005) found that at the
end of the PMT (~5.6 cal ka) the barrier was positioned approximately 850
m seawards from its present position. After the maximum of the PMT, a
negative sediment budget dominated or controlled the coastal evolution
(rate of beach erosion higher than rate of sea level fall), and, as at Jardim
do Éden, determined a shoreline retrogradation (barrier transgression). But,
in contrast, at Cidreira, lagoonal muds do not outcrop at the foreshore. In-
stead, a drill hole taken at the foreshore revealed that lagoonal muds dated
at 7,306 cal yrs BP are buried by approximately 6 m of beach deposits,
which in turn are covered by aeolian sands. According to Travessas
(2003), this stratigraphy indicates a relatively recent and small prograda-
tion phase of the barrier at Cidreira.
3.3.8 The Transgressive Barrier of Mostardas–Estreito
Subtle coastal convexity continues along this stretch of coast (120 km

long). Here the barrier has receded in the long term due to a negative se-
diment budget. In winter, lagoonal muds and peats outcrop on the back-
shore zone almost continuously along this sector of the barrier. At the ligh-
thouse of Conceição (Fig. 3.1), barrier transgression has resulted in the
outcropping at the backshore of relatively well indurated beach deposits of
the Pleistocene barrier (Fig. 3.16). This stretch of the Holocene barrier was
studied in detail by Dillenburg et al. (2004) in a study performed at Bujuru
(see general location on Figs. 3.1 and 3.17).
Fig. 3.16 Relatively well indurated beach deposits (beachrock) of the Pleistocene
barrier outcropping at the modern foreshore of Bujuru
3.3.8.1 Bujuru
Bujuru is located in the southern part of the largest coastal projection of
the whole Holocene barrier of Rio Grande do Sul. The barrier at Bujuru is
retrogradational (transgressive) as is well demonstrated by the outcropping
of lagoonal muds and peats on the backshore (Fig. 3.18), by its narrow
width (less than 200 m – not considering the shoreface), and by the general
absence of foredunes (where they exist they are very small – less than 2
m). Together this provides clear evidence of a long-term erosional trend
along this part of the coast (Dillenburg et al. 2000).
At the back of the barrier, the Holocene inter-barrier depression, and
even some parts of the Pleistocene barrier, is covered by large volumes of
transgressive dune sands containing significant amounts of heavy minerals.
The simultaneous occurrence of a transgressive (retrogradational) barrier
and transgressive dunes on this sector suggests a close link between coastal
erosion and the formation of transgressive dunes, an association that has
been noted in Western Australia (Semeniuk and Meagher 1981) and in the
western USA (Cooper 1958).
Fig. 3.17 Location of drill profile at Bujuru
Fig. 3.18 Layer of peat cropping out in the backshore of Bujuru after a storm dur-
ing winter. The landward continuity of the peat layer is shown in Fig. 3.19
The main depositional units of both the Holocene barrier and the interbar-
rier depression at Bujuru, including its Pleistocene substrate, are depicted in
the stratigraphic section of Fig. 3.19, and are briefly described below.
The Pleistocene substrate consists of an undivided unit (Unit 1) com-
posed of aeolian and beach deposits (Fig. 3.19). At Bujuru, the small depth
achieved by drilling permitted identification of aeolian deposits only; these
consist of reddish, quartzose, and structureless fine sand, with a clay of pe-
dogenic origin, and minor amounts of heavy minerals (average of 1.3%). A
medium-grained beachrock locally outcropping in the foreshore near the
Conceição Lighthouse, located 11 km to the south of Bujuru, has a ther-
moluminescence (TL) age of 109 ka (Buchmann and Tomazelli 2003)
(Fig. 3.16). This beachrock is interpreted as a Pleistocene beach deposit
and correlated in time with the aeolian sand deposit described above. The
unit appears to correlate with barrier/lagoon system III (Villwock et al.
1986) formed along the coast of Rio Grande do Sul, and along the whole
Brazilian coast at ~120–125 ka (Martin et al. 1982).
Fig. 3.19 Stratigraphic cross section of the Holocene barrier at Bujuru (see tran-
sect location on Fig. 3.17). (Modified from Dillenburg et al. 2004)
Unit 2 is a lagoonal/estuarine Holocene deposit composed of gray, qua-

rtzose fine sand, highly bioturbated, with variable amounts of mud and
shell material. It unconformably overlies unit 1. Shells are well preserved
in beds up to 15 cm thick, which contain Anomalocardia brasilensis,
Tagelus plebeus, Bulla striata, Olivella sp., Heliobia sp., and Pittar sp.
Radiocarbon dating of two shell samples gave ages of 3,220 and 3,370 cal
yrs BP. Because the two samples came from two shallow cores collected
from the present backshore, this indicates that at least approximately
3.2–3.4 cal ka the Holocene barrier was positioned somewhere seawards.
Towards the top of the unit there are some heavy mineral-rich laminae,
which in turn grade into a continuous layer of peat up to 50 cm thick

(Fig. 3.19). Radiocarbon ages of this peat layer range from 970 to 405 cal
yrs BP, decreasing in age landward.
Unit 3 consists of white, well sorted and rounded, quartzose, fine to very
fine sand, with well developed high-angle cross bedding, and contains an
average of 4.66 ± 1.02% of heavy minerals. This unit corresponds to trans-
gressive dune sands, which unconformably overlie the lagoonal sediments
of unit 2. The presence of heavy mineral-rich laminae at the top of unit 2
indicates that the transgression of dune sands produced the silting of the
lagoon. If so, the peat layer at the top of the unit marks the final filling of
the lagoon, sometime between 405 and 970 cal yrs BP, which closely cor-
responds to the initial formation of this unit.
Unit 4 is a beach foreshore and backshore deposit, formed by white,
well sorted and rounded, fine to very fine quartzose sands, with well de-
veloped low-angle cross bedding and up to 30% of heavy minerals. Unit 4
forms a thin veneer (less than 1 m) over both unit 2, and locally over unit 1
at the Conceição lighthouse. These long-term retreating backshore deposits
have been the source for the heavy mineral deposits of unit 3.
The evolutionary model for the Holocene barrier of Bujuru has two
principal stages (Dillenburg et al. 2004):
Stage 1. At 17.5 ka sea level was positioned at about –120 to –130 m
relative to its present level. After that, sea level rose at an average rate of
1.2 cm/yr until 6.5 ka, when its rate slowed. The culmination of the Post-
glacial Marine Transgression was achieved at 5.6 cal ka, with sea level ap-
proximately 2 m higher than today. At that time a transgressive barrier was
located seawards on a protruding sector of coast, similar to the present one
(Fig. 3.20a). At the same time, lagoonal deposits (unit 2) were accumulat-
ing at the rear of the barrier in an interbarrier depression larger than the
present one. The seaward position of the barrier at the end of the Postgla-
cial Marine Transgression is indicated by the outcropping of lagoonal de-
posits of unit 2 (with radiocarbon ages of estuarine/lagoonal shells ranging
from 3.2 to 3.4 cal ka) along the present backshore.
Stage 2. After 5.6 cal ka, despite a general small sea level fall of 2 m,
the barrier of Bujuru was subjected to long-term erosion caused by high
wave power (directly related to higher wave energy and higher angle of
wave attack) on this protruding (steeper) sector of coast. During this ero-
sional interval, the barrier receded approximately 2 km and large amounts
of sand were aeolian transported landwards by transgressive dune forma-
tion and migration, leading to the silting of the backbarrier lagoon and the
onlapping of the Pleistocene barrier (Fig. 3.20b, c).
According to Dillenburg et al. (2004) the formation of the Bujuru placer

occurred in three steps. The first step is related to stage 1, while steps two
and three are related to stage 2.
Step 1. At 17.5 ka, a complex of delta systems dominated the shelf edge
of Rio Grande do Sul (Urien et al. 1978; Dillenburg 1987; Corrêa 1990).
During the Postglacial Marine Transgression translating coastal barriers
recycled, under beach dynamics, a large amount of coastal plain sands, in-
cluding Pleistocene fluvial and deltaic sands. During barrier translation,
heavy minerals were incorporated into the beach and washover facies of
the transgressive barrier and remain there as the barrier sand body re-
cycles” (Roy 1999).
Step 2. In contrast to step 1, during this step, barrier translation was es-
sentially controlled by a deficit in the coastal sediment budget produced by
higher wave power on protruding sectors of coast. Since the end of the
Postglacial Marine Transgression (around 5.6 cal ka), the barrier has gen-
erally receded under a very slow and small sea level fall that eroded and
recycled a large volume of sediments from the Pleistocene substrate over
which the barrier translates. The Pleistocene substrate has acted as an extra
source of sediments to be fractioned into light and heavy minerals by wave
action. While the process of barrier recession recycled sediments from
both the littoral drift system and substrate, wave action promoted heavy
mineral concentration in foreshore and backshore deposits.
Step 3. As heavy mineral beach deposits were formed, onshore winds
carried beach sand into dunes that migrated into the lagoonal interbarrier
depression. These heavy mineral-enriched beach sands thus were mixed
with essentially quartzose beach sands by wind transport, producing a
large volume of transgressive dune deposits.
The age of the peat layer close to the beach (970 cal yrs BP) (see
Fig. 3.19), marking the base of the aeolian heavy mineral deposit (top of
unit 2), corresponds to the initial formation of the Bujuru heavy mineral
deposits. The landward decreasing age of the peat layer, indicates the pro-
gressive landward displacement of transgressive dunes at a rate of approx-
imately 2 m/yr during the last 1 ka (Dillenburg et al. 2004).
Fig. 3.20 Two main stages characterizing the evolutionary model of the Holocene
barrier at Bujuru (schematic – not to scale): (a) positioning of a transgressive bar-
rier at the end of the Postglacial Marine Transgression (5.6 cal ka); (b and c) bar-
rier recession and transgression of dunes between 5.6 cal ka and present. (After
Dillenburg et al. 2004)
3.3.9 The Regressive Barrier of Estreito–Verga
The Holocene barrier between Estreito and Verga shows the highest record
of progradation (~14 km) of the RS coast. The barrier here is essentially
what in North America is called a strandplain (Reinson 1992), commonly a
beach/foredune ridge plain that had not isolated a lagoon or any other wet-
land between itself and the mainland. Barrier progradation here has re-
sulted in a morphology very distinct than the prograded barrier of Curu-
mim. At Cassino, most of the shore parallel ridges are very low foredune
ridges, on average spaced from 24 to 45 m apart (Godolphim 1976) (Figs.
3.21 and 3.22). At Curumim, ridges were formed by phases of dune trans-
gressions (precipitation ridges), on average spaced from 80 to 600 m apart
(Fig. 3.5).
Based on both air photographs and field data, six sets of foredune ridges
were identified on the barrier surface. Each set of foredune ridges display
different ridge orientations. Their changes in orientation reflect realign-
ments of the coastline during the regression phase, which were previously
interpreted by Godolphin (1985) as a consequence of high frequency small
sea level rises that might have occurred during the overall sea level fall
from 6 to 5 ka to present. The truncations of the sets of foredune ridges
and realignments of the coastline are probably a response to climatic
changes affecting the wave climate (Clerot 2004), or to subtle variations in
shoreline orientation and nearshore bathymetry as progradation continued.
Almost all realignments of the coastline are marked by phases of dune
transgression, which suggests a possible link between coastal erosion and
dune transgression. In aerial photos and satellite images the transgressive
dunes are well marked, but on the ground they are mostly very discrete
(lower than 1 m) and not easily identified.
3.3.9.1 The Holocene Barrier at Cassino

Cassino is located very close to the south of the Patos lagoon entrance,
where the barrier shows its maximum progradation (14 km) (Fig. 3.21).
The barrier here was studied in detail by Clerot (2004).
The stratigraphy of the barrier at Cassino is characterized by a vertical
succession of basal transgressive sands, shelf sands and muds, and shore-
face, foreshore and aeolian sand deposits (Fig. 3.23).
The basal transgressive sands were not sampled by any drilling. They
were interpreted by the analysis of electric resistivity profiles that revealed
their presence at the base of the shelf sands and muds, as probably com-
posed of fine to very fine sand with some mud, and showing an average
thickness of 5 m (Clerot 2004).
Fig. 3.21 Aerial photo of the northern part of the Estreito–Verga coast, showing
the location of Cassino and of the drilling profile, and also a general aspect of the
foredune ridges (left) and transgressive dunes (right)
The shelf sands and muds show a dark grey color and are formed by va-
riable amounts of mud (60–90%) and very fine sand (up to 35%). Its aver-
age thickness revealed by electric resistivity data is 18 m. A well preserved
shell of Olivanicillaria sp. was found at the base of the facies at FS-20,
and dated in 5,245 cal yrs BP.
The shoreface sands are 8.0–9.0 m thick. A lower and intermediate sho-
reface is characterized by a greenish gray, very fine (50–90%) to fine
(5–40%) quartz sands, moderately sorted, with micaceous and glauconitic
minerals and fragments of shells. This facies shows an increase in grain
size to the top. The upper shoreface is composed of a greenish gray, fine
(50–65%) to very fine (±30%) quartz sands, well to moderately sorted.
The foreshore deposits show an average thickness of 2.5 m. They are
composed of gray to pale greenish gray, fine (>75%) and very fine
(±25%), well sorted quartz sand.
Fig. 3.22 Surface view of the low foredune ridges of Cassino. The terrain undula-
tion is reproduced by the top of the fence
Over the foreshore deposits a small aeolian facies occurs, varying from
0.5 to 2.5 m in thickness, composed of yellow to brownish yellow, fine and
well sorted quartz sand. This facies is related to foredune ridges and small
transgressive dunefields. Its granulometric characteristics are very similar
to the foreshore and upper shoreface facies.
Fig. 3.23 Stratigraphic cross section of the Holocene barrier at Cassino (see tran-
sect location on Fig. 3.21). (Modified from Clerot 2004)
These five deposits (facies) could be grouped in a transgressive and re-

gressive phase. The first phase corresponds to the final stages of the PMT,
when the barrier migrating landwards has left a “tail” of basal transgres-
sive sands. The thickness of these basal sands is proportional to the rate of
sediment input to the beach system during barrier transgression. The shelf
sands and muds have started to form seawards of the wave base level, still
in this phase. It is quite possible that barrier progradation (regressive
phase) started under a slow sea level rise, close to the end of the PMT, as it
has at Curumim, due to a rate of sand input to the beach system higher
than the rate of sea level rise. In fact, the barrier may have started with an
aggradation phase (equilibrium on rates of sediment input and sea level
rise), followed thereafter by progradation. Preliminary results indicate a
maximum sea-level of the PMT at Cassino positioned around +3.5 m
(Clerot 2004). By modeling barrier progradation at Cassino, due to a sea
level fall of 2 m in the last 5 ka, a maximum progradation of 737 m was
calculated (Dillenburg et al. 2000). This modeling suggests that barrier
progradation was mainly controlled by sediment budget, with the slow sea-
level fall playing a secondary role.
3.4 Summary
Rio Grande do Sul is a typical wave-dominated coast with a combination

of a moderate to high wave energy, and a very low microtidal regime.
These characteristics, together with a great abundance of sediment and a
gentle continental shelf slope has established perfect conditions for the ex-
istence of coastal barriers along this coast. As a consequence, the coastal
plain built during the Quaternary is a result of the juxtaposition of sedi-
mentary deposits of four barrier-lagoon systems. The three older systems
are Pleistocene in age, while the younger has started to form at approx-
imately ~7 ka, and is still active. This Holocene barrier did not exhibit a
uniform evolution during the Middle and Late Holocene. In coastal re-
entrants, regressive barriers occur, whereas on protruding sectors of the
coast, transgressive barriers occur. Both regressive and transgressive bar-
riers are dominated by, and capped with transgressive dunefields. These
contrasting types of barriers are the result of the long term existence of
gradients in wave power along the coast, which in turn have determined
differences in the sediment budget along the coast. From Torres to Tra-
mandaí and from Estreito to Verga the Holocene barrier has a regressive
nature, with the barrier showing a maximum progradation of 4.7 and
14 km, respectively, that started at the final stages of the Post Glacial
Marine Transgression (circa 7 ka). From Tramandaí to Mostardas the barrier
seems to alternate between stationary (aggradational) and transgressive

conditions, while from Mostardas to Estreito it is typically transgressive.
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Chapter 4
The Holocene Barrier Systems of the Santa
Catarina Coast, Southern Brazil
Patrick A. Hesp, Paulo C. F. Giannini, C. Thaís Martinho, Graziela Miot

da Silva and Nils E. Asp Neto
4.1 Introduction
This chapter deals with the Late Pleistocene and principally the Holocene
geology and geomorphology of the Santa Catarina coast extending from
Barra do Saí at the northern border with Paraná to Torres in the south (Fig.
4.1a, b and c). This ~430 km long section of coast has two major segments,
namely a complex, highly embayed coast with rocky headlands alternating
with bays extending from Barra do Saí to Farol de Santa Marta, and a rela-
tively straight coastal segment extending from Farol de Santa Marta to
Torres. The coastline displays significant variations in both wind and wave
energy, and has examples of all the major coastal landform/barrier types
including chenier plains, beach ridge plains, foredune plains, parabolic du-
nefields and transgressive dunefields as surficial landforms on aggrada-
tional, progradational and retrogradational barriers.
4.2 Geological Setting
The southeast Brazilian coast rests against crystalline massifs that form the
Serra do Mar coastal range, stretching from the State of Espírito Santo (~20°S)
to the north of Santa Catarina State (near Joinville-Itajai) (~26°S) (Almeida
1964). Dominguez (Chap. 2, this volume), classifies this coastal sector as the
high-grade rocky coast of southeastern Brazil. Its most prominent geomorpho-
logic characteristic is the scarped coastal range that, when intersecting the
coastline, creates coastal embayments where barriers, strandplains, pocket
beaches and less frequently estuarine systems, are observed.
94 P.A. Hesp et al.
4.2.1 Tectonics
This coast can be separated in two different tectonic compartments, and

their boundary is located around Laguna. To the south is the Pelotas Basin,
Fig. 4.1(a) Geographic and landform maps of the Santa Catarina coast. The
classification of coastal landform types is generalized such that the dominant
type is indicated and where two types are well represented, both are indicated
4 The Holocene Barrier Systems of the Santa Catarina Coast, Southern Brazil 95
Fig. 4.1(b) Geographic and landform maps of the Santa Catarina coast
96 P.A. Hesp et al.
Fig. 4.1(c) Geographic and landform maps of the Santa Catarina coast
a marginal basin filled by marine and coastal sediments (see Chap. 3, this
volume). A Quaternary coastal plain is the latest seaward portion of this
basin (Horn Filho 2003; Horn Filho et al. 2006). Northwards, until Itajaí,
adjacent to the coast, is the Florianópolis Shelf, an E–W elongated Tertiary
paleohigh that separates the Pelotas and Santos marginal basins (Giannini
1993). Along the Florianópolis Shelf is a transference fault zone that has
continuity inland, corresponding to the Florianópolis-Rio Uruguai Align-
ment (Macedo 1987). There is no clear evidence of neo-Cenozoic tectonic
activity influencing Quaternary coastal sedimentation (Giannini 1993), but
little research has been carried out in this regard.
4.2.2 Basement Rocks
The pre-Cenozoic basement rocks outcropping in the middle-center of the

Santa Catarina coast includes rocks from the Dom Feliciano Belt and the
Paraná Basin (RADAMBRASIL-IBGE 1986). The Dom Feliciano Belt is
a mobile belt of the Braziliano tectonic event that has, in this area, two
main units: Pelotas Batholith in the south and the Tijucas Fold Belt in the
north. The Pelotas Batholith is a Cambrian multi-intrusive belt, with hun-
dreds of subalkaline plutons and associated acid volcanic rocks. The Tiju-
cas Fold Belt is a low pressure metamorphic zone, and includes napes, and
rocks of the pre-Brasiliano basement, with associated granitic plutonism
(Fragoso César 1991).
The Paraná Basin is represented by lithostratigraphic units that date
from the Permo-Carboniferous to Juro-Cretaceous (Itararé, Rio Bonito,
Palermo, Irati, Serra Alta, Teresina, Rio do Rastro, Pirambóia, Botucatu
and Serra Geral). The intermediate to basic intrusions from the Serra Geral
Formation are pronounced between Laguna and Florianópolis, as dike
swarms that have important potential as source rocks.
4.3 Climate
The coastal zone of Santa Catarina State is situated within the South Sub-
tropical Zone (Strahler 1977) and its geographic position favors the influ-
ence of oceanic air masses. Thus, the climate is controlled by two air
masses: the South Atlantic Tropical Anticyclone (SATA) and Polar Migra-
tory Anticyclone (PMA) (Orselli 1986). The SATA is a high pressure cen-
ter that produces a wet and warm air mass, with a semi-permanent position
between latitudes 18°S and 35°S. The PMA is a migratory high pressure
center, fed by cold air masses from the Antarctic, and migrates in a NE
direction (Tomazelli 1990; Giannini 1993). The displacement of the PMA
98 P.A. Hesp et al.
pushes these two high pressure centers closer, producing a low pressure
zone and cold fronts between them. Such fronts are associated with cyc-
lonic winds from the south, instability in the weather, and precipitation
(Nimer 1989; Monteiro and Furtado 1995).
The two anticyclones alternate seasonally. The SATA predominates
during the warmer months, spring-summer, and typically acts on the coast
producing, in general, winds from the E and NE direction. In autumn-
winter, the PMA is more active, and, as a consequence, the S and SW cyc-
lonic winds produced by the cold fronts predominate during this part of the
year.
While the statements above generally hold true for the larger region, the
coastal winds are quite different depending on location. Figure 4.2 illu-
strates sand roses (“Fryberger and Dean” drift potentials) for three sites
along the southern Brazilian coast where wind data is available. Arvoredo
Island lies approximately 10 km to the NE of Santa Catarina Island and
this data was applied to the Santa Catarina island dunefields, while Farol
de Santa Marta and Torres lie ~90 and ~205 km respectively to the south.
The analyses were carried out using methods described by Fryberger and
Dean (1979) and Belly (1964), as modified or cautioned by Bullard (1997)
and Pearce and Walker (2005).
The drift potential analysis (Fig. 4.2) indicates that there is a significant
difference in the regional wind field between Arvoredo and Torres since
the resultant drift potentials (the arrows on the figures) clearly show a pre-
vailing and dominant southerly flow at Arvoredo, and a NE prevailing
flow at Farol de Santa Marta, and WNW flow at Torres (Hesp et al.
2007a). The transgressive dunefields on Santa Catarina Island have mi-
grated towards the north over the Holocene and into the present. The do-
minant southerly coastal wind field extends 125 km northwards to at least
north, or seawards of São Francisco do Sul where there are SSE–NNW
oriented vegetated and active parabolic dunes which have migrated to-
wards the north (see Figs. 4.1 and 5.5, this volume). The parabolic dunes at
Pinheira immediately to the south of SC Island and the dunefields further
south migrate towards the south, southwest or west. Thus, Hesp et al.
(2007a) argue that the southern boundary in this coastal wind field must be
close to the southern margin of SC Island. The change in the wind field is
not related to local topographic steering or ‘reversal’ of the wind on the
Island, nor is the dunefield net migration direction related to variations in
grain size as stated by Bigarella et al. (2005).
Fig. 4.2 Potential aeolian sand transport or drift for Arvoredo Island just to the
north of Santa Catarina island, and Farol de Santa Marta and Torres, two sites ~
90 and 205 km respectively to the south. The drift potentials (DP) are in vector
units, the original data is in m s-1, and the threshold velocities (V*t(10) ) used were
6.33 m sec-1 for Arvoredo, 4.8 m sec-1 for Farol de Santa Marta and 5 m s-1 for
Torres (the latter from Tomazelli 1993). Southerly winds are very significant at
Arvoredo (10 km north of Santa Catarina Island) and decrease to the south where
northerly winds become more significant (modified from Hesp et al. 2007a)
The topographic features of the area adjacent to the coast, also act as
major controls on the climate in the region (Tomazelli 1990, 1993; Gian-
nini 1993). The mountains and scarps of Serra Geral (southern Laguna),
with 1,100 m maximum highs, and the Itajaí and Taboleiro ridges (be-
tween Laguna and Joinville), with heights ranging up to 1,200 m, create a
barrier to the wet air masses that come from the ocean. These air masses,
impeded in their movement, condense causing orographic precipitation
100 P.A. Hesp et al.
(Giannini 1993), and tend to make Santa Catarina Island and the adjacent
area more sub-tropical than areas further to the south.
According to the Köppen classification, the climate in this region is type
Cfa (Monteiro 1958), mesothermic wet subtropical climate, without a dry
season, with a warm summer, little or no water deficit, and low summer
concentration in potential evapotranspiration (Giannini 1993).
The mean temperatures in the region range from 14°C in winter to 23ºC
in summer (19ºC annual mean). The relative humidity is around 85%, the
precipitation rates are 1250 mm (Imbituba) and 1400 mm (Laguna), and
the rainy days are preferentially associated with the SW winds (Giannini,
1993). In the southernmost littoral, the precipitation is the lowest in SC
State (1219 mm), due to the fact that the scarps of the Serra Geral are more
distant from the coast.
4.4 Waves, Tides and Littoral Drift
Analysis of two years (2002–2003) of wave records from a wave rider lo-
cated in 80 m water depth 35 km offshore of Santa Catarina Island shows
that the most frequent swell wave direction is 170° (south) with a period of
12 s, and average wave heights of 1.0 to 1.5 m. Locally generated waves
are the second most frequent and arrive from 070° (ENE), with a 7 s period
and a height of 1.0 m (Fig. 4.3; Miot da Silva 2006). Similar results were
reported by Melo et al. (2003) for one year data (2002).
Tides vary a little depending on location. According to the tide table
from Imbituba Port, the mean astronomic tide range is 0.6 m, and micro-
tidal with diurnal irregularities (Giannini 1993). In the more sheltered area
at Tijucas, the mean tidal range is 0.8 m, with a maximum of 1.2 m and a
semi-diurnal regime (Schettini et al. 1996).
In general, the longshore littoral drift is from S-SE to the ENE-NE, as
indicated by geomorphologic features, sediment grain size and mineralogi-
cal variations (Giannini 1993, 2002; Miot da Silva 2002; Martinho 2004).
Local reversals do take place particularly during strong NE conditions
(Miot da Silva 2006).
Fig. 4.3 Wave heights and periods for two years of data from a wave rider located
in 80 m water depth, 35 km offshore of Santa Catarina Island. The lower diagram illu-
strates frequencies of combined data for direction (degrees) and period (s), showing
two peaks: one of waves from 170° with a period of 12 seconds and another peak of
waves from 73° with a period of 7 seconds (modified from Miot da Silva, 2006)
4.5 Sea Level
A recent review of Holocene sea levels in the region indicates that sea lev-
el crossed the present level around 7,000 cal yrs BP and reached the high-
est level around 5,700 cal yrs BP (mid-Holocene highstand; Angulo et al.
2006; see Chaps. 3 and 5, this volume). The maximum height achieved
was about 2.5 m above present and the sea level then fell gradually to the
present level. This sea level trend is similar to that reported for other
southern hemisphere sites (Angulo et al. 2006).
4.6 Barrier Types of the Guaratuba (PR)

to Torres (SC) Region
A variety of barrier types and their associated surficial landforms occur

along the Santa Catarina and northern Rio Grande do Sul coast. Figure 4.1
indicates the dominant coastal landform types along the coast.
There are essentially four geomorphic provinces that may be identified:
(I) A northern province characterized by relatively long
embayments, principally single foredunes, relict fore-
dune plains, and estuaries separated by relatively small
headlands;
(II) A central province characterized by rocky coast, small
embayments, chenier and beach ridge plains.
(III) A central-southern province characterized by large
headlands, a predominance of log spiral embayments,
but also a few long, relatively straight to arcuate beach-
es, rocky coast and pocket beaches, and barriers domi-
nated by transgressive dunefields;
(IV) A southern province characterized by long straight
beaches, and barriers dominated by large scale, active
and relict transgressive dunefields.
4.6.1 Province I
Province I extends from Itajaí to the northern border of the State and into
Paraná State. In this northern province, beaches tend to be moderate ener-
gy intermediate and dissipative types, and the barriers are retrogradational
or aggradational (or stationary) barriers (in the terminology of e.g. Morton
(1994); Thom et al. (1992) and Roy et al. (1994), welded barriers (Davis
and Fitzgerald 2005 terminology), or prograding barriers (or strandplains –

terminology of Boyd et al. 1992) predominantly comprising relict foredune
plains (see Chap. 5, this volume). Some selected examples follow.
The barrier at Itapocu (Figs. 4.1 and 4.4) is narrow and elongate and
principally comprises a foredune-blowout complex (and is either an aggra-
dational or retrogradational barrier) fronting the Itapocu River channels
which run both north and south and exit from an extensive floodplain (in-
filled lagoon).
The Navegantes prograded barrier has a moderate energy, dissipative
beach, and is an example where initial barrier formation was probably
forced by the Postglacial Marine Transgression and sediments were pro-
vided from the shelf. The Itajaí–Açu River probably provided local sedi-
ments over the mid to late Holocene once estuarine infilling was accom-
plished (cf. Lessa and Angulo 1995; Lessa et al. 2000). The barrier was
formed by the successive addition of foredune ridges and continues to pro-
grade at the present time (Fig. 4.5). According to Buynevich et al. (2006),
the plain has prograded at a rate of 1 m/yr in the last 1,300–1,500 yrs. To
the south, the barrier at Balneário-Camboriú is also a prograded relict fo-
redune plain now largely covered by urban development (Caruso 1995).
This province is typical of both the northern portion of Santa Catarina
State and much of Paraná State and these systems are principally discussed
in the following Chap. 5.
4.6.2 Province II
Province II extends from Itajaí, along the mainland coast behind Santa
Catarina Island to the northern edge of Pinheira (Fig. 4.1). There are many
small embayments and pocket beaches lying between rocky coast and
headlands along this coastline (e.g. along the Vila Armação, Camboriú,
Porto Belo and Governador Celso Ramos headland regions). These beach-
es variously face NW, north, east and south, with the south facing beaches
being typically higher energy, reflective beaches where the grain size is
medium to coarse. These latter beaches display barriers that comprise a
single foredune (e.g.’s Taquaras, Fig. 4.6; Taquarinhas) indicating little
sediment supply over the Holocene, and therefore minimal barrier build-
ing, and supporting the wave-beach dune model of Short and Hesp (1982)
and Hesp (1988b). They have no backing lagoon (nor an infilled one) and
are attached barriers in the terminology of Hesp and Short (1999), and
probably aggradational barriers of Morton (1994) and stationary barriers of
Thom et al. (1992) and Roy et al. (1994).
Fig. 4.4 View of the Itapocu barrier in northern Santa Catarina. The barrier com-
prises a foredune, and may be an aggradational or retrogradational barrier. (Photo-
graph from Jarbas Bonetti Filho)
The larger bays tend to face NE and east and are either deeply embayed
between headlands (e.g. Ilhota, Tijucas), or lie in behind Florianópolis
Island and are protected environments (e.g. Costeira to Armacão, São
Miguel, Biguaçu and Enseada do Brito). Their Holocene evolution varies
according to wave energy, shoreline orientation to winds and waves, se-
diment supply and type. For example, Tijucas has a significant local river
sediment supply (mud and sand) and is lower energy than Ilhota but has a
prograded barrier (see below). In contrast, Ilhota has a relatively higher
energy sandy beach, but bedrock and colluvial sediments extend to the
beach, sediment bypassing probably occurs across the embayment, and on-
ly very minor foredune development has taken place in the Holocene. The
latter would be classified as a mainland beach barrier by Roy et al. (1994).
The mainland coastline lying behind Santa Catarina Island has not been
mapped on Fig. 4.1. It is sheltered from open ocean waves but can receive
Fig. 4.5 The beach, foredune and relict foredune of the seawards portion of Nave-
gantes – a prograded barrier
significant wind waves at times. Small sandy beaches lie between rocky
coastlines, and in a few cases small sandy barriers have developed. A few
areas display small deltas, mangrove swamps and chenier plains (e.g. Cu-
batão delta; Aririú delta).
4.6.2.1 Tijucas
The Tijucas Holocene coastal barrier is situated within a deeply embayed,
more protected portion of the coast immediately north of Santa Catarina
Island and south of Porto Belo (Fig. 4.1). The barrier was formerly consi-
dered to be a chenier plain (Caruso and Araújo 1997), but recent work in-
dicates that it comprises a complex beach ridge and chenier sequence ex-
tending approximately 6.7–7 km from the landward margin to the coast.
Complex barriers are barriers comprising two types of landforms (cf. McKee
1979).
Fig. 4.6 Taquaras Beach – a moderate to high energy reflective beach with a sin-
gle stable foredune and incipient foredune forming the entire Holocene, probably
aggradational barrier
Geological Setting: Beside the granites of the Florianópolis batholith,

friable Pre-Cambrian meta-sedimentary rocks of the Brusque fold belt are
also extensive, covering around 25% of the basin as well. These rocks ap-
pear to be very efficient in producing fine-grained sediments (Asp et al.
2005a). Coarse-grained sediment production is also high, originating from
the meta-sedimentary rocks, and the volcanic and meta-volcanic rocks that
border the river basin, and from associated alluvial fans (Asp et al. 2005a).
Hydrodynamic and Geomorphological Setting: The present beach com-
prises a steep, relatively medium to coarse grained, sandy beach face
which extends landwards into a modern low chenier (or storm ridge).
Muddy sediments drape the lower intertidal beach face at times and pre-
dominate in the nearshore. During normal calm conditions, mud sedimen-
tation on the lower beach and shoreface predominate, while during storm
conditions, the fine sediments are placed in suspension and storm waves
operate on a highly reflective beach and build chenier ridges at the upper
limit of storm wave swash. The barrier consists of three suites of higher
beach ridges separated by low cheniers, and a fourth (the seaward 2 km)
suite of combined beach ridges and cheniers. The latter suite comprises
wide mudflats separated by ridges composed of medium to very coarse
sand (Asp et al. 2005a, b; Buynevich et al. 2005a, b; Fig. 4.7).
Fig. 4.7 Cross-section of the Tijucas prograded barrier (modified from Asp et al.
2005b)
Holocene Evolution: According to the preliminary results of Asp et al.

(2005a) the Holocene evolution of the Tijucas plain is characterized by an
initial phase of barrier transgression, forced by the Postglacial Marine
Transgression. This barrier stabilized about the time of the mid-Holocene
highstand. The stabilized barrier isolated a large paleo-estuary of the Tiju-
cas River. The following period was characterized by estuarine infilling
and strandplain progradation. However it is still unclear whether these two
processes occurred simultaneously or if the strandplain progradation was
only effective after a substantial estuarine infilling.
2
The drainage basin is relative small, comprising about 2,400 km with
3
an average discharge of 40 m /s. However, the river usually has suspended
sediment concentrations substantially greater than those of similar sized
drainage systems in the Santa Catarina region. Average concentrations
have been measured to be 70 mg/L (Schettini et al. 1996). Furthermore, the
progradational Holocene ridge sequences in the area also indicate abundant
medium to coarse sand supply.
The existence of alternating phases of beach ridge building and then
chenier formation is relatively unique in the region. Precise explanations
for the alternating sequences are still missing, but they possibly involve
climatic cycles, which might have caused either the rain-
fall/weathering/sediment transport in the basin, and wave/storm regime in
the bight to vary, resulting in the observed complexity of depositional pat-
terns of the Tijucas coastal plain. Second order sea-level variations as re-
ferred to by Dominguez et al. (1987) might also explain the alternation in
the ridge types over the about five thousand years sedimentary history of
the Tijucas plain, but the regular maximum elevation of each sequence
along the plain does not support this explanation.
Beside the alternation of beach-ridge and chenier sequences, Buynevich
et al. (2005a, b) observed a distinct increase in mud deposition in the
younger portions of the coastal plain, and chenier ridges tend to dominate
the later Holocene barrier development. There has been recent extensive
mining activities in the river basin and this lead Buynevich et al. (2005a)
to conclude that mining activities might have caused an increase in mud
sedimentation. However, this effect would be important only in the last
100 yrs. Preliminary stratigraphic and chronological data provides ages
around 1,000 yrs for the early stages of development of this younger,
muddy progradational sequence. It is possible that increased sedimentation
in the nearshore zone and the fall in sea level led to a reduction in accom-
modation space, which might have contributed to the increase in mud se-
dimentation. However, in the early phase of barrier formation, the fine-
grained sediments would have been captured within the paleo-estuary of
the Tijucas river. After its infilling somewhere in the late Holocene, more
mud was delivered to the nearshore and shoreface and this process is be-
lieved to be the most important in the change of sand- to mud-dominated
sedimentation mode (Asp et al. 2005a).
4.6.3 Province III
Province III extends from the northern tip of Santa Catarina Island to Farol
de Santa Marta. Along this section of coast there are:
(i) two complex barriers which display relict foredune plains mixed with
parabolic or transgressive dunefields (Pinheira and Praia do Ji),
(ii) a significant number of barriers that do not enclose lagoons, or only

have very relatively small lagoons/wetlands behind them and that are par-
tially/largely attached to a pre-existing Pleistocene barrier, alluvial sedi-
ments or abut bedrock, (examples include Teresa, Gravatá, Sol, Itapirubá,
Vila Nova, Imbituba, Ibiraquera, Moçambique, Joaquina, and Ingleses)
(iii) a few barriers that enclose lagoons (examples include Cigana,

Cardoso, Grande do Norte, Santa Marta Pequeno, Mar Grosso, and Guarda
do Embau). In the case of both (ii) above and (iii), large transgressive
dunefields comprise the surficial barrier deposits.
4.6.3.1 The Praia do Ji and Pinheira Complex Barriers

There are two complex barriers in this province, one at Praia do Ji and one
at Pinheira.
Praia do Ji
Adjacent to Praia do Ji, there is a Holocene foredune ridge plain located
landwards of the active and vegetated transgressive dunefield (Caruso Jr.
1995). The foredune plain is approximately 1 km wide, and extends from
the southern inner portion of Praia do Sol southwards to the middle portion
of Praia do Ji. The presence of foredune ridges in this landward part of the
barrier indicates that it has experienced progradation during the Holocene,
at least in the central to northern part. The orientation of the ridges shows
that Ponta do Ji was an island, and the initial barrier had its probable limits
at Ponta de Itapirubá and Ponta do Mar Grosso. These first foredune ridges
are anchored on the Pleistocene barrier (Giannini 1993) so this is an at-
tached barrier (or strandplain).
The outer half of the Praia do Ji barrier comprises a transgressive dune-
field (sensu Hesp and Thom 1990) which is still being supplied with a little
sediment leaking from the foredune, but which has largely decoupled from
the beach. The barrier demonstrates the typical relationships between
shoreline orientation, sediment supply and prevailing winds which occur in
this region (Giannini and Santos 1994; Martinho 2001, 2004; Miot da Sil-
va 2006). The beach in the northern end of the embayment is wide (~90
m), is situated to receive maximum longshore drift sediment supply, and
usually covered with barchans and transverse dunes which migrate directly
alongshore extending into the intertidal region and into the foredune. A
highly erosional, discontinuous, type 4 foredune (sensu Hesp 1988a) lies
landwards of the beach. As shoreline orientation trends towards the south
by mid-embayment, the extent of the mobile dunes on the beach lessens as
winds blow obliquely onshore at low angles to the shore, beach width de-
creases to ~50 m and the foredune becomes more stable and lower. In the
southernmost third of the bay (still north of Ponta do Ji), NE winds blow
obliquely onshore at higher angles (almost normal), beach width and fetch
is minimal (~30 m), transverse dune formation on the beach is limited to
impossible, the foredune is lower, continuous and more stable. The
transgressive dunefield reflects the operation of these same processes
over time – it is narrowest and has migrated largely alongshore in the
northern portion, and widens to the south and migrates obliquely away
from the coastline.
Pinheira
Pinheira lies immediately to the southwest of the southern tip of Santa
Catarina Island and generally faces east (Figs. 4.8 and 4.9). It is a symme-
trical, arcuate embayment which extends through 180º of curvature. The
Holocene sediments form a wide (~6.5 km) complex, prograded barrier or
strandplain. Note that the Boyd et al. (1992) definition of strandplains

includes sand bodies which contain beaches and dunes, and thus, we con-
sider that strandplains can, and do contain, or may be partially or com-
pletely composed of parabolic or transgressive dunefields. They consi-
dered that strandplains were “not associated with embayments” (p. 142),
but we see no reason to exclude embayments from the definition.
Geological Setting: The barrier may be sub-divided into two halves. The
northern half, with less exposure to southerly winds, has been much more
stable throughout the formation of the barrier and comprises multiple, re-
lict foredune ridges. The southern half comprises suites of relict foredune
ridges interspersed in the southern half with discrete sets of parabolic
dunes or less commonly, foredune/blowout complexes. The active and ve-
getated parabolic dunes migrate, or have migrated respectively to the south
and SSW; that is, ~140º–160º opposite to the direction of the Santa Catari-
na Island dunefields lying immediately to the north (Fig. 4.9; Hesp et al.
2007a).
Holocene Evolution: The first phase of Holocene barrier or strandplain
development comprises a narrow set of foredune ridges abutting bedrock
and possibly Pleistocene sediments and alluvial deposits (Fig. 4.9). A very
small lagoon (now swamp) was formed on the northern margin of the bar-
rier. Over the subsequent decades to millennia, parabolic dune Phases I, II
and III developed, and alternated with phases of foredune ridge formation
(Fig. 4.8). Parabolic dune Phase III was extensive and extended along the
entire southern half of the bay migrating onto alluvial and probably la-
goonal/estuarine sediments associated with the estuary forming behind
Guarda do Embaú. During this period the Rio (i.e. river) da Madre (now
exiting into the Guarda do Embaú embayment) possibly held a course run-
ning south to north across the Pinheira barrier.
A period of foredune development occurred for some time after the
Phase III parabolic dune formation ceased. A shell sample from this fo-
14
redune building period provided a C date of 3,200–2,730 cal yrs BP
(Amin 2004) (Fig. 4.8). Sometime before or after this time, the palaeo-Rio
da Madre eroded part of the landward margin of the barrier forming or ex-
tending a presumed lagoon or estuary (now swamp). Foredune plain for-
mation continued until the present time in the northern half of the embay-
ment, while the southern half continued to experience alternating phases of
foredune development and parabolic dune development. The latest phase
(VIII) was active in 1957 (the date of the photographs used for mapping)
but is presently largely stabilized. The modern foredune is low and stable
in the south, and higher, more complex and cut by north trending blowouts
in the northern (i.e. south facing) portion where NE winds are onshore.
14
The C date indicates that the seaward two thirds of barrier formation
took place at a rate of ~1 km/1,000 yrs.
Fig. 4.8 Preliminary geomorphological map of the Pinheira prograded complex

barrier. Suites of foredunes alternate with blowout and parabolic dune phases. The
black dot indicates the 14C date site
Fig. 4.9 Aerial photograph of the Pinheira prograded barrier
At some point the river/lagoon/estuary which existed across the barrier

near Phase III was abandoned and the Rio da Madre took its present course
across the plain to the south of Pinheira with an entrance somewhere near
the southern end of Ponta da Pinheira. This abandonment may have been
related to neo-tectonic events in the region. While there is no data availa-
ble on near-coastal faulting or neo-tectonism, there is a marked east-west
valley trend extending from the adjacent Santa Catarina Island onto the
mainland and up the hills to the west of Pinheira, possibly indicating the
presence of a major fault scarp. This fault trend exactly lines up with the
northern edge of the Pinheira strandplain along the Baía Sul shoreline. In
addition, the alignment of the foredune ridges near the northeastern end of
the barrier indicate that the barrier, until quite recently, used to extend
eastwards out into the adjacent bay and was perhaps even linked to Santa
Catarina Island. One theory is that a major tectonic event occurred along
this supposed fault line. This forced the Rio da Madre to change course
and abandon the Pinheira embayment, opened up the southern entrance to
Baía Sul, straightened the northern shoreline of the barrier where it met
Baía Sul, and significantly altered the trend of shoreline and foredune
ridge development on the northeastern edge of the barrier. The latter re-
mains entire speculation for the present.
The occurrence of discrete parabolic dune phases across the barrier sys-
tem indicates that at certain times this barrier has switched from a relative-
ly stable foredune building phase to an unstable, erosional, parabolic dune
building phase. A similar situation has occurred at Cassino/Rio Grande,
~600 km to the south (see Chap. 3, this volume) where transgressive dune
phases alternate with foredune suites. The alternation of beach ridges and
cheniers, and of regular changes in height within each suite of beach ridges
at Tijucas (see Fig. 4.7) may also be driven by the same processes driving
landform changes at Pinheira and Cassino. The causes are not clear at
present but may include climatic change (e.g. ENSO; increased storminess;
increased rainfall), sediment supply variations (which may be linked to
climate change), cyclic variations in aeolian processes, and sea level varia-
tions. Initial geomorphic mapping of the Pinheira and Cassino complex
barriers indicates that they display a similar number of discrete parabolic
or transgressive dunefield phases (typically eight to nine separate phases).
The fact that a similar number of phases are present indicates there may be
large scale teleconnections operating along a significant portion of the
Brazilian coast (a range from ~27º to 32º south latitude).
4.6.3.2 The Ingleses to Praia do Ji Barriers

Along this section of coast, the inner shelf is relatively narrow, with a
width of 30–45 km between the 2 and 50 m isobaths (Abreu 1998). In this
region, where the basement rocks are closer to, or at the coast, the shelf
tends to be steeper (1:40) (Muehe 1998). The inner shelf deposits in this
area are composed of medium to very fine quartz sands.
Longshore littoral drift is to the NE, deduced from geomorphologic fea-

tures and sedimentologic data (Giannini 1993; Martinho et al. 2005). The
beaches are moderate energy, intermediate and dissipative, with a mean
wave height around 1.0 m. The sediments are well sorted fine sands, with
the backshore finer than the foreshore sediments (Giannini 1993; Martinho
et al. 2005). The Serra do Tabuleiro range is close to the coast, and the
predominantly log spiral embayments are separated by headlands.
Coastal Orientation and Barrier/Dunefield Morphology: Shoreline
orientation varies considerably along this province and strongly influences
barrier morphology and evolution (Short and Hesp 1982). While the
beaches are zeta-formed or embayed to various degrees, the Ji, Sol, Ita-
pirubá, and Vila Nova, beaches are all generally oriented 30º–210º
(~NNE), while Imbituba, Ibiraquera, Rosa, Ouvidor, Ferrugem, and Silvei-
ra beaches are oriented 15º–195º (~N), Garopaba is oriented 330° in the
south and becomes Siriú in the north and lies at 5° north (a range from
NNW to N), while the Joaquina, Moçambique and Ingleses coasts are
aligned NE (Fig. 4.1). These general coastline orientations dictate the be-
havior of the dunefields to a degree. Where the coastline lies on an ENE
axis (Guarda do Embaú; Grande do Sul; see below), and thus, roughly pa-
rallel to the prevailing wind direction, the dunefields migrate alongshore.
As the coastline trend shifts towards the north, the dunefields migrate
alongshore (in the northern sector) and obliquely onshore in the central to
southern sectors of the beaches. The degree of longshore dune migration in
the northern sectors decreases, and the degree of onshore migration in-
creases as the beaches become more oblique to the dominant NNE to NE
winds. Thus the Ji, Sol, Itapirubá, and Vila Nova NNE trending beaches
tend to display dunefields that are lower angle oblique to the coastline
compared to the Imbituba, Ibiraquera, Rosa, Ouvidor, Ferrugem, and
Silveira northerly trending beaches.
Transgressive Dunefields: The transgressive dunefields from Laguna to
Ibiraquera typically have a deflation plain separating the dunefield from
the beach and foredune (Giannini et al. 2005). These dunefields generally
have a large-scale U-shaped geometry and oblique position (about 25º) to
the coastline, and migrate over vegetated terrain, including earlier Holo-
cene aeolian deposits or Pleistocene barrier (Fig. 4.10). They typically be-
gin with foredunes adjacent to the beach, locally interrupted by blowouts.
Landwards, there is a vegetated and/or wet deflation plain, with gegen-
walle ridges, trailing ridges, nebkha, and isolated blowouts or parabolic
dunes on it. In the inner part of the dunefield, active dunes dominate in-
cluding barchanoid chains, transverse dunes, and interdune depressions.
The depositional lobes, along the advancing front, have a high
length/width ratio (3/1). Precipitation ridges are formed both on the inland
and seaward margins.
A Pleistocene barrier (or barriers) is/are present from Laguna to Ibira-
quera landwards of the Holocene barriers. It was probably formed during
the Last Interglacial Stage 5e transgressive maximum of ~120 ka BP, in
this area ± 8 m above present sea level (Giannini 1993).
A continuous lagoon occurs behind these barriers. The lagoon is actual-
ly a complex of interconnected lagoons with three names from north to
south respectively (Lagoa do Mirim, Lagoa do Imarui, Lagoa de Santo
Antônio). It is completely different from the lagoons which occur in the
south. The lagoons were formed by drowning of pre-existing topographi-
cally lower areas, during the Postglacial Marine Transgression, as Pleisto-
cene paleo-lagoons formed during the previous transgression, and/or in-
cised valleys formed during low sea level, were drowned. It has a large
fetch and barriers have been formed around the margins of the lagoon in-
cluding extensive beach ridge plains. These have been dated at Perrixil,
on Mirim Lagoon. Shells from an old lagoonal terrace, adjacent to the
most landward lagoonal beach ridge were dated by Martin et al. (1988),
and gave age of 4,240 ± 200 yrs BP, corresponding to a high RSL of + 2 m
(Giannini 1993).
These barrier types [(ii) above] could be termed strandplains by, for ex-
ample, Fischer and McGowen (1967); Boyd et al. (1992) and Giannini
(1993, 2002), prograded and/or aggradational barriers by Morton (1994),
episodic transgressive dunefield barriers by Thom et al. (1985) and Roy
et al. (1994), prograded or attached barriers in some cases by Hesp and
Short (1999), and welded barriers by Davis and Fitzgerald (2005). In some
cases these dunefields have migrated downwind over and across bedrock
headlands and are also headland bypass dunefields in the terminology of
Tinley (1985).
There are few dates or drill hole data available for the transgressive du-
nefield barriers along the Province III coast, so it is difficult to state with
any accuracy that the barriers are prograded barriers. Much of the research
carried out on barriers dominated by transgressive dunefields (e.g. Broth-
ers 1954; Thom et al. 1985; Bressolier et al. 1990; Roy et al. 1994) indi-
cates or states that the barriers were formed by coastal erosion. Research
on the barrier at Curumin to the south (Hesp et al. 2005, 2007b; Dillenburg
et al. 2006), and the presence of a foredune plain forming the inner part of
the Ji barrier demonstrates that these barriers can prograde even while the
Fig. 4.10 Geological map of the Imbituba to Jaguaruna region (modified from
Giannini 1993)
active seawardmost transgressive dunefields themselves migrate down-

wind. The morphology of some beaches (e.g. Guarda do Embaú, Sol, Itapi-
rubá, Ibiraqüera, perhaps Siriú and Ji) indicates that sediment is still being
supplied by littoral drift to the northern ends of the embayments, since
transverse dunes arise from the beach at the very northern ends, and defla-
tion plains are not present. Thus, it is likely that many of the barriers are
prograded barriers, and that a few may still be prograding somewhat today.
Joaquina and Moçambique

Santa Catarina Island has an intricate, complex coastline comprising a se-
ries of sandy embayments separated by high headlands on the wave domi-
nated east coast, and an irregular, rocky coast with small pocket beaches
on the west bay coast (Abreu de Castilhos and Gré 1997). There are four
main dunefields, a relatively small one at Pântano do Sul, and three larger
transgressive dunefields at Praia da Joaquina (called Lagoa dunefield;
Bigarella 1975), Praia do Moçambique and Praia do Santinho (called In-
gleses dunefield) (Fig. 4.1). All the large dunefields are active and display
net migration trends from south to north (Hesp et al. 2007a).
Joaquina Beach lies in the middle of Santa Catarina Island and is an 8
km long embayment extending from Campeche in the south to Ponta do
Retiro in the north. On average it lies on a SSW-NNE axis with the north-
ern half facing into the S-SSE (Fig. 4.1). The Holocene barrier deposits
(Lagoa dunefield) range from a narrow foredune in the south, foredune and
vegetated blowouts and parabolic dunes in the southern central region, to a
foredune and an active transgressive dunefield in the north. The transgres-
sive dunefield comprises an extensive, largely vegetated deflation plain
covered by a chaotic mix of nebkha, blowouts and parabolic dunes (Biga-
rella 1975; Bigarella et al. 2005), an active dunefield of reversing trans-
verse dunes and two marginal precipitation ridges flanking each side of the
dunefield (Hesp 2004).
Moçambique Beach lies north of Joaquina (Fig. 4.11) and is a 12 km
long, log-spiral embayment extending though 60 degrees of orientation
from south to north (Miot da Silva 2006). It exhibits a similar morphology
to that of Joaquina (Lagoa) dunefield. The first available aerial photo-
graphs from 1938 show that the Holocene barrier is partly attached to the
Pleistocene barrier (from the southernmost point to about 1.5 km north),
partly separated from the Pleistocene barrier by a narrow disconnected la-
goon system (from 1.5 to 9 km), and partly overlies bedrock, and Pleisto-
cene sediments (Caruso 1993) (9–12 km). It is difficult to classify this bar-
rier type as either a welded or attached type (as is Joaquina) since it
encloses a lagoon and also overlies and anchors on Pleistocene and older
sediments. In addition, around 3 km north of the southern end of the bay,
presumed Holocene peat outcrops at ~+1 m above present sea level indi-
cating that the barrier at this point at least has receded in the late Holocene.
Since there are presently no dates available for either Joaquina or Moçam-
bique, it is also difficult to tell if the barriers have retrograded, aggraded or
been partly progradational. It may, in fact, be all three in different parts of
the barriers (from south to north respectively).
The 1938 photographs show that the southern, protected end comprised
a small foredune/blowout complex (Fig. 4.11). Further north (~1.7 km) this
was replaced with a narrow (~200 m wide) transgressive dunefield with
barchans, transverse dunes and a few parabolic dunes migrating along- and
onshore. This dunefield gradually expands northwards to be 500---650 m
wide by the middle of the embayment, and the dunes are now oriented ob-
liquely onshore. Around 9 km north, the bay faces south, is more exposed
to the prevailing onshore southerly winds, and the dunefield expands
rapidly and extends downwind a distance of ~3.4 km (Fig. 4.11). This

northern transgressive dunefield comprised sand sheets, transverse and
barchanoidal dunes, and rare parabolic dunes extending from the beach. A
deflation plain (with gegenwalle and trailing ridges) separated the sea-
wardmost dunes from a landward set. Two active precipitation ridges
flanked the dunefield and were aligned adjacent to older, vegetated preci-
pitation ridges.
A foredune was not present in the 1956 photographs, but had formed
along the entire bay by 1978 perhaps indicating a period of reduction in
sediment supply or climatic amelioration since that time (e.g. Giannini
et al. in Chap. 6, this volume, indicate increased precipitation in the last 20
years). In 2006, in the southern to central portion, the formerly active
dunes and parabolics are vegetated. Further north, the landward margin of
the central to north-central dunefield has evolved into active parabolic
dunes. In the northernmost 3 km, the deflation basin has expanded, and be-
come significantly vegetated (with some human assistance), but still dis-
plays nebkha, gegenwalle ridges, active parabolic and blowout dunes. The
transverse dunes have migrated northwards and built vertically. The mar-
ginal active precipitation ridges are also building vertically, and stabilizing
on the outer margins (Fig. 4.11).
Ibiraquera
The Ibiraquera transgressive dunefield trends obliquely away from the
coastline at about 25º. It advances over a vegetated terrain (Figs. 4.12 and
4.13) A foredune exists along the length of the bay, discontinuous in the
north, and continuous and higher in the south (Giannini and Santos 1994;
Martinho 2001, 2004; Martinho et al. 2006).
The coastline curvature parallels the prevailing NNE–NE winds in the
north, and trends across the NE winds in the south as elsewhere along this
coast. This has favored oblique dunefield development, and at this time,
better foredune development in the south.
The upwind portion of the dunefield is characterized by an extensive
deflation plain, with gegenwalle ridges, trailing ridges, nebkha, some small
blowouts, parabolic dunes, and hummocky sand sheets (Figs. 4.12 and
4.13). The active portion of the dunefield comprises sinuous transverse
dunes and barchanoidal dunes up to 20 m high. As the transverse dunes
advance downwind, the eastern margins are gradually vegetated and retained
Fig. 4.11 Aerial photographs of Moçambique Beach from 1938 (left) and 2004
(right). The barrier changes alongshore from a single small foredune in the south,
to parabolic dunes in the central portion, to a large scale transgressive dunefield in
the north
forming the saw-tooth trailing ridges pattern observable in Fig. 4.12. The
barchanoidal chains are often linked by high linear extensions formed
roughly parallel to the dominant NE winds. Remnant knobs occur in dis-
crete places throughout the active dunefield. A high, steep precipitation
ridge borders the active dunefield around the western, southern and eastern
margins. Depositional lobes form the advancing frontline of the dunefield,
and are sub-parabolic in form. Martinho et al. (2006) termed these barriers
or dunefields, distal types since the dunefield had largely migrated
downwind away from the beach source region.
Fig. 4.12 Oblique aerial view of Ibiraquera transgressive dunefield barrier. The
dunefield/barrier displays a deflation plain including gegenwalle ridges and nebk-
ha field, transverse dune trailing ridges (trailing back upwind off the margins of
the transverse dunes), an active dunefield, marginal precipitation ridges, and a
downwind vegetated dunefield portion. (Modified from Google Earth®)
The Holocene dunefield also has an extensive vegetated portion (Fig.

4.13) comprising precipitation ridges, dunes, deflation plains and flats, in-
terdunes, nebkha and remnant knobs. Giannini (1993) and Giannini and
Suguio (1994) recognized four aeolian units in this area. Unit 4 corres-
ponds to the active dunefield, and unit 3 to the Holocene vegetated dune-
field.
Pleistocene dunes also occur landwards, seawards and, in places, under
this, and many of the other Holocene dunefields. Giannini’s (1993) and
Giannini and Suguio (1994) unit 1 comprises the oldest, massive brown-
red sands with argilo-limonitic cementation. The unit is dissected with V
shaped drainage ravines, transverse to the coast. A Holocene unit 2 is
brown to orange-yellow and has heterogeneous pedogenetic cementation.
It is characterized by fluvial dissection controlled by valleys between pre-
cipitation and parabolic dune ridges, with a SW–NE orientation (Giannini
1993; Giannini and Suguio 1994). Giannini (1993), Giannini et al.
(2001a, b) and Sawakuchi et al. (2003) consider that unit 1 corresponds to
Fig. 4.13 Geomorphological map of the Ibiraquera dunefield
an aeolian deposition episode initiated during the Last Interglacial (at

~120,000 yrs BP). The Pleistocene (unit 1) and Holocene (unit 2) paleodunes
can be recognized at least along the region between Jaguaruna and Ibiraquera.
Cigana, Cardoso, Grande do Norte, Santa Marta Pequeno, Teresa,

Gravatá, and Guarda do Embaú Barriers
The barriers of Cigana, Cardoso, Grande do Norte, Santa Marta Pequeno,
Teresa, Gravatá in the south, and Guarda do Embaú in the north are distin-
guished from those above because they have all formed in conjunction
with concurrent lagoon enclosure and development, and are bay barriers
(Shepard 1960) or welded barriers (Davis and Fitzgerald 2005). The trans-
gressive dunefields forming these barriers are on beaches aligned parallel
with the prevailing NE wind (see Figs. 4.2 and 4.14), and have migrated
downwind over and across bedrock headlands, and are, thus, also (at least
in part) headland bypass dunefields.
4.6.4 Province IV
Province IV is located in the southern portion of the State, extending from

Farol de Santa Marta to the border with Rio Grande do Sul (at Torres). The
coastline has a very slightly concave profile with a direction generally
ENE, and the Serra range is relatively far away from the coast (Fig. 4.10).
The inner shelf in this province is wide and gentle (1:200) according to
Muehe (1998). The sediments are composed of fine, well rounded and well
sorted sands (Kowsmann and Costa 1979; Miot da Silva 2002). The
beaches are predominantly dissipative, with mean wave heights around
1.0 m, gentle gradients, and wide, multi-barred dissipative surf zones
(Giannini 1993; Martinho et al. 2006).
With one exception (a complex barrier near northern Torres), the bar-
riers comprise active and relict transgressive dunefields which have pro-
graded throughout the last ~7,000 years of the Holocene. They are both
prograded and transgressive dunefield barriers in the classification system
of Thom et al. (1985; 1992). This barrier system, which extends south-
wards several hundred kilometers past Chuí and into Uruguay (see Chap. 3,
this volume) has been termed a barrier island by Shepard (1960) and Stutz
and Pilkey (2001). While it has extensive backing lagoons in places, the
lagoons are discontinuous, and the barrier is connected at both ends to
bedrock, and attached to Pleistocene barriers in places along its length. It
is therefore, not a barrier island.
Fig. 4.14 Aerial view of the Guarda do Embaú transgressive dunefield barrier. The
barrier is narrow compared to Ibiraquera, as the coastline here parallels the domi-
nant wind direction, and the dunes migrate alongshore. (Modified from Google
Earth®)
4.6.4.1 Cabo de Santa Marta to Camacho (or Grande do Sul) Beach

This barrier extends from Cabo de Santa Marta to Camacho (or Grande do
Sul) Beach (~28º 36’ to 28º 42’), as a more than 20 km ENE elongated
barrier, 0.8–2 km wide (Figs. 4.15 and 4.16).
The barrier is characterized by a huge transgressive dunefield which is
actually continuous to the ENE and extends along the back of two more
beaches (Grande do Norte and Santa Marta Pequeno). Transverse dunes
occur adjacent to the backshore, and at times extend out onto the intertidal
beach, migrating to the WSW parallel to the coast and along the trend of
the drift resultant shown in Fig. 4.2. There is no upwind deflation plain as
sediment is presumably continuously supplied to the northern end of the
dunefield. The interdune flats undergo periodic flooding and wave over
wash (Fig. 4.17). In combination with wave erosion of the terminal mar-
gins of the dunes during spring tides and storms, the overwash reduces the
Fig. 4.15 Aerial photograph of the Camacho region illustrating the transgressive
dunefield barrier which migrates alongshore, but has also prograded seawards dur-
ing the Holocene
rate of transverse dune migration (Giannini and Santos 1994; Giannini

2002). Vegetation colonization occurs within the interdunes and nebkha
formation takes place there, but, as in similar situations elsewhere, is rela-
tively short lived (e.g. Hesp and McLachlan 2000), and foredune formation
is impossible. There is a gradual landwards increase in the height and crest
sinuosity of the transverse dunes and linear extensions eventually appear.
This characterizes the change from transverse dunes to barchanoidal
chains. The inland border of the dunefield is formed by precipitation ridges
with well developed secondary, discrete, parabolic shaped lobes (Martinho
et al. 2006) (Fig. 4.16). Martinho et al. (2006) termed these barriers or
dunefields, proximal types since the dunefield is still being supplied from
the beach source region.
The backbarrier, around Camacho lagoon and inlet, is a mixture of sand
sheets and nebkha fields, with washover fans. The occurrence of washover
deposits is facilitated by the absence of foredunes, and transverse dunes
oriented perpendicular to the coastline, allowing the interdune corridors to
act as conduits during storm surges. The maximum inland extent of the
washover fans inland is 500 m (Giannini 1993).
Fig. 4.16 Geomorphological map of the Camacho region barrier system. (Mod-
ified from Martinho 2004)
Holocene Evolution of the Barrier and Lagoon
Research on the continuation of this barrier system further south at Curu-

min, ~37 km south of Torres (Hesp et al. 2007a; Dillenburg et al. 2006;
Chap. 3, this volume) indicates that the barrier was likely formed in the
early Holocene, around 7,000 yrs BP, well before the maximum relative
sea level (RSL) reached the present level, and isolated a lagoon behind it.
According to models developed by Dillenburg et al. (2006; and Chap. 3,
this volume) the inner part of the barrier was built during the transgressive
phase (between 7 and 5 ka), and after that became a regressive and pro-
graded barrier. Dates from shell middens (3,780–4,110 ± 70 yrs BP) indi-
cate that at least two thirds of the barrier (in width) was deposited by this
date (Giannini 1993).
Behind the barrier deposits there is a lagoonal complex that was isolated
when the Holocene barrier was formed. This complex includes the Garo-
paba do Sul, Camacho and Santa Marta lagoons (Fig. 4.1). This lagoonal
system was created during the Postglacial Marine Transgression maximum
level, and following that it has been filled by two processes: shallowing of
the lagoon due to sea level fall, after ~5 ka; and silting from the sediments
of the Tubarão river delta, washover fans and flood tide delta as well as
aeolian sediments. These lagoon filling processes have produced residual
lakes, that no longer have significantly restricted connections to the sea
or to other lagoons.
Fig. 4.17 The barrier near Galheta displaying transverse dunes migrating along-
shore, and extending out onto the intertidal beach
4.6.4.2 The Torres Region

Figure 4.2 shows that the winds around Farol de Santa Marta are strong
and resultant winds are directed to the SW. Dunefield migration patterns
follow this alongshore resultant direction. However, further south near
Torres, the winds decrease considerably in strength, and the resultant di-
rection switches to the WNW (more normal to the coast). The barrier and
dunefield morphology reflects this change in wind direction and strength.
The dunefields have migrated minimal distances alongshore and more on-
shore. Barrier progradation is also very evident here; the majority of the
barrier comprises multiple, overlapping phases of transgessive dunefields,
which have each migrated landwards while the coast has prograded con-
currently (Fig. 4.18).
Just north of Torres, the inner portion of the Holocene barrier comprises
a prograded foredune plain, and the outer barrier portion comprises a pro-
graded, multiple transgressive dunefield plain.
Fig. 4.18 The Torres Holocene, prograded, transgressive dunefield barrier com-
prising multiple overlapping phases of dunefields. (Modified from Google Earth®)
4.7 Discussion and Conclusion
The differences in barrier development along this coast are related to pre-
existing geological controls and shelf gradient, sediment supply and type,
wave energy, surfzone-beach types, resultant wind direction, and coastal
orientation to dominant or prevailing winds. On average, beaches with the
greatest exposure to the south, southeast and east have the higher energy
intermediate and dissipative beaches and have barriers dominated by
transgressive dunefields. The predominance of barriers comprising trans-
gressive dunefields reflects the wave-beach-dune model of Short and Hesp
(1982) with some notable exceptions where sediment bypassing across
bays occurs or local factors (e.g. deep bedrock-controlled embayments)
prevail (e.g. Ilhota; Mole).
Sediment supply is also an important variable. Many of the beaches
appear to be in a phase of lower sediment supply than in the past since
several of the dunefields now display foredune development along the
backshore, significant deflation plains upwind , and downwind active and

vegetated dunefields (e.g. Joaquina (Lagoa), Moçambique, Ingleses, Ibira-
quera, Siriú, Ferrugem). A comparison of 1938–2004 aerial photography
of Moçambique for example, shows that the 1938 dunefield was active
near the beach and along the entire beach system, foredunes were absent
except in the very southern end and a significant sediment supply was
feeding the dunes. The dunes have now migrated downwind, many are ve-
getated, and foredunes are present. In contrast, some of the beaches still
have proto dunes, barchans and transverse dunes forming at the very
northern ends of the beach, active upwind dunefields and minimal defla-
tion plain development indicating a continuing (and therefore larger sand
supply compared to those beaches above?) sand supply (e.g. Guarda do
Embaú, Grande do Sul, the beaches between Teresa and Farol de Santa
Marta, Ji, and possibly Ibiraquera and Sol,?). The reasons are not entirely
clear yet, but, for example, the fact that there is a larger sand volume avail-
able to be transported in Grande do Sul than in Ibiraquera may be related
to the presence of the wider and gentler inner shelf southward from Santa
Marta cape. In comparison, the shelf is narrower and steeper shelf offshore
of Ibiraquera and adjacent beaches (Giannini 1993). Alternatively, it may
be that greater sediment trapping is taking place south of Farol do Santa
Marta.
The striking differences between the dunefield types and barrier devel-
opment (e.g. Grande do Sul compared to Ibiraquera) is also related to coas-
tline orientation to the dominant winds. To the south of Santa Catarina Isl-
and the dominant winds are from the NE until some point north of Torres.
The beach-dunefield systems which have the most parallel orientation to
this NE prevalent wind, display more linear, tabular, alongshore migrating
dunefields (Guarda do Embaú and Grande do Sul beaches and to a lesser
extent the beaches between Teresa and Farol de Santa Marta). There are
low rates of onshore (landwards) aeolian sediment loss, greater wind
fetches, and there are no significant obstacles to dune migration. Barriers
are narrower. In contrast, beaches between Laguna and Gamboa tend to be
oriented in a more northerly direction and are log spiral beaches, with only
the northern ends trending towards the NE. Thus, the dunefields migrate
alongshore and slightly onshore in the northern ends but migrate obliquely
onshore in the central to southern parts, and barriers widen to the south and
southwest.
Regional wind field differences also play a role. The dunefields on the
barriers to the south of Santa Catarina Island migrate to the SE under the
influence of prevailing NE winds, while those on Santa Catarina Island
migrate to the North under the influence of southerly prevailing winds.
Wind strengths vary alongshore and are strongest in the Farol de Santa
Marta region, and weakest in the Torres region. Downwind dunefield mi-
gration, and the extent of individual dune building phases, has been least in
the Torres region.
In conclusion, there are few dates or drillings yet available for this coast,
and firm conclusions about the evolution of most of the barrier types, and
their mode of development (e.g. prograded, aggraded or retrograded) must
wait for future studies.
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Chapter 5
The Holocene Barrier Systems of Paranaguá and
Northern Santa Catarina Coasts, Southern Brazil
Rodolfo J. Angulo, Guilherme C. Lessa and Maria Cristina de Souza
5.1 Introduction
The southeast Brazilian coast rests against crystalline massifs that forms
the Serra do Mar coastal range, stretching from the southern State of
Espírito Santo (~20ºS) to the southern State of Santa Catarina (~28ºS).
Dominguez (Chap. 2, this volume), classify this coastal sector as the high-
grade rocky coast of southeastern Brazil (Fig. 5.1). Its most prominent
geomorphologic characteristic is the scarped coastal range that, when in-
tersecting the coastline, creates coastal embayments where strandplains,
and less frequently estuarine systems, are observed.
This chapter deals with the Late Pleistocene and mainly with the Holo-
cene geology of an area that extends from Barra Velha in the south to Ilha
do Cardoso in the north, encompassing the State of Paraná and the north-
ern sector of the State of Santa Catarina (Fig. 5.1). It is a coastal segment
of about 200 km that harbors the largest estuarine systems and the widest
strandplains of southeastern Brazil.
Four coastal plains and three estuarine systems exist in the area (Fig. 5.2).
From south to north the coastal plains are São Francisco do Sul, Itapoá-
Guaratuba, Paranaguá (including Ilha do Mel) and Superagüi (including
Ilha das Peças). All have been mapped in detail (1:50,000 except for São
Francisco do Sul), but stratigraphic investigations were performed only on
the Paranaguá and Itapoá-Guaratuba barriers. By far, the Paranaguá coastal
plain is the most studied site, with pioneer geological investigations dating
back 60 years (Bigarella 1946). The estuaries that establish the boundaries
between the coastal plains are Baía de São Francisco do Sul (also named
136 R.J. Angulo et al.
Baía da Babitonga), Baía de Guaratuba and the estuarine complex of Baía

de Paranaguá and Laranjeiras. The development of the Holocene barriers
and the paleogeographic evolution of the coastal plains are intimately re-
lated with the morphodynamics of these estuarine systems.
This chapter aims to make an overall characterization of the geology of
the coastal plain and to present a summary of what has been achieved in
the understanding of the sedimentary facies, architecture and evolution of
the Holocene plains, with special mention of the two most investigated
sectors of the study region, the Paranaguá and Itapoá-Guaratuba coastal
plains.
Fig. 5.1 Southeastern Brazilian coast and location of the study area (dark gray).
5 The Holocene Barrier Systems of Paranaguá 137
Fig. 5.2 Quaternary geology of the study area (inset (a) Paranaguá coastal plain;
inset (b) Itapoá coastal plain). (1) Pleistocene barrier, (2) Holocene barrier, (3) pa-
leoestuarine plains, (4) tidal flat, (5) other units, (6) topographic profiles, (7) sand
pit, (8) vibracore location, (9) GPR profiles, (10) ebb tidal deltas. The cross indi-
cates location of foredunes shown in Fig. 5.8
5.2.1 Geological Background
The broad structural setting of the Brazilian coast was determined by the
opening of the Atlantic Ocean during the Mesozoic. The coasts of the State
of Paraná and the northern coast of the State of Santa Catarina are located
in a broad structural arc between Cabo Frio (23°S) and Florianopolis
(28°S).
This arc is defined by the structural highs of Cabo Frio and Florianópo-
lis, between which the Santos sedimentary basin (up to 8 km sediment
thick) was established (Fig. 5.3). Santos Basin, as well as other large
neighboring marine sedimentary basins, was fed by the uplift of Serra do
Mar range, a large plateau created between 89 and 65 Ma ago (Zalán and
Oliveira 2005). The existence of a mega plateau by the side of subsiding
sedimentary basin created an isostatically unstable situation, and gravita-
tional collapse began at around 58 Ma (Zalán and Oliveira 2005). For the
next 30 Ma the continental crust broke up and collapsed into a series of
grabens and horsts parallel to the current coastline, giving rise to the rocky
scarps that characteristically back up the southeastern coastal plains
(Fig. 5.3).
A few grabens, well correlated with the estuaries location, have been
mapped in the study region. Their limits coincide with segments of the
coastal range that run transversal to the coastline (Serra do Rio Branco,
Serra da Prata, Morro do Cantagalo-Serra da Tiririca), and define small
hydrographic basins and coastal segments (Fig. 5.3).
5.2.2 Holocene Paleo-Sea Level Trend
According to a review of the Holocene paleo sea-level trend for the eastern
Brazilian coast (Angulo and Lessa 1997, Angulo et al. 2006a), a smooth or
gently oscillating decline of sea level occurred after a Holocene sea-level
maximum of 2 to 3.5 m between 7,000 and 5,000 cal yrs BP (Fig. 5.4a). In
the study region 6 samples of reworked shell and wood fragments, 11
samples of in-situ shells of Anomalocardia brasiliana and 9 samples of
vermetids indicate a paleo sea level trend that closely follows the trend
suggested for the Eastern Brazilian coast (Fig. 5.4b). Sea level maximum
occurred between 7,000 and 5,000 yrs BP (more likely between 5,000 and
5,800 yrs BP), with an elevation of 3.5 ± 1.0 m (Angulo et al. 2006a). A
relatively high elevation was apparently sustained until about 3,500 yrs
BP, when falling rates increased.
5.2.3 Climate and Oceanography
The regional climate is humid subtropical, with wet summers and dry win-
ters (Cfa according to the Köeppen classification). On the coastal plain the
annual mean temperature is 21.5° and rainfall reaches 2,500 mm/yr
Fig. 5.3 Map of the SE Brazilian border with the structural framework and loca-
tion of the rifts (after Zalán and Oliveira 2005). (1) Cenozoic sediments, (2) rifts,
(3) Cenozoic faults, (4) Cretaceous hinge line, (a) Serra do Rio Branco, (b) Serra
da Prata, (c) Morro do Cantagalo-Serra da Tiririca
(Ipardes 1995). Sixty seven percent of the annual precipitation falls during
the summer (37%) and autumn (30%).
Despite the small extension of this coastal sector, the wind pattern
changes considerably between its northern and southern sectors. Wind data
are available for only two stations, Pontal do Sul (2002–2004) and São
Francisco do Sul (2004). Figure 5.5 presents the direction distribution for
the year 2004 in both stations. Predominant wind directions in Pontal do
Sul were south and east (17% of the record), followed by west winds (15%
of the record). The wind directions in São Francisco do Sul were less even-
ly distributed, with southwest winds accounting for 22% of the record. It
was followed by winds from the northeast and south, representing 18 and
13% of the record, respectively.
Fig. 5.4 (a) Mid to late Holocene sea-level envelopes for the eastern Brazilian
coast (after Angulo et al. 2006a); (b) paleo-sea level indicators and envelope to
possible sea level position in the late Holocene in the study region. (1) vermetids,
(2) in situ shells mainly Anomalocardia brasiliana, (3) reworked shell and wood
fragments, (4) polynomial fit for vermetids data
Wind velocities were higher in Pontal do Sul, where the average speed
for southern winds was occasionally above 10 m/s (Fig. 5.5). The highest
average wind speed between 2002 and 2004 in Pontal do Sul was 15 m/s,
whereas the highest gust velocity reached 30 m/s, both from the SSE.
Threshold average wind speed for fine sand (~ 6 m/s) represents 17% of
the 3 yrs wind record from Pontal do Sul. The majority of these records
(65%) are associated with south and southeast winds. A dominance of
south and southeast winds in Pontal do Sul has been reported for the years
1982 and 1986 (Angulo 1993). Highest wind velocities occurred during the
spring and summer, when average velocities above 6 m/s represented 37%
and 32% of the records, respectively. Again, winds blowing from the south
and southeast accounted for the largest part of the record.
The tide in the region is microtidal and semi diurnal with diurnal in-
equalities. Equinoctial spring tides in front of Baía de Paranaguá reach 1.7
m in range, the largest tide range south of Rio de Janeiro. Tidal amplifica-
tion on the continental shelf is ascribed to the interaction of two tidal
waves, related to amphydromic points in the South Atlantic, traveling in
the opposite direction (Mesquita and Harari 1999). Storm surges are fre-
quent, and can elevate mean sea level as much as 80 cm (Portobrás 1983,
Marone and Camargo 1995).
Two main wave directions are characteristic of the region, ENE and
SSE/SE (Portobrás 1983). The wave period varies between 6 and 10 s and
the significant wave height between 0.5 and 1.5 m (Portobrás 1983). ENE
waves are generated by the tropical high-pressure system of the South At-
lantic, and characterized by regular waves. SE waves, on the other hand,
are related to cyclonic activity, and characterized by a larger steepness
(Portobrás 1983). Southeast waves drive a net northward littoral drift, as
indicated by several lines of geological and geomorphological evidence,
including the migration of estuarine inlets (Angulo 1999; Souza 2005).
5.2.4 Fluvial Discharge and Sediment Yield
Only two small, neighboring rivers meet the ocean within the study area.
These rivers are Saí-Guaçu and Saí-Mirim that together drain an area of
2
approximately 508 km . The remaining fluvial network discharges into the
2
estuaries of Baía de Paranaguá and Baía de Laranjeiras (~990 km , Noern-
2
berg et al. 2006), Baía de Guaratuba (~50 km ) and São Francisco do Sul
2
(240 km ), where the large majority of the river sediment yield is captured.
These estuaries harbor extensive paleo-intertidal areas that indicate a much
larger extension of inland waters in the last sea level maximum (Martin
et al. 1988; Angulo 2004; Angulo and Souza 2004). Sea level fall and net
positive sedimentation resulted in the partial infilling of the large and in the
complete infill of the smaller estuaries of Saí-Mirim and Saí-Guaçu rivers.
One of the reasons for the persistence of large estuarine features (or am-
ple accommodation space) on a regressive coast are the small catchment
areas of their tributaries, limited by the presence of the Serra do Mar
Fig. 5.5 Distribution of the 2004 average wind speed (above 6.0 m/s) and direction
in Pontal do Sul (a) and São Francisco do Sul (b)
coastal range a few kilometers inland of the coastline. The catchment area
of Baía de Paranaguá and Baía de Laranjeiras estuarine complex is 3,882
km2, only about 7 times larger than the area of the two bays. Fluvial water
discharge to Baía de Paranaguá has been estimated as 200 m3/s during the
raining season (Lessa et al. 1998; Mantovanelli et al. 2004), whereas sus-
pended sediment discharge is about 355 ton/day (Mantovanelli et al.
2004).
Baía de São Francisco do Sul, the second largest bay, has a catchment
area of 1,001 km2 and an estimated average annual fluvial discharge of 55
m3/s (DNIT/IME 2004). Fluvial discharge into Baía Guaratuba, with a cat-
chment area of 1,886 km2, is higher than 80 m3/s (Marone et al. 2005). No
sediment discharge estimate to these two sites has been made to date.
Although suspended sediment has been shown to reach the coast after
heavy rains (Noernberg 2001), the bedload is retained in bay-head deltas
inside Baía de Paranaguá and Guaratuba (Lessa et al. 1998; Barbosa and
Suguio 1999; Odreski et al. 2003). Geological mapping of Baía de São
Francisco do Sul remains to be made, but similar deltaic features are very
likely to be found in its headwaters. Despite the retention of the fluvial
bedload, large ebb-tide deltas (up to 8 km long) are observed in front of the
estuaries. Estimated volumes for the southern ebb-tide delta of Baía de
Paranaguá and Baía de São Francisco do Sul are in the order of 108 m3
(Lessa et al. 2000; Lamour 2000; Lamour et al. 2006; Angulo et al.
2006b). These deltas are associated with ebb-dominated estuarine circu-
lation (Lessa et al. 1998; Mantovanelli et al. 2004), and are fed by a
northbound littoral drift system (Bigarella et al. 1966; Angulo 1999; Lessa
et al. 2000). Estimates of the alongshore sediment transport vary from
104 m3/yr to 105 m3/year (Sayão 1989; Lessa et al. 2000; Lamour 2000;
Lamour et al. 2006).
5.3 The Coastal Plains
The coastal plains are composed of three major geomorphological units,

namely estuaries (including mangroves, salt-marshes, supratidal areas and
shoals), paleo-estuarine plains (of Pleistocene and Holocene age), and bar-
riers (of Pleistocene and Holocene age).
5.3.1 The Estuaries
The estuaries are represented by the large bays described above, Baía de
Paranaguá and Baía de Laranjeiras, Baía de Guaratuba and Baía de São
Francisco do Sul (Fig. 5.6). An analysis of the surface sediment distribu-
tion and sedimentary facies has been presented for Baía de Paranaguá
(Lessa et al. 1998) and Baía de Guaratuba (Barbosa and Suguio; 1999).
A tri-partite facies distribution, typical of wave-dominated estuaries
(Dalrymple et al. 1992) is well defined in both estuaries. Riverine
sandy sediments, forming bay-head deltas, accumulate around the river
outlets. In the low energy, central estuarine section, sandy-mud and mud-
dy-sand deposits prevail. In Baía de Paranaguá, these two facies form a re-
gressive sedimentary wedge about 10 m thick that overlaps, on its seaward
side, a transgressive marine-sand facies (Lessa et al. 1998). A similar stra-
tigraphic arrangement is proposed for Baía de Guaratuba where, alike Baía
de Paranaguá, marine sands predominate in the lower half of the estuary. It
is notable that the central basin mud facies departs somewhat from the tri-
partite estuarine facies model of Dalrymple et al. (1992). Whereas in the
model this facies has a transgressive nature, and is deposited in the central
depression of the estuary, in the estuaries under consideration it has been es-
tablished during the highstand and does not infill a topographic depression.
Remnants of flood-tidal deltas have been reported both at Baía de Para-

naguá (Lessa et al. 2000; Araújo 2001) and Baía de Guaratuba (Barbosa
and Suguio 1999). In the former it forms the islands of Cotinga and Rasa
da Cotinga and is underlying beach deposits of Ilha do Guaraguaçu and Il-
ha do Mel (Fig. 5.6). In the latter, it apparently underlies the islands of Ca-
pinzal and Veiga on the northern side of the bay. It is likely that the extent
of the flood-tidal delta deposits is even larger than what is indicated in
Fig. 5.6. It may be an important component of the barrier deposits at Baía
de Guaratuba, may well form the substrate for the beach ridges in Ilha do
Mel (Baía de Paranaguá) and may also be underlying the beach ridges of
Ilha das Peças (Baía de Paranaguá).
The existence of paleo flood-tidal deltas in estuaries presently under an
ebb-dominated regime indicates that changes in the bedload net-transport
direction must have occurred sometime within the last 3,000 yrs (Lessa
et al. 2000). This is an important aspect to take into consideration when
analyzing coastal sediment budgets and coastal evolution, especially in
areas characterized by high rates of littoral drift such as the study area.
5.3.2 The Paleo-Estuarine Plains
Paleo-estuarine plains are of Late Pleistocene and Mid- to Late Holocene

age. Pleistocene plains, with an elevation of about +5 m, have been
mapped only around Ilha do Superagüi, in the northern sector of the study
area. It is composed of fine to very fine sand with abundant vegetal debris,
including leaves and trunks. Two sedimentary facies were identified in the
deposits, namely tidal flat and tidal channel facies (Angulo and Absher
1992).
The Holocene paleo-estuarine plains are less than 4 m in elevation, and
are composed mainly of fine and very fine sand matrix with mud and or-
ganic matter. Sedimentary structures are rarely seen because of intense
bioturbation. Estuarine shells, mainly of Anomalocardia brasiliana, are
frequently observed (Angulo and Absher 1992). Dated shell samples pro-
vided an age between 6,701–5,725 cal yrs BP and 2,937–1,786 cal yrs BP
for the paleoestuarine sediments (Angulo et al. 2006a).
The paleo-estuarine plains show the maximum extension of the post-
glacial marine transgression. The subsequent fall of sea level, along with
bed aggradation, exposed the paleo-estuarine plains. An example of such
emersion is the Ilha Rasa da Cotinga at Baía de Paranaguá, part of a rem-
nant flood-tidal delta, where shells deposited on the surface indicate a sea
level above +0.9 m at 3,520–3,169 cal yrs BP. This date points out to a
possible time for the interruption of marine sediment influx that fed the
flood-tidal delta system.
Fig. 5.6 Surface sedimentary facies of Baía de Paranaguá (a) and Baía de Guara-
tuba (b). (1) Sandy sediments, (2) sandy-mud and muddy-sand sediments, (3) pa-
leo flood-tidal deltas
5.3.3 The Barriers
The barriers in the study area are prograded barriers of Pleistocene and
2
Holocene age (Fig. 5.2). The barrier area is 321 km in São Francisco do
2 2 2
Sul, 170 km in Itapoá-Guaratuba, 344 km in Paranaguá and 228 km in
2
Superagüi coastal plain, totaling 1,063 km in the study area. Holocene
barriers represent 41.5% of this total.
Barrier elevation appears to be lower than 10 m, which is the elevation
of the landward most part of the Pleistocene barrier at Paranaguá coastal
plain. The elevation falls gradually to about 3 m at the present backshore
(Fig. 5.7). Elevation of the backshore varies along the study area as a func-
tion of the local wave height and sediment size.
The Pleistocene barriers are wider than the Holocene ones, reaching 22
km in Paranaguá and 35 km in the São Francisco do Sul coastal plains
(Fig. 5.2). The Pleistocene barriers are rather dissected in comparison with
their Holocene counterparts, as it is evident in Fig. 5.2 at the Itapoá-
Guaratuba coastal plain.
Beach-ridges and foredune ridges are common features, and their orien-
tation has aided the interpretation of stratigraphic profiles and the under-
standing of the geologic evolution of the coastal plain. The orientation of
the beach-ridges indicates that Holocene shorelines were aligned with
those from the Pleistocene. Exceptions are the beach ridges on Ilha do Mel
and Ilha das Peças, as well as the northern side of Paranaguá coastal plain,
affected by the dynamics and location of the estuary mouth. Changes in the
orientation of the beach ridges in the northern section of Paranaguá plain
indicates a gradual rotation of the coastline with the apparent narrowing of
the inlet and the onset of ebb-dominant estuarine conditions. This process
will be addressed below.
Fig. 5.7 Topographic profiles of the Paranaguá coastal plain (after Bigarella et al.
1978 and Lessa et al. 2000). (1) Bedrock, (2) continental sediments, (3) Pleisto-
cene barrier, (4) Holocene barrier, (5) paleoestuarine sediments (for the location of
profiles a–c and d–e see Fig. 5.2a)
The barriers are underlain by continental deposits as old as Lower Mi-

ocene (Lima and Angulo 1990), and can be tens of meters thick close to
shoreline. The crystalline basement outcrops at the landward side of the
barriers, but deepens to about 100 m at the shoreline in Paranaguá coastal
plain (Bigarella et al. 1978).
The barriers incorporate at least five depositional environments (Lessa
et al. 2000, Araújo 2001, Souza 2005), being aeolian dunes, flood-tidal
deltas, foreshore, shoreface and innershelf. Dunes, in the form of relict pa-
rabolic dunes and foredune ridges of Holocene age, occur all along the
coastline within 500 m of the shoreline. Parabolic dunes, oriented to the
NW, are restricted to the São Francisco dos Sul coastal plain, whereas
foredunes are more conspicuous in the Paranaguá and Superagüi coastal
plains, where they reach up to 6 m in height (Angulo 1993, Figs. 5.8
and 5.9).
The foredunes of the Paranaguá coastal plain have been studied by Bi-
garella et al. (1969a, b). They are composed by well-sorted, fine, quartzose
sand. Paleo-blowouts suggest that the prevailing wind was from the south-
southeast direction, in agreement with the direction of the actual strongest
winds (Fig. 5.5). Bigarella et al. (1969a, b) recognized several paleo-soils
in the dune field, which are possibly related to blowout activity or intermit-
tent dune growth.
Sediments in the foreshore and upper shoreface are composed of well-
sorted, medium and fine quartzose sand with subordinate proportions of
carbonate bioclasts and heavy minerals (Angulo 1992, 2004). Most of the
beaches are intermediate with slopes between 1° and 5° and one or two
surf zone bars (Figs. 5.10 and 5.11). Typical fair weather and storm pro-
files for the center and northern sector of Paranaguá coastal plain are
shown in Fig. 5.11 (Quadros 2002). Erosion of the beach face in the cen-
tral sector can lower the profile as much as 2 m, forming a 1 m high longi-
tudinal bar 70 m seaward of the mean low tide line. Topographic changes
of the beach profile in the northern sector are subdued due to the sheltering
effect provided by the ebb-tidal delta in front of Baía de Paranaguá.
The innershelf, from Ilha de Santa Catarina in the south, to Ilha de São
Sebastião in the north, is characterized by a low-gradient slope (~0.01%)
with the –50 m contour 45–75 km away from the shore (Fig. 5.12).
The shelf in front of the study area, down to the –50 m contour, has an
average slope of 0.065% (Martins and Corrêa 1996). It increases sharply
close to shore, at around –11 m, to 0.175%. This slope break is coincident
with a change of the surface sediment texture (Fig. 5.13), and seems to in-
dicate the toe of the shoreface.
Fig. 5.8 Paleoforedune ridges within the younger part of the Paranaguá Holocene
regressive barrier (sea location in Fig. 5.2; after Angulo 1993)
Sand size sediments prevail on the shelf (Martins and Corrêa 1996).
Between –15 and –10 m coarse, palimpsest quartzose sand alternates
with fine quartzose shelf sand (Veiga et al. 2006). In the lower shoreface,
between –10 and –5 m, the sediment becomes finer (very fine sand), poor-
ly sorted, positively skewed with a high concentration of mud (10–40%),
Fig. 5.9 Incipient (a) and established foredune ridges (b present and c paleo) at
Superagüi coastal plain
Fig. 5.10 Intermediate beach with two surf zone bars (arrows)
Fig. 5.11 Open sea coast (a) and near to inlet (b) beach profiles before (solid line)
and after (dashed line) a storm event in May 2000 (after Quadros 2002)
organic matter (6–14%) and calcium carbonate (8–14%) (Veiga et al.

2006). This fine sediment zone forms an almost contiguous belt, longitu-
dinal to the shoreline, in front of the Paranaguá coastal plain.
On the lower shoreface and upper innershelf (–8 to –16 m) sinuous
symmetrical ripples, 1–10 cm high and 6–53 cm long, are oriented to the
northeast (030o–045o). Sediment textures associated with these ripples vary
between very fine to medium sand (Veiga et al. 2004; Veiga 2005). An
asymmetrical, sinuous megaripple (0.45 m high and 1.6 m long) on coarse
sand, oriented to 075o, was observed at –19 m also in front of Paranaguá
coastal plain. Bedform orientation on the innershelf indicates that sediment
transport driven by waves is towards the coast.
5.4 The Holocene Barriers
The Holocene barriers make up the present shoreline in the entire area ex-
cept in the southern extremity close to Barra Velha, where coastal erosion
and shoreline recession sculpted cliffs on the Pleistocene barrier (Fig. 5.2).
2
The area of Holocene barrier in the four coastal plain segments are 32 km
2 2
in São Francisco do Sul, 70 km in Itapoá-Guaratuba, 198 km in Parana-
2
guá and 141 km in Superagüi. The width of these barriers varies from
0.15 to 15 km, with the narrowest sections found in the southern sector
Fig. 5.12 Shelf bathymetry between Ilha de Santa Catarina and São Sebastião (af-
ter Martins and Corrêa 1996)
(Itapoá-Guaratuba and São Francisco do Sul coastal plains – Fig. 5.2).

Lessa et al. (2000) suggested that widening of the Holocene barriers to-
wards the north is a result of a net northward sediment drift associated with
a cell of sediment circulation that starts south of Barra Velha. The north-
ward sediment transport would bypass the ebb-tidal deltas and the few
existing headlands fronted by sea floors less than 10 m deep.
Fig. 5.13 (a) Bathymetric contour lines on the shoreface and innershelf in front of
the Paranaguá coastal plain and (b) mean grain size (after Veiga et al. 2004). (1)
Breaking wave bars fine to very fine sand, (2) ebb tidal delta fine to very fine
sand, (3) shoreface muddy sand, (4) shoreface and innershelf fine sand, (5) inner-
shelf medium to coarse sand
5.4.1 Sedimentary Composition
The Holocene barriers are composed of fine and very fine quartzose sand,
with a subordinate content of coarser sand and gravel. In the Paranaguá
coastal plain, sandy-mud and muddy-sand sediments are characteristics of
the lowest part of the barrier, where in situ articulated shells and shell
fragments, as well as plant debris are frequently observed (Souza 2005).
In the upper part of the barriers (both Holocene and Pleistocene), diage-
netic processes, associated with concentration of iron hydroxides and or-
ganic matter (spodozol horizon), lend a brown color to the sediments at a
level apparently associated with the water table (Fig. 5.14). This diagenetic
process is observed in sediment younger than 3,000 cal yrs BP. The belief
that this process could not occur in such a short time has led several au-
thors to interpret sectors of Holocene barriers as Pleistocene in age (Martin
et al. 1988).
Heavy minerals are common, with zircon, pistachite and hornblende be-
ing the most abundant minerals amongst the ultra stable, meta-stable and
unstable minerals (Giannini et al. 2004). The oxi-hornblende is only found
in the southern section of the study area, up to Rio Saí-Guaçu outlet (Sou-
za 1999). To the north of the river, monazite and cassiterite start to occur.
The amount of zircon, tourmaline and rutile increase to the north, along
with a decreasing amount of the unstable minerals. Similar to geomorpho-
logical evidence, these trends in heavy mineral concentration suggest a
net-northward littoral drift transport. The northward trend can be locally
reversed due to small-scale circulation cells or the presence of inlets.
Pleistocene and Holocene barriers differ in relation to their heavy min-
eral content. Unstable minerals account for an average of 43% of the heavy
mineral content in the Holocene whereas they make up for an average of
13% in the Pleistocene barriers, indicating a larger degree of mineral dis-
solution (Giannini 1993; Lessa et al. 2000).
5.4.2 Sedimentary Facies
Sedimentary facies analyses were undertaken at Itapoá-Guaratuba and, in

much larger detail, in Paranaguá coastal plain, where morphostratigraphic
investigations also took place. Whereas only the top five meters of the bar-
rier at Itapoá-Guaratuba coastal plain has been examined, more than 15 m
of sedimentary deposits have been investigated in the Paranaguá coastal
plain. Apart from vibracore and ground penetrating radar (GPR), 15 m
deep pits opened by sand mining aided geological investigations in Para-
naguá. These pits, located in the middle of the Holocene barrier (Fig. 5.2),
allowed for the inspection of the whole barrier sequence.
Two-dozen sedimentary facies were identified above an erosive surface
imprinted upon Pleistocene sediments. These facies are associated with the
following environments of deposition: innershelf, shoreface, foreshore,
flood-tidal delta and tidal channel (Angulo 1992; Lessa et al. 2000; Araújo
2001; Souza 1999; 2005).
The innershelf facies within the barrier occur at an elevation interval be-
tween –7 and –10 m (inside the pits), and are composed by mud with or-
ganic matter and fine and very fine sand, frequently bioturbated. Characte-
ristic sedimentary structures are linsen, wavy and mud drapes (Figs. 5.15
and 5.16). Lag deposits of coarse sand and granules (with normal grada-
tion), shells and shell fragments, are frequently associated with wavy se-
dimentary structures. Similar sedimentary sequences are observed on the
Fig. 5.14 Holocene barrier sand cliff at Ilha do Mel with concentration of iron hy-
droxides and organic matter in the lower part and laminas with heavy mineral
concentrations in the upper part
present innershelf (depths between 12 and 15 m), where a series of erosive

surfaces and shelly, lag deposits occur between 20 to 40 cm below the sea
floor (Veiga 2005). These erosive surfaces separate bioturbated muds
(with some concentration of organic matter) below, from gradational gra-
nules to coarse sand layers, characteristic of tempestite deposits, above.
Shoreface facies occur at an elevation interval between +1 and –7 m.
The lower shoreface is dominated by fine to very fine sand and bioturbated
mud intercalated with swaley cross stratification 15–25 cm high and 1–4 m
long. Swaley cross stratification becomes the predominant sedimentary
structure in the middle shoreface (Figs. 5.17, 5.18, 5.19 and 5.20). Sedi-
mentary processes on the lower end middle shoreface are influenced by
upper regime traction fluxes during storms and sediment decantation dur-
ing calm periods. Swaley stratification is related to the wave-shoaling
zone. Muddy sediments are presently observed in the lower shoreface be-
tween 6 and 9 m of depth, in agreement with the elevation of the biotur-
bated muds in the pits.
Fig. 5.15 Highly bioturbated innershelf muddy sand with a bivalve specimen
(Tivela foresti) in living position in the center (after Souza 2005)
The upper shoreface is dominated by several types of cross stratifica-

tion: planar, tangential, trough and sigmoidal, 4–50 cm thick (Figs. 5.21,
5.22 and 5.23). Sedimentary processes in this environment are influenced
by wave, longshore flows and sediment drift under the oscillatory and un-
idirectional flows. The foreshore occurs at an elevation interval between
+1 and –4 m, and is dominated by low-angle cross stratification (Fig.
5.24).
Flood-tidal delta facies occur between 0 and 2 m of elevation. Its upper
part is characterized by large scale tangential cross stratification 0.4–1.1 m
thick (Fig. 5.25) (Lessa et al. 2000; Araújo 2001). The foresets dip to the
NW and indicate landward sediment flux. The flood-tidal delta facies is
overlain by foreshore facies 1–2.5 m thick (Fig. 5.26) that indicates re-
working of the delta surface by waves during sea level fall.
Fig. 5.16 Core section showing innershelf muddy sand (s), mud drape and linsen
and wavy bedding (d) with lag deposits of shells, shell fragments and quartz gra-
nules and coarse sand with normal gradation (g) (after Souza 2005)
Fig. 5.17 Section of the pit showing the paleo lower shoreface facies with very
fine and coarse sand, mud (m) and vegetal debris (v). The picture shows swaley
cross stratification, Ophiomorpha (o) and other tubes (t) as well as escape struc-
ture (s) (after Souza 2005)
Fig. 5.18 Section of the pit showing the paleo lower shoreface facies with fine to
medium sand and vegetal debris with swaley cross stratification and mud drape
(m) (after Souza 2005)
Fig. 5.19 Section of the pit showing the paleo lower shoreface facies with medium
sand with vegetal debris with swaley cross stratification and Ophiomorpha (o) and
escape structure (s) (after Souza 2005)
Fig. 5.20 Section of the pit showing the paleo lower shoreface facies with fine
sand and vegetal debris with swaley cross stratification and tubes (t) (after Souza
2005)
Fig. 5.21 Section of the pit showing the paleo upper shoreface sandy facies with
trough cross stratification with foresets deformed by fluidification and a peace of
wood (after Souza 2005)
sigmoidal (s) and tangential (t) cross stratification (after Souza 2005)
planar cross stratification with Ophiomorpha (o), tubes (t) and escape structures
(s) (after Souza 2005)
Fig. 5.24 Section of the pit showing the paleo foreshore sandy facies with low-
angle cross stratification dipping seaward (s) and landward (l) and small planar
cross stratification (c) (after Souza 2005)
5.4.3 Barrier Thickness and Limiting Surfaces
The distinction between Pleistocene and Holocene barriers in the study area
has been based on morphology, mineralogical composition and radiocarbon
dates of the coastal plains (Angulo 1992; Souza 1999; Lessa et al. 2000;
Angulo et al. 2002). The Holocene barrier in Paranaguá coastal plain lies
upon Pleistocene sands and muds not yet studied in detail. The contact be-
tween the Holocene and the Pleistocene was determined on the basis of ra-
diocarbon dates and GPR profiles (Souza 2005).
At the sand pits, textural changes and radiocarbon dating of organic mud
and shells indicate an erosive contact at –8 m (Fig. 5.27), resulting in a
thickness of 12 m at the center of the Paranaguá barrier. The contact is ero-
sive, and is well marked by strong reflectors in the GPR profiles obtained
further inland. As indicated in Fig. 5.28 these reflectors rise landwards to
an elevation of –1 m at the contact between the Holocene and Pleistocene
barriers. It implies that Holocene barrier thickness varies from about 13 to
14 m close to the shoreline to 5 to 6 m on the landward side.
The erosive contact underlying the Holocene barrier may define three
sorts of stratigraphic surfaces: a wave ravinement surface, a tide ravine-
ment surface, and a regressive surface of erosion. Both wave-related surfa-
ces mark the toe of the shoreface that today lies at 11 m of depth (Veiga
2005).
Fig. 5.25 Large planar cross stratification corresponding to the flood tidal delta
facies at Ilha do Mel (after Araújo 2001)
The erosive surface observed at the sand pit corresponds to a regressive

surface of erosion established about 1,000 yrs after the sea level maximum
(Fig. 5.4). Eighteen radiocarbon dates indicate that Holocene sediments in
the central part o the barrier were deposited between 4,400 cal yrs BP (at
the base) and 2,750 cal yrs BP (close to the surface). Given the sea level
envelope shown in Fig. 5.4, water depth at the toe of the shoreface was
then between 10 and 11 m, in agreement with the present shoreface.
Fig. 5.26 Horizontal laminations of the foreshore facies overlying large tangential
cross stratification corresponding to flood tidal delta facies at Rio Maciel (see a 1
m long shovel at the right side for scale; after Lessa et al. 2000)
The strong reflector in Fig. 5.28 is rather steep to correspond to a shore-

face profile. A vibracore obtained at the rear of the barrier (Fig. 5.29) indi-
cates that the seismic reflector is associated with the top of an eroded layer
of coarse to very coarse, heavily iron-stained sands with mud balls inter-
preted as estuarine sediments (Lessa et al. 2000). Hence, the erosive sur-
face at this point is more likely a tidal ravinement surface associated with
migrating tidal inlets, as it will be discussed below.
5.4.4 Barrier Evolutionary Model
Evolutionary models for the Holocene barriers of Paranaguá and Itapoá

were proposed by Lessa et al. (2000) and Souza et al. (2001), respectively.
These models assumed that barrier roll-over was the prevalent process dur-
ing the Postglacial Marine Transgression (PMT), and that an estuary ex-
isted behind the barrier. Gradual narrowing of the back-barrier depression,
associated with the increasingly proximity of the Pleistocene barrier sub-
strate, squeezed the estuaries of Guaraguaçu, Saí-Guaçu and Saí-Mirim
rivers. Estuarine flows thus eroded the rear of the barrier, leaving just a
thin transgressive barrier strip.
Fig. 5.27 Section of a core showing the association of Holocene and Pleistocene
facies at Paranaguá (after Souza 2005): (a) innershelf Holocene facies, (b) Pleisto-
cene mud and (c) Pleistocene sandy-mud Tubes are 1 m long and 7 cm wide. The
core begins at the upper left corner
These models were based on the existence of presumed lagoonal muds

beneath the barrier (described in geotechnical core logs), and on the exis-
tence of marine sand deposits (interpreted as overwash) interfingering with
estuarine sediments at the rear of the barrier. Some of the interpreted estua-
rine sediments have now been reassessed as Holocene innershelf facies
and Pleistocene paleolagoonal facies (Fig. 5.27), whereas the overwash
sands are now reinterpreted as spit deposits. Therefore, there is no solid
evidence, such as landward dipping reflectors or true overwash facies, that
a standard transgressive barrier is preserved within the Holocene coastal

plain.
Fig. 5.28 Interpretation of a GPR profile on the Holocene regressive barrier at Pa-
ranaguá (after Angulo et al. 2005, see location at Fig. 5.2a) showing clinoforms
dipping seaward (thin lines) and an erosional surface (thick line) that defines the
limit between the Pleistocene substrate and the Holocene barrier
Fig. 5.29 Vibracore obtained at the rear of the Holocene barrier. The white line
shows the top of the eroded layer of coarse to very coarse, heavily iron-stained
sands with mud balls (see core location at Fig. 5.2a). Tubes are 0.5 m long and 7
cm wide. The core begins at the upper left corner
Curved ridges visible in aerial photographs (Fig. 5.30) and channel

scouring and inlet fill sequences in the GPR profiles (Fig. 5.31) in the most
internal part of the barriers of Itapoá-Guaratuba and Paranaguá suggest
that spits might have been common features at the initial stages of the
Holocene barrier formation. Spit growth aided the formation of small estu-
aries close to the PMT maximum both in Paranaguá and Itapoá coastal
plains. Radiocarbon dating of estuarine deposits provided an age of 6,489–
5,629 cal yrs BP, which coincides with the time of sea level maximum
suggested by Angulo et al. (2006a). Spit growth must have been associated
with intense littoral drift, as suggested by Roy et al. (1994) for open coasts
under stable or slowly-varying sea level.
The Pleistocene substrate in Paranaguá, and bedrock outcrops in Itapoá,
were probable anchoring points for spit development. In both cases, the es-
tablishment of an estuarine area and meandering channels behind the spits
promoted the erosion of both Pleistocene and Holocene barriers, similar
to what has been suggested for Ilha Comprida (see Giannini et al., this
volume).
Curved beach ridges suggest that spits grew both from the northeast and
southwest (Fig. 5.30). Opposing directions of spit progradation suggest re-
versals of the net-longshore sediment drift during coastal progradation, a
phenomena that has been studied in detail in the strandplains adjacent to
large river mouths along the Eastern Brazilian Coast (Dominguez, this vo-
lume). A northward drift has been, however, dominant during coastal pro-
gradation, as indicated by changes in the orientation of the beach-ridges.
At least in the northern part of Paranaguá coastal plain, rotation of the pro-
grading shoreline under the influence of northward littoral drift is clearly
observed on aerial photographs (Fig. 5.30).
Few paleo-shoreline positions with chronological control are identified
in the Paranaguá barrier: the shoreline associated with the transgression
maximum and the shorelines associated with the paleoshorefaces dated at
the sand pit in the middle of the Holocene barrier. If the transgressive bar-
rier ever existed, the meandering estuarine channels must have eroded
most of them in Paranaguá and Itapoá-Guaratuba coastal plains. In Supe-
ragüi coastal plain, where the Holocene barrier is apparently fully en-
croached against its Pleistocene counterpart, the contact between the Pleis-
tocene and Holocene barriers illustrates (Fig. 5.32) what the contact
between the two barriers could have been like in Paranaguá and Itapoá in
the case the estuarine channels did not exist. The first foredune ridges on
Superagüi truncate small infilled drainage channels incised upon the Pleis-
tocene barrier (Fig. 5.32). A survey on this area could elucidate if a trans-
gressive barrier existed or not on the Paraná coastal plain.
At the sand pit in Paranaguá barrier, the 4,200 cal yrs BP paleo shoreface
can suggest a position for the paleo shoreline on the basis of the present
shoreface profile. Textural and depth similarities between the sedimentary
sequences in the sand pit and on the present shoreface point to the main-
tenance of the profile during barrier progradation. The isochrones plotted
in Fig. 5.33 point to very little coastal progradation in the first 1,000 yrs
after sea level maximum, when sea level might have fallen between 0.5
and 1 m.
Limited or no coastal progradation of Paranaguá, and possibly Itapoá-
Guaratuba barrier, within this time period could be related to the morpho-
dynamic character of the estuaries at the Holocene sea-level maximum.
Extensive marine sand deposition inside Paranaguá estuary is indicated by
a transgressive sand sheet (Lessa et al. 1998) and extensive flood tidal del-
ta deposits that encompass the core of the islands of Guaraguaçu, Cotinga,
Rasa da Cotinga and do Mel (Lessa et al. 2000; Araújo 2001) (Fig. 5.6).
The inclusion of Ilha das Peças and Ilha Rasa, inside Baía de Laranjeiras,
in the same flood tidal delta complex is also possible, but depends of fur-
ther investigation. Barbosa and Suguio (1999) also indicate a paleo flood
tidal delta inside Baía de Guaratuba (Fig. 5.6). The initial estuary sand
trapping is ascribed to a flood-dominant tidal-current regime at a time the
estuary had not yet developed intertidal areas extensive enough to promote
the present ebb-dominant condition.
Coastal progradation in Paranaguá apparently started at about 4,000 cal
yrs BP and shifted the shoreline 2,000 m seawards during the next 1,500
yrs (Fig. 5.33). Normal coastal progradation is well documented in the
GPR profile in Fig. 5.31, which shows seaward dipping reflectors with
o o
gradients between 5 and 8 , reaching 2 m of depth. These gradients are
equivalent to those of the present beach face under stormy conditions (Fig.
5.11). Coastal progradation occurred with a northward barrier extension
and an initial rotation of the shoreline possibly ascribed to a shadow zone
of rocky islands fronting Ilha do Mel. Active sedimentation on the flood-
tidal deltas was apparently halted at about 3,500 cal yrs BP, as indicated by
radiocarbon dating of the shell deposit on Ilha Rasa da Cotinga. Lessening
the sediment volume removed from the coastal system would have allowed
coastal progradation. This initial morphodynamic change, which eventual-
ly led to a complete reversal of the estuarine net-sediment transport direc-
tion, was associated with an increase of the intertidal areas, caused by se-
dimentation and sea-level fall. This fall of sea level allowed for wave
sediment reworking of the flood-tidal deltas, generating thin foreshore
deposits and beach ridges on the aforementioned islands (Figs. 5.25 and
5.26).
Fig. 5.30 Orientation of the main sand ridges observed though aerial photography
at Paranaguá coastal plain. (1) Pleistocene barrier, (2) Holocene barrier, (3) pa-
leoestuarine plains, (4) tidal flat, (5) other units, (6) ridge trends
Fig. 5.31 GPR profile longitudinal to the barrier of Itapoá (after Angulo et al.
2005, see location at Fig. 5.2b) showing clinoforms dipping parallel to the coast
Fig. 5.32 Pleistocene and Holocene barrier contact at Superagüi (after Angulo
1992). (1) Pleistocene barrier, (2) Holocene barrier, (3) infilled drainage channels,
(4) ridge trends
Figure 5.33 also suggests that 3.5 km of barrier progradation in Parana-

guá occurred in the last 2,800 yrs, with a sea level fall of about 2.0 m as
indicated by the paleo-sea level envelope (Fig. 5.4). Within this time the
northern extremity of the barrier continued to extend northwards, generat-
ing the offset that presently exists between the orientation of the estuary
mouth and the flood-tidal deltas at the islands of Guaraguaçu, Cotinga and
Rasa da Cotinga. Reverse circulation drill holes performed along the pre
sent shoreline do not identify the muddy shoreface deposits in the northern
section of the barrier. It suggests that the core of the barrier sediments are
related to channel fill, as the barrier migrated over an estuary entrance that
Fig. 5.33 Schematic profile of Holocene regressive barrier at Paranaguá. Topogra-

phy is based on surveyed cross section along the highway (see location at Fig.
5.2a, profile a–c). (1) Pleistocene substrate, (2) Holocene barrier, (3) Holocene
paleolagoon, (4) alluvial sediments, (5) ravinement surface, (6) isochrones
might have become increasingly narrower and deeper, with the onset of
ebb-dominant conditions. A tidal diastem is likely to occur at the base of
the Holocene barrier deposits at this location.
A fully ebb-dominant condition in Baía de Paranaguá might have been
established in the last few thousand years, with the onset of a hydraulic
groin that helped to steer the shoreline further to the northeast. The growth
of an ebb-tidal delta dampened wave height close to the entrance of the
Baía de Paranaguá, lowering the elevation of the barrier in the last 3 km at
the northern end of the barrier by at least 1 m in relation to sections further
south (Fig. 5.7, profiles b–c and d–e).
Dune systems have developed very recently on the coastal plains, per-
haps only in the last few hundred years. A gastropod-shell radiocarbon
date from the contact between beach and aeolian sediments at the inner-
most foredune ridge at Ararapira spit (Fig. 5.2) provided an age of 336–0
cal yrs BP (Angulo et al. 2006a). Reasons for such late dune growth are
not yet known, but might be related to sea level stabilization or climatic
oscillations such as dryer or stormier periods.
5.4.5 The Paranaguá Barrier in Perspective
The evolution of prograded coastal barriers exposed to intense longshore

drift appears to undergo equally important normal and lateral movements
at the end of the marine transgression, when the barrier is relatively nar-
row. Transgressive barrier islands of the eastern US can contain significant
volumes of inlet fill sequences, such as those in North Carolina, USA
(Pierce and Colquhoun 1970; Moslow and Heron 1978). Small estuaries at
the rear of these barriers possess tidal prisms large enough to keep these
inlets (not incised in hard substrate) open while they shift positions. The
transgressive or initially prograded sections of prograded/regressive bar-
riers may thus record this stage of evolution, such as the case of the bar-
riers in the States of Paraná, Santa Catarina and southern São Paulo (Chap.
6, this volume). Channels associated with the inlets appear to have been no
deeper than 10 m, and were eventually shut off when the prograded barrier
and sea level fall extended the inlet channel and reduced the tidal prism.
Similar process is reported for the prograded Dutch coast (Beets et al.
1992), where 3 inlets were shut off within less than 2,000 yrs after trans-
gression maximum.
The main estuary channels, nevertheless, have apparently undergone
migration until more recently, at least in the bays of Guaratuba and Para-
naguá. In Paranaguá, the 5 km northward migration of the tidal inlet in the
last 3,000 yrs might have left a tidal inlet fill (>20 m deep) sequence below
a wave surface of erosion (~12 m) associated with the coastal prograda-
tion. Similar situation has been reported in a 30 m thick Pleistocene barrier
sequence in Tokyo, Japan (Nishikawaa and Ito 2000), where 10 m tidal in-
lets fill is overlaid by another 10 m of shoreface deposits. In the mouth of
Lagoa dos Patos (Chap. 3, this volume), Corrêa et al. (2004) indicate that
the lagoon inlet has migrated almost 15 km to the north in the last 5,000
yrs, and a comparable stratigraphic architecture might exist.
Longshore drift may have had an important role in barrier evolution
along the Paraná-Santa Catarina coast. The present extent of the drift sys-
tem suggested by Lessa et al. (2000), from Barra Velha to Paranaguá, may
have evolved relatively recently, since it depends on the ebb-tidal deltas to
by-pass the estuary entrances. As suggested by the data from Baía de Para-
naguá, flood-tidal deltas were trapping coastal sediments until about 3,000
yrs ago. Thus, longshore transport would be restricted to the compartments
between the estuaries and the more pronounced headlands at a time nar-
rower barriers exist. Multicellular coastal drift systems gave rise to a un-
icellular drift system with barrier progradation and infilling of coastal
reentrances, similarly to what has been proposed by Anthony and Blivi
(1999) and Blivi et al. (2002) for the Benin Bight. An equilibrium coastal
geometry, where coastal progradation ceases as a result of equal rates of
incoming and outgoing sand volumes, might have been firstly achieved in
the southern coastal compartments and lastly in Paranaguá. Definition of
isochrones across different barriers is however necessary to confirm this
hypothesis.
Fluvial sediments captured by the estuaries have left the continental

shelf fronting Paranaguá barrier, and possibly most of the remaining shelf,
relatively starved of sediments. Sediments in the inner shelf are palimpsest
(Veiga et al. 2004), a wave ravinement surface/wave surface of erosion is
well established under the prograded barrier and no transgressive deposit
has been identified above the wave erosive surfaces. This situation might
be characteristic of most of the southeast and south Brazilian barriers
fronting an authocthonous continental shelf (as defined by Swift 1976)
mostly deprived of fluvial sediment yield, and contrasts with regions cha-
racterized by positive sediment balance. Examples of the latter are the pro-
graded coasts of Sendai, Japan (Tamura and Masuda 2005) and Romagna,
Italy (Amorosi et al. 1999), where transgressive sand sheets are observed
overlying ravinement surfaces.
Amongst the barrier facies models in the literature, the one from Galves-
ton Island (Bernard et al. 1962 in McCubbin 1992) is the best analogue for
the Paraná and northern Santa Catarina barriers. Barrier thickness, sedi-
mentary facies distribution and association and the underlying substrate are
similar in both regions (Fig. 5.34). When Galveston model was first pro-
posed, barrier progradation was believed to have occurred along with a
slowly rising sea level. More recently Morton et al. (2000), Blum et al.
(2002) and Rodriguez et al. (2004) have suggested that Galveston barrier
prograded during a 2.0 m fall of sea level, after a maximum around 6,800
yrs BP (Rodriguez et al. 2004). Paleo-sea level behavior has thus been
very similar to that in southeastern Brazil.
The GPR profiles and the isochrones distribution suggest that the slope
and depth of the shoreface associated with the Paranaguá barrier has been
maintained during the last 4,000 yrs of coastal progradation (Figs. 5.28 and
5.34). If that is the case, the wave climate, the sediment size and the sedi-
ment balance have not undergone significant variation within this time. A
steeper (gentler) shoreface would indicate coarsening (fining) of the sedi-
ment grains or a larger surplus (deficit) of sediment. Stive et al. (1990)
shows that sections of the prograded shoreface along the Dutch coast un-
dergoing negative sediment balance are flatter than those experiencing
positive budgets. It suggests that the more positive the sediment budget the
steeper the shoreface profile will be. Tamura and Masuda (2005) report a
rather rapid steepening of the shoreface in a prograding coast in Japan,
where the gradients increased five fold (from ~115:1 to ~30:1) with a 2.5
km progradation. A steeper shoreface has apparently developed due to in-
put of sediments from a neighboring river.
Fig. 5.34 Schematic profiles of (a) Galveston (after McCubbin 1992) and (b)
Paranaguá (after Souza 2005). (1) Pleistocene substrate, (2) Holocene barrier, (3)
Holocene paleolagoon, (4) innershelf sediments, (5) alluvial sediments, (6) ra-
vinement surface, (7) isochrones, (8) facies association limits, (es) aeolian sands,
(bf) beach face, (usf) upper shoreface, (msf) middle shoreface, (isf) inner shore-
face
5.5 Summary
This chapter deals with the late Pleistocene and mainly with the Holocene
geology of a 200 km coastal stretch between 25.3°S and 26.7°S, that har-
2
bors the largest estuarine systems (up to 600 km ) and the widest
strandplains (~50 km) of southeastern Brazil. It is a regressive (3.5 m sea-
level fall), tropical (21.5°C annual mean temperature and 2500 mm/yr of
rainfall) microtidal (1.7 m spring tide range) coast, exposed to significant
wave height and period of about 1.0 m and 8 s, respectively. No significant
2
fluvial discharge reaches the ocean, as small drainage basins (< 4,000 km )
3
discharge less than 200 m /s (annual mean) into the estuaries. Fluvial bed-
load yield to the nearshore is therefore small and large ebb-tidal deltas
8 3
(~10 m ) fronting the estuaries are mostly fed by littoral drift. The barriers
in the area incorporate at least five depositional environments being aeo-
lian dunes, flood-tidal deltas, foreshore, shoreface and innershelf. Sand
size sediments prevail on the shelf and the shoreface, where palimpsest
quartzose sand alternates with fine quartzose shelf sand. The Holocene
barrier deposits rest on a Pleistocene barrier substrate with an erosive con-
tact identified as strong reflectors in GPR profiles. The thickness of the
Holocene barrier varies from about 13 to 14 m close to the shoreline to 5 to
6 m on the landward side. The two-dozen sedimentary facies identified in
the Holocene barriers (mainly in a 12 m deep sand pit exposure) are asso-
ciated with innershelf, shoreface, foreshore, flood-tidal delta and tidal
channel environments. Transgressive deposits are not clearly identified,
mostly due to erosion of the back-barrier by fluvial and estuarine flows.
Curved ridges, channel scouring and inlet fill sequences in the most inter-
nal part of the barriers suggest that spits might have been common features
at the initial stages of the Holocene barrier formation. Limited coastal pro-
gradation occurred in the first 1,000 yrs after sea level maximum, when the
estuaries were flood-dominant and sequestered sand from the coastal sys-
tem. Coastal progradation was accelerated first with the halt of flood do-
minance in the estuaries (that eventually became ebb-dominant) and then
with the infilling of coastal compartments by barrier progradation, that
turned a multicellular into a unicellular coastal drift system.
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Chapter 6
Sedimentology and Morphological Evolution
of the Ilha Comprida Barrier System, Southern
São Paulo Coast
Paulo C. F. Giannini, Carlos C. F. Guedes, Daniel R. do Nascimento Jr,

Ana P. B. Tanaka, Rodolfo J. Angulo, Mario L. Assine and Maria Cristina
de Souza
6.1 Introduction
Ilha Comprida, an island located on the southern São Paulo State coast,
southeast Brazil, is 63.5 km long, with a direction trending SW-NE, between
the Cananéia and Icapara inlets (Fig. 6.1). It integrates the “Cananéia-Iguape
lagoonal system” (Tessler 1982), formed from SW to NE by three natural
islands (Cardoso, Cananéia and Comprida) and one artificial island
(Iguape), delimited to the SW by the Valo Grande, a short cut opened in
1852 (Young 1903; Geobrás 1966) in the Ribeira de Iguape river.
Ilha Comprida is formed essentially by Quaternary sandy sediments, ex-
cept for the 42 m high and less than 1 km large hill of Mesozoic intrusive
alkaline rocks (Morrete, Fig. 6.1). Behind the island there is a lagoon 2 km
in maximum width, that, due to its length, has different names (Mar de
Cananéia or Mar de Fora, in the southwest, adjacent to Cananéia island,
and Mar Pequeno or Mar de Iguape, in the northeast, adjacent to Iguape
island, Fig. 6.1).
Being a “coastal sand barrier” in the sense introduced by Roy et al.
(1994), Ilha Comprida also fits the definition of “barrier” or “barrier-island”
in a more specific geomorphic sense (Reinson 1979), because it separates
open sea from lagoon. However, Ilha Comprida is not a typical “barrier-
island system”, in the meaning adopted by the pioneer publication about
depositional systems (Fisher and McGowen 1967: a transgressive barrier
with a lagoon at the rear), since it is mostly composed of regressive ridges,
forming, therefore, in major part a “strandplain depositional system”.
178 P.C.F. Giannini et al.
Fig. 6.1 The Cananéia-Iguape lagoonal system and Ilha Comprida: location and
geological map, modified from IPT (1981)
The approach adopted in the following includes: (a) to place the island
in the geologic and climatic-oceanologic macro-environments and to cha-
racterize the general stratigraphy of the region; (b) to describe the present
morphodynamics and sedimentology and the relationship with the former
depositional systems and (c) to present an evolutionary model.
6.2.1 Physiographical Scenario
The São Paulo coast is part of the high-relief coast of southeastern Brazil
(see Chap. 2, this volume). The inner limit of the coastal plain is deter-
mined by the foot slopes of the Serra do Mar scarp (Fig. 6.2), a Cenozoic
erosional receding fault scarp on granites, migmatites and metamorphic
rocks (Fig. 6.1), that extends about 1,000 km between Joinville, in Santa
Catarina state, and Angra dos Reis region, in Rio de Janeiro state (Almeida
1953, 1964; Ab’Saber 1962). The Serra do Mar ridge is situated between
the cratonic Paraná Basin, to the west, and the submerged marginal Santos
6 Sedimentology and Morphological Evolution 179
Basin, to the east. Its initial uplift may possibly be related to underplate al-
kaline magmatism of the Late Cretaceous (Zalán and Oliveira 2005), in the
context of the separation of the South-American and African continents.
This uplift would be followed during the Cenozoic by a phase of gravita-
tional collapse, creating a series of rifts parallel to the coast (marginal San-
tos Basin and a continental rift system, named the Serra do Mar Rift, by
Almeida 1975; or Continental Rift of Southeast Brazil, by Riccomini
1989). On the western side of the scarp, up to 2,000 m thick of Eo-
Cretaceous basic and intermediate volcanic rocks occur in the Paraná Ba-
sin. The contrast of rock density has propitiated isostatic rebound with the
gentle dipping to the W of the highland on the west side of the Serra do
Mar. This effect explains the trend of the rivers in this region to flow to-
wards the continental interior. The Ribeira do Iguape is the biggest river of
the São Paulo coast and the most important exception to this trend.
The location of the Ribeira do Iguape river can be explained by a struc-
tural contingency. The Santos Basin is segmented in the north and south
embayment by a structural paleo-high located near the latitude of São Pau-
lo state southern coast (Macedo 1987; Pereira and Macedo 1990; Macedo
et al. 1991). The location of this paleohigh is possibly related to a EW
zone of transference faults (Curitiba Transference Zone) as well as to the
Ponta Grossa Arc (Fig. 6.2), an important NW structure of the Paraná
Basin. This arc contains the main zone of conduits to the Mesozoic
magmatism, with two swarms of NW dikes, one on its central axis in the
Paraná State, and the other, named the Guapiara magmatic alignment
(Ferreira et al. 1981), on its northeast flank. The Guapiara alignment inter-
cepts the São Paulo south coast between Cananéia and Peruíbe. At this lati-
tude, the importance of NE structures is surpassed by the EW and NW-SE
ones, both on the submerged shelf and on the emerged adjacent area. The
existence of structures with an orientation transverse to the Serra do Mar
mountain range facilitated the headcutting upstream migration, favoring
the retreat of the Serra do Mar on the São Paulo south coast (Almeida
1953, 1964), with the development of the valley of the Ribeira de Iguape
river.
A decrease in the height of the Serra do Mar (Ab’Saber 1955) parallels a
gradual augmentation in the width of the coastal plain (up to 70 km) (Mar-
tin and Suguio 1976; Suguio and Martin 1978a, b) from NE to SW in São
Paulo state. The continental shelf of southern São Paulo state also is one of
the widest and gentlest of the eastern Brazilian margin. The distance from
the coastline to the shelf edge (bathymetric level 200 m) is about 200 km,
and the inner shelf (until the bathymetric level of 40 m) is approximately
40 km wide (0.05º slope). This width decreases abruptly in the southern
limit of the Serra do Mar and Santos Basin, on the northern Santa Catarina
coast adjacent to the Florianópolis High (approximate limit between the
high-relief coast of southeastern Brazil and the strike-fed sandy coast of

Rio Grande do Sul; Chap. 2, this volume).
Fig. 6.2 Geological scenario of Southeast Brazil, compiled from Almeida (1964),
Ferreira et al. (1981), Macedo (1987) and Pereira and Macedo (1990)
In regard to Quaternary sedimentary filling, a possible implication of

the gradual enlargement of the São Paulo coastal plain to the SW is that
the erosion of the regressive deposits formed just after the Last Intergla-
cial Transgression (Stage 5) is more pronounced in the northeast than on
the southwest coast (Suguio and Martin 1978a, b). So, the São Paulo
coast north from Santos-Bertioga is characterized by Holocene barriers
anchored on the Serra do Mar foot slope (headland spits and mainland
pocket beaches), with rare and isolated erosional remnants of Pleistocene
barriers, while the south coast has Holocene prograded barriers attached
to well developed Pleistocene barriers. Paleoestuarine-lagoonal systems
in drowned river valleys incised on Pleistocene terraces, closed by Holo-
cene sand barriers, are common in the south coast, for example, at Una-
Juréia (Bentz and Giannini 2003) and Peruíbe-Itanhaém (Giannini and
Santos 1996) coastal plains. Abrupt inversions of longshore direction in-
duced by episodic shifts of estuarine-lagoonal inlets are common in the
evolution of the Una-Juréia Holocene coastal plain (Bentz and Giannini

2003; Bentz 2004).
The Cananéia-Iguape lagoonal system, that comprises Ilha Comprida,
belongs to the largest domain of Quaternary sedimentation of São Paulo
state. This domain, formed predominantly by coastal and alluvial sedi-
ments, has a triangular shape, with about a 130 km (the coastal arc be-
tween Cardoso island and the Itatins granulitic terrain, at Peruíbe) by 40
km width (the distance from its apex, at Registro, to the coastline of Ilha
Comprida). This triangle corresponds to the amphitheatre of fluvial erosion
carved in the Serra do Mar by the rivers of the lower Ribeira do Iguape
drainage basin (Figure 6.1). The limits of the amphitheatre have an orienta-
tion coincident with the regional structural context (NW, WNW, NE), es-
tablished or reactivated since the Mesozoic Era. In this context, the pres-
ence of crystalline basement tilted blocks dipping to the NW, detected by
geophysics under the Cananéia-Iguape coastal plain, permitted Souza
(1995) to infer the presence of a Cenozoic hemigraben related to the tec-
tonics of the Serra do Mar rift.
The pre-Cenozoic basement that outcrops around, or at the hills of the
Ribeira do Iguape river valley (Fig. 6.1) is formed by metamorphic rocks
of green-schist and amphibolite facies, and by granitoid igneous rocks. The
slopes on the limits of the Ribeira do Iguape valley appear partially cov-
ered by muddy gravel deposits attributed to alluvial fans, with fluvial
sands and muds distally associated (Pariqüera Açu Formation: Bigarella
and Mousinho 1965), and probably Miocene (Melo 1990). These alluvial
fans were conditioned by the existence of relief steps controlled by Ceno-
zoic brittle tectonics. The asymmetric distribution of their deposits on the
flanks of the valley, better represented on the west flank, reinforces the
model of a hemigraben with tilted blocks dipping to the interior.
6.2.2 Climatic and Oceanographic Aspects
6.2.2.1 Climate
The São Paulo southern coast is situated in the middle of a semi-permanent

NW-SE belt of condensation and cloud cover, the South Atlantic Conver-
gence Zone (SACZ). This belt separates the areas influenced by Equatorial
and Tropical air masses to the north, and the areas influenced by Polar and
Tropical air masses, to the south (Satyamurti et al. 1998). It coincides with
the average northernmost extent of cold fronts, low pressure unstable
zones formed in the encounter of Tropical Atlantic and Polar air masses.
The Tropical Atlantic air mass is formed on the heated waters of the South
Atlantic ocean, from where it reaches the coast especially in the first half
of the year, producing instability and the action of trade winds from the
NE. The Polar air mass migrates to the north with predominantly a mari-
time trajectory during summer and a continental trajectory during winter,
making the SACZ more active in summer (Nimer 1989; Nogués-Paegle
and Mo 1997). The SACZ, associated with the orographic precipitation ef-
fect exerted by the Serra do Mar scarpment, determines the zone with the
mildest summer of the southeast Brazilian coast, which coincides roughly
with the latitude of maximum inland expansion of the Atlantic Forest.
In the lower Ribeira do Iguape river drainage basin, the climate is pre-
dominantly the Cfa type (wet subtropical with a warm summer) after the
Köppen classification, with average relative air humidity higher than 80%
and the absence of a well defined dry season (Lepsch et al. 1990). Data
recorded from the meteorological stations closer to Ilha Comprida (Ca-
nanéia and Iguape) during the period 1961–1990 indicates annual average
precipitation of 1611 mm (4.14 mm/day), varying from 7.00 mm/day, be-
tween December and February, to 1.39 mm/day, between June and August
(IPCC-DCC 2000). During the same period, the mean temperature ranged
from 17.7ºC, in the coldest period, to 23.1ºC, in the warmest one, with an
annual average of 20.7ºC. The record of the stations during the past
century suggests a tendency for increasing precipitation, temperature
(Fig. 6.3) and pressure. The strongest and more frequent winds occur from
the SSE, transverse to the coast (Geobrás 1966), favored by the regular ac-
tivity of cold fronts.
6.2.2.2 Tides
Measurements made at the tide gauge station of the advance base of Insti-
tute of Oceanography of USP (IO-USP) in Cananéia, sited beside the inner
southwest end of Ilha Comprida barrier, indicate a rise of about 4
cm/decade in the mean sea level between 1950 and 2000 (Harari et al.
2004). The average tidal range recorded in the same station varies between
1.2 m in the spring tide and 0.25 m in the neap tide (Mesquita and Harari
1983, Fig. 6.4). The net circulation obtained from models for tide propaga-
tion calculated by the sum of hourly results of elevation and currents, per
complete tidal cycle, indicates a transport resultant to the NE, nearly paral-
lel to the coast (Picarelli et al. 2002).
Fig. 6.3 Annual variation of precipitation (A) and temperature (B) in the Ca-
nanéia-Iguape region in the period 1900–1990, based on IPCC-DCC (2000) data.
The zero corresponds to the mean value in the period 1961–1990 (4.14 mm/day, in
A, and 20.7ºC, in B)
Fig. 6.4 Diagram of predicted tidal heights for the tide gauge station of IO-USP
advance base, in Cananéia for June of 2004 (Harari and Mesquita 2003). Average
level: 0.8 m
6.2.2.3 Waves and Longshore Currents

Two swell wave systems operate in the Ilha Comprida region: one from
the E and NE, associated with trade winds, and the other from the S and
SE, related to cold fronts (Tessler 1988). Wave data collected at Bom Abri-
go Island by Geobrás (1966) and CTH-USP (1978) indicate wave breaking
heights up to 2 m, being 50% of the heights in the interval between 1 and

1.5 m. The average period for waves from the SE is 8.8 ± 1s (Geobrás
1966).
These two wave systems are responsible for generating opposite direc-
tions of longshore currents, with a net predominance of transport to the NE
as evidenced by the deviation of little inlets and by the patterns of variation
of sedimentological properties (Tessler 1988; see data specific of Ilha
Comprida below). The littoral longshore drift toward the NE, tied to the
meandering of the Icapara inlet under the influence of ebb-tide currents,
explains the progradation and extension of the Ilha Comprida barrier in
this direction, simultaneous with the erosion of Iguape Island on the oppo-
site margin of the inlet (Leste beach, Fig. 6.1). The average rate of growth
toward the NE estimated from comparison of different bathymetric charts
and aerial photographs is about 35 m/year between 1882 and 1965
(Geobrás 1966), and 24 m/year between 1962 and 2000. Estimations based
on Geobrás (1966) data indicate higher rates during the first three decades
immediately after the opening of the Valo Grande artificial channel in
1852. The narrowest zone of the island was formed between 1852 and
1923. The total growth of the island toward the NE is 4.8 km since 1868
(Nascimento 2006).
An examination of the distribution of suspended sediments interpreted
by satellite images, and a comparison between grain size data from the ex-
tremities and the center of Ilha Comprida beach, lead Souza (1997) to pro-
pose a more complex model for the local coastal circulation. She proposed
two cells of longshore drift, with a divergence zone in the mid-south por-
tion of the beach, in despite of a “light predominance” of the littoral trans-
port towards the NE. More detailed grain size and mineralogical data
(Nascimento 2006) suggest that this inversion, where existent, is restricted
to the southwest end of the beach.
6.2.3 Holocene Paleosea-Level Trend
Recent reviews of the Holocene paleosea-level trend for the eastern Brazil-
ian coast (Angulo and Lessa 1997; Angulo et al. 2006) indicate a smooth
or gently oscillating decline of sea-level after a Holocene sea-level maxi-
mum of 2 to 3.5 m, reached between 7,000 and 5,000 cal yrs BP (Chaps. 2
and 5, this volume). In the study area, ten samples of shell, tree trunks,
wood fragments and vegetal debris were dated to identify former sea-
levels (Martin and Suguio 1975, 1976, 1978; Martin et al. 1979, 1979/80;
Suguio and Martin 1978a; Suguio et al. 1976, 1980). According to Angulo
et al. (2006) eight of these samples were inconclusive and the other two
indicate paleo-sea levels higher than –1.2 m at 7,659–6,949 cal yrs BP and
higher than +0.3 m at 3,857–3,382 cal yrs BP. These data are compatible
with those for the Paraná coast and Cardoso Island as well as with the gen-
eral sea level trend for the eastern Brazilian coast.
6.2.4 Stratigraphy of Quaternary Coastal Deposits
Suguio and Petri (1973), utilizing two well cores made on the coastal plain
at Iguape (well IGG-1, 56.4 m deep) and on the Ilha Comprida beach, 29
km from its southwest tip (well IGG-2, 167 m deep), divided the Cenozoic
sedimentary succession into four units upwards: (I) alluvial gravelly depo-
sits (Pariqüera-Açu Formation: up to 118 m thick), (II) silt-clayey sedi-
ments (up to 14 m thick), (III) silty sand (up to 12 m thick), and (IV) very
well sorted fine sand (up to 30 m thick). Studying the microfossils, Petri
and Suguio (1973) interpreted unit II as deposited in brackish water and
unit III, as formed under open sea conditions. The succession formed by
units I, II and III was thus interpreted as transgressive. A regressive cha-
racter and the status of a lithostratigraphic unit, denominated the Cananéia
Formation, was assigned to unit IV. Since the publication of the 1:100,000
maps of the Quaternary of São Paulo State coast (Suguio and Martin
1978a, b), the term Cananéia Formation was restricted to designate only
the Pleistocene transgressive (“Cananéia Transgression”) and regressive
deposits, in contraposition to the Holocene ones, informally named as the
Santos Formation (Suguio and Tessler 1992) and, formally named as Ilha
Comprida Formation (Suguio and Martin 1994). Despite the frequent use
of these units in the Brazilian Quaternary literature, they are not distin-
guished by lithological criteria, but only by chronological aspects. They
would be, therefore, as noted by Tessler (1988), distinct chronostratigraph-
ic series, but not lithostratigraphic units.
Criteria used by Martin et al. (1981, 1988) to distinguish Pleistocene
and Holocene sediments in the Brazilian Quaternary coastal plains in-
cluded altitude, sharpness and/or spacing of beach ridge alignments and
the degree of epigenetic staining of the grains (presence of “piçarras”,
cohesive brown sands “harden” because of the filosilicatic-organic-
ferruginous cement, in the epoch admitted as conclusive evidence of an
age older than Holocene). Utilizing tacitly, or explicitly these types of
criteria, Suguio and Martin (1978a, b) mapped the major part of the
southwest third of Ilha Comprida barrier as a Pleistocene unit (Cananéia
14
“Formation”). However, this interpretation is not supported by the C
and OSL dates obtained in this area by Giannini et al. (2003a) and
Guedes (2003).
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) data recorded by Gandolfo et al. (2001)

along a profile transverse to the coastline, in the southwest extremity of Il-
ha Comprida barrier, allowed the detection of three radar-stratigraphic
units separated by two strong electromagnetic reflectors (R1, 5 to 7 m
deep, and R2, 8 to 11 m deep, Fig. 6.5). The upper unit, above R1, has an
internal structural geometry of clinoforms dipping to the ocean, typical of
a progradational regressive geometry, and for this reason interpreted as
Holocene regressive sands. The intermediate unit, between R1 and R2,
with an indistinct structural geometry, was considered by Gandolfo et al.
(2001) as Holocene transgressive sands. The reflector R2 marks an abrupt
change in the reflective pattern, and therefore could represent the top of
muddy deposits as well of sands (“piçarras”) hardened by prolonged pedo-
genic or eodiagenetic processes. Gandolfo et al. (2001) interpreted this unit
below R2 as Pleistocene transgressive clays. However, the correlation of
GPR sections with the stratigraphic column of well IGG-1 (located in Ilha
Comprida), in which the upper 30 m comprise well sorted fine to very fine
sand (Suguio and Petri 1973; Petri and Suguio 1973), favors the hypothesis
that R2 represents the contact between two different sandy units. In this
case, the lower radar-stratigraphic unit probably could represent Pleisto-
cene regressive sands (Fig. 6.5).
6.3 Present Depositional Systems
6.3.1 Beach-Dune
6.3.1.1 Morphodynamic Aspects

The beach morphodynamic type along Ilha Comprida barrier is dominantly
dissipative (Fig. 6.6), with local variations to intermediate-dissipative with
well defined cusps and berm, until 4 km to the NE, and to intermediate-
dissipative with incipient cusps and berm in the next 12 km.
Fig. 6.5 GPR section (100 MHz) transverse to the coastline on the southwest bor-
der of Ilha Comprida barrier (Gandolfo et al. 2001), with identification of the re-
interpreted radar-stratigraphic units
The beach has two narrow sectors, in which the width (in relation to the
mean spring tide) becomes less than 60 m, linked to an increase in the
beach face slope (>0.8°). The first sector of narrow beach comprises the
zone of less dissipative morphodynamic type, near the southwest end
(Fig. 6.6). The second occurs near the northeast end (between 58 and 62
km towards the NE), coincident with the zone of intense erosion during the
last four decades. Based on a comparison of maps and aerial photographs,
this erosion can be explained by the destruction of a salient feature on the
coastline (Fig. 6.7), constructed between 1938 and 1945 and preserved at
least until 1965 (Geobrás 1966). This projection is probably related to a
temporary shift to the N of the northeast end of the barrier during this
period, with a consequent change in ebb-tide delta configuration and up-
stream trapping of sand. With the progressive migration of the Icapara
inlet to the NE, the salient left the zone of hydrodynamic shadow produced
by the Icapara ebb-tide delta and began to erode after 1965.
The active aeolian deposits of Ilha Comprida are restricted to the first 50
to 300 m adjacent to the beach, except for a small transgressive dunefield
(2 × 0.5 km) in the area of maximum narrowing of the island, near Icapara
village. The dunes may be classified into four types: foredunes (Figs. 6.8,
6.9), blowouts (Fig. 6.10), and parabolic dunes and barchanoid chains,
with these two last types being found only in the transgressive dunefield
(Fig. 6.11).
Fig. 6.6 Different beach morphodynamic types along Ilha Comprida barrier, from
SW to NE. A. Intermediate-dissipative with well defined cusps and berm (rhyth-
mic bar and beach); B. Intermediate-dissipative with incipient cusps and berm
(longshore bar trough); C. Dissipative
Incipient and established foredunes are observed along the whole beach,
mainly as ridges (Fig. 6.8A, D), but as a terrace (Fig. 6.8B) and a ramp
(Fig. 6.8C) as well. The most typical foredune terraces are low (predomi-
nantly up to 1.0 m high) and they occur beside the two lagoonal inlets
which delimit the island. Incipient foredune ramps, which are anchored
mainly on paleodunes, predominate along the beach between 10 and 26 km
from the southwest extremity. In some cases, such as in the sector under
erosion in the northeast, the apparent ridge-shape of the dunes results from
the burial of a cliffed established foredune by an incipient foredune ramp,
indicating recent aeolian reconstruction. The maximum heights are found
in ridges of the mid-southwest of the beach: 3.6 m, in the established
foredunes, and 2.9 m in the incipient ones. A positive correlation between

foredune height and beach width is observed (Fig. 6.9). This correlation
inverts at the terminations of the island, where the widening of the beach is
related to the presence of the lagoonal inlets of Cananéia and Icapara and
is accompanied by the appearance of low incipient foredune terraces.
Fig. 6.7 Projection of the coastline at the northeast portion of the Ilha Comprida
barrier, viewed in aerial photography of 1962 (A), and in 2004, under erosion (B)
The blowouts can occur as attached (Fig. 6.10A) or separated (Fig.

6.10B–D) from the active foredune ridges, forming, in both cases, deposi-
tional lobes preferentially oriented towards the NNW. The attached
blowouts are responsible for the sinuosity frequently observed on the
foredune ridge crest. The non-attached blowouts show two modes of
occurrence. In the sector between 10 and 26 km from Cananéia inlet,
where paleodunes are close to the beach, and sometimes with recent ero-
sion evidenced by cliffs up to 2 m high, the blowouts appear coalesced
and/or superimposed (Fig. 6.10B, C). Their depositional lobes, longwalled
up to tens of meters and tending to parabolic dunes, precipitate into the
forest cover on the paleodunes and marine terraces. The second mode of
occurrence of blowouts not attached to foredunes is found in the small du-
nefield of the Icapara region (Fig. 6.11A, B), where they evolve landward
into parabolic dunes (Fig. 6.11C) and poorly developed barchanoid chains
(Fig. 6.11D), up to 8 m high. This transition from deflation features to de-
positional features can be related to the increase in the ratio between the
aeolian sedimentary balance (influx/outflux) in a direction towards the la-
goonal margin. The presence of this dunefield in the northeast part of the
barrier, coincident with the narrowest zone of the island, can be explained
by the wind acceleration on the lagoon. Consequently, the blowouts ad-
vance with higher velocity and a longer inland distance, but decelerate ab-
ruptly at the wet and vegetated lagoon margin. This mechanism creates a
local higher ratio between the aeolian sand supply and the accumulation
space at the inner portion of the narrow barrier. Besides this, the sand
supply may also have been locally greater in the 19th century and begin-
ning of 20th century, when this area was immediately at longshore up-
stream of Icapara inlet and sediment trapping may have occurred.
6.3.1.2 Sedimentology
The variation of grain-size statistical measures along Ilha Comprida beach

(Fig. 6.12A) indicates a general trend to fining, better sorting and decreas-
ing skewness toward the NE. This sedimentological pattern, confirmed by
statistical tests (Nascimento 2006), points to a NE sediment transport ac-
cording to McLaren and Bowles (1985) rule. The grain-size statistical pa-
rameters of incipient foredunes show a similar spatial trend, except for the
skewness, which has an inverse behavior (Fig. 6.12B). The spatial varia-
tion of mean diameter and sorting in the foredunes reflects the influence of
the beach sands from which they are derived.
A more detailed analysis reveals that the higher amplitude of variation
of grain-size parameters occurs in the two terminations of the beach, where
Fig. 6.8 Types of foredunes in Ilha Comprida. A. Incipient foredune ridge; B. In-
cipient foredune terrace; C. Incipient foredune ramp; D. Established foredune
ridge (with incipient foredune ridges on the right)
the trend of longshore variation is less defined and roughly inverted in re-
lation to the general trend. In the southwest end, an inversion in the long-
shore variation occurs between 8 and 20 km from the Cananéia inlet, de-
pending on the grain-size parameter. This inversion is statistically
acceptable (Nascimento 2006) and may be related to the existence of an
alongshore drift cell towards the SW at the zone of influence of the hy-
draulic jetty effect exerted by the Cananéia inlet. The area of divergence of
longshore currents would act as a zone of sedimentary output, with an ero-
sional tendency. A fact favorable to this interpretation is that the same re-
gion comprises one of the narrowest and least dissipative sectors of the
beach, indicating relative scarcity of sand on the shoreface. In addition,
towards the NE, this area comprises the main zone of coastal cliffs in the
paleodunes. An alternative explanation is the existence of a locally diffe-
rentiated granulometry due to the sand supply from Cananéia inlet, espe-
cially during storms (MG Tessler, personal communication).
In the northeast, the extreme 5 to 7 km of beach also show signals of in-
version in the pattern of grain size, but it is more subtle. This beach sector
is located in the narrowest zone of the island and on an extension to the
NE. It corresponds approximatelly, as shown by old topographic charts
compiled by Geobrás (1966), to the barrier sector formed after the opening
of Valo Grande channel, in 1852. The opening of Valo Grande increased
the ebb-flow, and the meandering and erosional capacity of the Icapara in-
let (Geobrás 1966; Nascimento 2006). The granulometric change in the
northeast end of the beach could therefore indicate the record of this in-
creasing ebb-flow, by which coarser and less sorted sands began to be in-
troduced into the coastal system.
The main transparent non-micaceous heavy minerals found in the very
fine sand fraction of the beach-dune samples are (in decreasing order): ep-
idote, tourmaline, hornblende, zircon, staurolite, rutile, sillimanite, kyanite,
andalousite, hyperstene and garnet. Tremolite, clinopyroxene and monazite
are also found in minor amounts.
There is a general trend of a decreasing concentration of ultra-stable
heavy minerals (ZTR index) and increasing concentration of unstable
ones towards the NE (Fig. 6.13). Considering the dominance of net long-
shore current in this direction, this observed pattern of decreasing minera-
logical maturity in the transport direction can be attributed to the hydraulic
effect, e.g., preferential transport of less dense heavy minerals (coinci-
dently, most of them, in this case, are unstable). Another hypothesis is
the influence of the “new” sediments, rich in unstable minerals, supplied
in the northeast extremity of the barrier by the two inlets (Icapara and
Ribeira) related to the Ribeira do Iguape River (Tessler 1988). This hy-
pothesis seems complicated by the net longshore transport towards the
NE. A third hypothesis to explain the decreasing mineralogical maturity
of beach-dune sediments towards the NE is a possible decreasing minera-
logical maturity of the deposits that constitute the barrier. Since the isl-
and grew from the SW to NE, in this hypothesis, the deposits of the SW
portion must be more affected by post-depositional dissolution. This is
compatible with the observed decreasing mineralogical maturity in this
direction along the whole island.
6.3.2 Lagoon
Information about the circulation in the back-barrier lagoon is derived

from physical and/or chemical hydrodynamic measures (Miniussi 1959;
Miyao 1977; Miyao et al. 1986; Miranda et al. 1995; Bérgamo 2000; Pisetta
2006), from the characterization of suspended and bed-load sediments
(Kutner 1962; Magliocca and Kutner 1964; Bonetti Filho 1995; Bonetti
Filho et al. 1996; Saito 2002; Barcellos and Furtado 2003), and from anal-
ysis of prograding sedimentary features by comparison between nautical
charts and aerial photographs of different ages (Geobrás 1966; Tessler and
Furtado 1983; Tessler 1988). The flood-tide currents from the Cananéia
and Icapara lagoonal inlets meet at the mid-northeast portion of the lagoon
(Pedra do Tombo or Pedra Balisa, near Subaúma River mouth: Fig. 6.1),
diverging from this point during the ebb-tide. The deposition of lagoonal
bed-load sediments is controlled by the net preferential transport in the
ebb-tide direction, except in the sector between Pedra do Tombo and Valo
Grande mouth, where the bi-directional formation of sedimentary features
indicates a certain equilibrium between the ebb-tide and flood-tide currents
(to the NE and SW, respectively).
Fig. 6.9 Variation of morphometric parameters of the beach-dune system along

Ilha Comprida barrier, from SW to NE. A. Beach width, corrected in relation to
mean tide. B. Height of incipient foredune ridge. In the dissipative sector, the
measured width corresponds to the foreshore (sensu Angulo 1993). In the sectors
with intermediate surfzone-beach types, the same measure comprises foreshore
and backshore
Fig. 6.10 Examples of active blowouts in Ilha Comprida. A. Blowout attached to

foredune ridge, 27 km towards the NE from Cananéia inlet. B, C, D. Blowouts not
attached to foredunes, between 15 and 18 km towards the NE
Fig. 6.11 Transgressive dunefield near Icapara, 57 km toward the NE from

Cananéia inlet. A. Aerial photography obtained in 1962. B, C, D. Field aspects:
blowout not attached to foredune (B), changing onshore to parabolic dunes (C)
and barchanoid chains (D)
Fig. 6.12 Variation from the SW to the NE along the Ilha Comprida beach-dune
system of statistical parameters of grain size frequency distribution (mean diame-
ter, standard deviation and skewness). A. Beach. B. Incipient foredunes
Fig. 6.13 Variation from SW to NE along Ilha Comprida beach in transparent non-
micaceous heavy minerals in the very fine sand. A. Concentration of ultra-stable
components (ZTR index sensu Hubert 1962). B. Concentration of unstable com-
ponents (according to the classification of Pettijohn 1975)
6.4 Old Depositional Systems
6.4.1 Paleobeaches and Paleodunes
6.4.1.1 Coastal Ridges

Beach and dune ridges of Ilha Comprida appear on aerial photographs as
linear features marked by contrasts of density and type of vegetation.
These contrasts are not persistent along the island. Two main types of con-
trast can be observed (Giannini et al. 2003a; Guedes 2003): between low-
growing sparse vs. higher and denser vegetation, on the inner strip of the
island (roughly equivalent to three fourths of its width), and between low-
growing vegetation and whitish areas corresponding to sands with poor
vegetation cover, on the 1 km wide outer strip (Fig. 6.14), where aeolian
dune and paleodune alignments are dominant (Suguio and Petri 1973; Su-
guio et al. 1999; Giannini et al. 2003a).
The inner strip has an altitude lower than 4 m. The ridge alignments of
this strip appear better preserved besides the lagoon margin of the island,
where is possible to differentiate gentle ridges and troughs tens of meters
wide and less than 1 m height differences (Fig. 6.14 A, B). Away from the
lagoon margin, the ridges became associated with swampy zones up to 300
m wide and tens of kilometers long, with incised active drainage (Figs.
6.14C, D). There is not a continuous swampy strip, and neither erosional
nor depositional associated features which indicates these swamps are re-
lated to flooding by ocean or by lagoon. So, the interpretation adopted here
is that the water of these swamps is from the water table appearing on the
lower portions of the coastal plain (flat swales between ridges), and not re-
lated to a rise in RSL on a millennial time scale as hypothesized in prior
studies (Barcelos 1975; Barcelos et al. 1976; Martin and Suguio 1978).
Good evidence of dune ridges was not identified on this inner strip, neither
on aerial photographs nor in the field. The sedimentary structures found in
trenches are plan-parallel stratifications characteristic of the swash zone. In
view of this, these inner alignments are interpreted here as beach ridges
(sensu stricto, e.g. coastal ridges formed only by subaqueous or intertidal
beach deposits).
The paleodune ridges of the outer strip (Fig. 6.15) are distinguished
from the active established foredunes by the higher vegetation cover
(shrubby or arboreal), by the major degree of sand cementation, including
Fig. 6.14 Types of ridges (probably beach ridges) on the inner strip of Ilha Com-
prida barrier: comparison between aerial (A, C) and field (B, D) aspects. A, B.
Ridges with well defined crests and troughs, adjacent to Mar Pequeno lagoon, near
Pedrinhas. C, D. Ridges in the middle of the island, associated with swampy zones
presence of paleosols (Fig. 6.15C), by the lateral discontinuity, and by

their frequently bigger size (up to 8 m high). These ridges are typically si-
nuous, due to the presence of U-shaped features up to 50 m long with a
convexity to the NW or NNW (Fig. 6.15A, B). By their geometry, relative
disposition and field aspect, these features can be described as depositional
lobes of relict blowouts formed on former foredune ridges.
The number of apparent alignments of the paleodune (relict foredune)
ridges varies between two and six, with higher quantities found in the
mid-southwest and northeast parts of the island. The distinctiveness and

continuity of these alignments are variable too, depending on the merging
of neighboring dune ridges by old or recent blowouts. They can be re-
stricted to a well defined strip up to 10 m wide as well as occurring dis-
persed in a strip several tens of meters wide.
The paleodunes can occur as isolated and discontinuous ridges, up to
900 m inland from the coastline (Fig. 6.15B), or beside the beach, exposed
at wave eroded cliffs (Fig. 6.15C). Variations alongshore in cliff height of
2 to 4 m in a distance of 10 to 20 m, can be attributed to walls or deposi-
tional lobes of old blowouts, nowdays abutted by storm and spring-tide
swash.
Considering that even the inner and older paleodune ridges show their
shapes modified by old blowouts, it is possible to suppose that at least two
phases of “parabolization” and merging of ridges have occurred during the
depositional history of Ilha Comprida barrier. In the first phase, the blo-
wouts on the old dune ridges would have been formed and oriented to-
wards the NW, during dune ridge formation, similarly to that observed in
parts of the active foredune ridges. In the second phase, new blowouts
would have being formed in areas with intense recycling of aeolian sedi-
ments, in the presence of paleodune cliffs, as exemplified by the mid-
southwest part of the beach.
The higher paleodune ridges can have a gentle inclination relative to the
coastline. They are very close to the beach, distant for a few tens of meters,
along the sector between 10 and 23 km far from the southwest end of the
island, forming a sub-continuous cliff. They diverge from the coastline,
beyond the limits of this sector. This is the sector with the highest devel-
opment of active climbing and coalescing blowouts, exhibiting conspi-
cuous depositional lobes.
The composition of several transverse profiles made on the central and
southwest portions of the island permits a subdivision of the aeolian depo-
sits in three generations: 1. high paleodune ridges (up to 8 m), with sinuos-
ity attributed to old blowouts tens of meters long (Fig. 6.15B, C); 2. suc-
cessive, low (up to 3.5 m high) established foredune ridges (Fig. 6.15D,
E); and 3. active dunes, formed mainly by reworking of prior aeolian
Fig. 6.15 Types and generations of paleodune ridges in the outer strip of Ilha
Comprida barrier. A. Aerial photography. B. Sinuous high ridge, 1 km far from
the beach, belonging to the older aeolian generation (1), in the mid-northeast part
of the island. C. Coastal cliff carved in a sand-ridge of aeolian generation 1. D, E.
Set of low parallel ridges of aeolian generation 2. In D from left to right: inner
flank of active established foredune, five paleodune ridges of generation 2 and
high ridge of generation 1. E illustrates the contact between the deposits of genera-
tions 2, on the left, and 1
deposits, as evidenced by the predominance of incipient foredune ramps

and of blowouts up to 9 m high (Figs. 6.8, 6.10, 6.11).
6.4.1.2 Bundles of Beach and Foredune Ridges

Bundles of coastal ridge alignments have a geometry and distribution re-
lated with the spatial evolution of the coast-line through time. The ridge
truncations represent interruptions or changes in the barrier growth geome-
try, resulting from variations of at least one of three possible factors: RSL,
accommodation space, and volume and direction of sedimentary supply.
Based on this methodological premise, an aerial photographic map of the
Ilha Comprida coastal ridge bundles and truncations was utilized to infer
the sedimentary evolution of the barrier. This map was elaborated in three
steps (Giannini et al. 2003a; Guedes 2003): 1. definition of alignment di-
rections by the identification of height contrasts independent of vegetal
cover; 2. delineation of successive ridge cut-offs from the alignment direc-
tions previously traced; and 3. recognition of evolutionary phases, based
on the sets or bundles of concordant ridge alignments.
This map made it possible to separate more than ten regions, differen-
tiated on the basis of ridge alignment direction. Four of them are sited on
the southwest extreme of the island (Fig. 6.16), showing roughly triangular
shapes, with long axes sub-parallel to the coastline. Despite being located
on the oldest portion of the island, these ridge bundles result from a supe-
rimposed and much more recent dynamic process. The marked variability
of ridge direction in this area is related with the coastal instability of the
Cananéia inlet margin, evidenced by historical coastline variations
(Geobrás 1966).
Toward the NE, between the area of the inner triangular ridge bundle
beside Cananéia inlet and the Frade spit, there is a region where the visua-
lization of ridge alignments is hampered by the high density of arboreal
vegetation (Fig. 6.16).
Fig. 6.16 Geometric pattern of beach and dune ridge alignments of Ilha Comprida
barrier, with emphasis to ridge cut-offs (continuous lines). Based on Giannini
et al. (2003a) and Guedes (2003)
At the Frade spit region begins a pattern of curved ridges cut on the in-
ner side by the Mar de Cananéia lagoon. This extends continuously to the
maximum narrowing of the island (near Icapara, in Iguape). The curved
ridge alignments are very well observed, due to the presence of lower and
less dense vegetal cover and, mainly, due to the alternation between low
and high vegetation. They also extend towards the SW, in the direction to
the Cananéia inlet, however, becoming linear. It is possible to distinguish
at least seven bundles or generations of coastal ridges, delimited by suc-
cessive cut-offs at their outer alignments (Fig. 6.16). The observed cut-offs
are characterized by acute angles opening to the NE, which grow gradually
from SW to NE. Therefore, each ridge cut-off is characterized by a sub-
parallel geometry, with an erosional origin on the updrift end of the long-
shore current, to a clearly oblique geometry, with a depositional origin, on
the downdrift side of the longshore current. The successive repetition of
this ridge pattern indicates that each phase of island widening to the SE
(cross shore) was accompanied by simultaneous island progradation and
extension towards the NE (down the longshore current direction).
In the zone of maximum narrowing of the island near Icapara, asso-
ciated with the center of a semicircular lagoon re-entrant about 5 km long,
the curvature of the dune ridges and their respective cut-offs becomes sub-
tle (Fig. 6.16). The interpretation of this pattern is that most of the curved
ridges were eroded by the meandering lagoon channel which has generated
the re-entrant. Toward the NE from this zone, the pattern of dune ridges
curving towards the NE reappears, as well as the distinct cut-offs (Fig. 6.16).
The association of the curved pattern with the extension towards the NE is
historically registered in this area (Geobrás 1966). The relatively recent
age (post- Valo Grande) of this portion of the Ilha Comprida barrier ex-
plains the scarce vegetation and the consequent facility for visualization of
cut-offs.
The dune ridges existent in the zone of maximum narrowing of the isl-
and show continuity and are therefore contemporaneous with the linear
ridges towards the SW, until the outer triangular ridge bundle adjacent to
the Cananéia inlet. A dune-ridge truncation occurs in this area, easily re-
cognizable on aerial photographs and in the field as well. The fact that out-
er ridge bundles widen to the SW and to the NE from this point can be
considered additional evidence that cells of longshore drift diverge in this
locality.
6.4.1.3 Depositional Facies
Seven depositional facies were identified by Giannini et al. (2003a) and

Guedes (2003) outcropping in cliffs along the inner margin of the Ilha
Comprida barrier-island (Fig. 6.17). They are: sand with plain-parallel la-
mination (Sp), sand with plain-parallel lamination and abundant icnofossils
(Spi), sand with cyclic cross-stratification and abundant icnofossils (Scci),
sand with hummocky cross stratification (Sh), mud with woody trunks
(Mt), massive sand with carbonized vegetal debris (Sm) and sand with
cross stratification (Sc). The last four facies have an apparently localized
occurrence along the cliff and are listed in order of appearance from SW to
NE.
Facies Sp (Fig. 6.18A, B) is the most common. It corresponds to fine
sands with plain-parallel lamination, sometimes bioturbated, with massive
warty burrows (Ophiomorpha) characteristic of the arthropoda Callichirus
major and conic excavations (Fig. 6.18A). Symmetrical ripples occur spo-
radically (Fig. 6.18B). This facies was only identified in trenches in the in-
terior of the island, below the aeolian cover or pedogenic elluvial (spodo-
sol soil) level. Just below Sp in the lagoonal cliff outcrops, the facies Spi
differs from Sp only by the larger abundance of Callichirus burrows
(Fig. 6.18C). Considering that these icnofossils correspond to domicnia up
to 1.5 m deep, whose top is level approximately with the neap tide swash
terrace, the facies Spi, rich in this Ophiomorpha, can be related to
processes of swash at low tide conditions, while the facies Sp would register
the same process occurring at higher tide conditions and a more inland
position.
In facies Scci (points C, D and E of the longitudinal profile in Figs.
6.17, 6.19), the fine sands contain abundant Ophiomorpha and cross-
stratification, dipping apparently to the NE, with cyclic variation of thick-
ness and distinctness, like tidal bundles. Tabular mud clasts up to 2 cm
(A)
(B)
Fig. 6.17 Location map of the transverse and longitudinal profiles (A) obtained by
Giannini et al. (2003a) and Guedes (2003) and schematic columnar sections (B) of
the longitudinal profile, from the SW (point A) to NE (point F). Vertical scale in-
dicated in each columnar section. Distance between columns are not to scale
Fig. 6.18 Facies Sp and Spi, both with plain-parallel lamination. A. Facies Sp with
sands partially impregnated by argillaceous-organic-ferruginous material. Notice
bioturbation showing V-shape. Leste beach, left margin of Icapara inlet (see Fig.
6.17). B. Facies Sp with symmetrical ripples. C. Facies Spi
large also occur (Fig. 6.19C). This facies can be interpreted as a product of
linear bars and/or sand wave migration, under the influence of the tidal
cycle. These bedforms can be related to wave breaking or to tidal currents
semi-confined to the paleo-inlet in the northeast tip of the island. The asso-
ciation with mud clasts, suggestive of a proximity to back-barrier lagoonal
muddy facies or of mud drapes being reworked, reinforces the second hy-
pothesis. Facies Spi and Scci are frequently separated by a lamina up to 1
cm thick, of coarse sand to granule and pebble grain size, formed by mica-
ceous plates and carbonized vegetal debris, including tinders and loafs,
which would have accumulated on the low tide terrace and been preserved
through the rapid burial by the swash sands of the Spi facies.
Fig. 6.19 Facies Scci. A - Association with facies Sp (upper part of the photo).
The dominant apparent cross-laminae dip is to the NE. Notice the two cross lami-
nae sigmoid sets in the middle of the photo, with a cyclic pattern similar to a tidal
bundle one. Notice Callichirus burrows, in the lower part of facies Scci. This suc-
cession is interpreted as a shallowing upward deposit, related to the barrier extend-
ing towards the NE, above tide-influenced sediments of the old lagoonal inlet.
Point C of the longitudinal profile (Lon), southwest part of lagoon margin on Ilha
Comprida barrier-island (see Fig. 6.17). B - Detail of the depositional facies out-
cropping at point C of the longitudinal profile, showing the cyclicity in the grain-
size and compositional variation of the cross laminae. Note also the sigmoid geo-
metry of the laminae in the lower set, suggestive of traction deposition with a high
rate of simultaneous suspension. C - The same facies showing mud intraclasts.
Notice the cyclic variation in the abundance of mud clasts. Point D of the longitu-
dinal profile (Lon), mid-south portion of the lagoon margin (see Fig. 6.17)
Facies Sh was found at a cliff in the southwest extreme of the lagoon

margin of the island (point A of the longitudinal profile of Figs. 6.17,
6.20), intercalated with swash deposits (facies Sp). It occurs as a sub tabu-
lar bed, 45 cm thick, of fine sand, laterally continuous along the whole
outcrop (20 m long), characterized by a high concentration of heavy min-
erals and by symmetric undulations, with concave-convex truncations. Lo-
cally, the undulations seem be deformed by liquefaction. The geometry
and dimensions of the undulations, compatible with hummocky cross stra-
tification, and the concentration of heavy minerals, typical of anomalous
energy events, indicate that this bed results from a coastal storm, with a
consequent instantaneous elevation of sea level, acting over a zone normally
characterized by shallow water (fair-weather swash zone). According to

this hypothesis, the bed should mark a time surface with lateral continuity.
Its occurrence is restricted to the southwest extremity of the island, which
could be explained by the small length of the barrier at the time of its de-
position.
Fig. 6.20 Facies Sh, associated with the recurrence of facies Sp, outcropping in
point B of the longitudinal profile, southwest extreme of the lagoonal margin. No-
tice tube of luminescence sampling, in photo B, truncation of concave cross strati-
fication by convex stratification, in photo C, and intense bioturbation of the facies
Sp, above Sh, in photo D
Facies Mt occurs between Scci and Sp in outcrop D of the longitudinal

profile (Fig. 6.21). It consists of a black mud bed, 35 cm thick, containing
wood fragments of variable size, including a trunk with 10 cm of diameter
in vertical position (Lab 839 – CENA 438: 5,308 – 4,877 cal yrs BP). This
facies represents deposits of back-barrier mangrove. The vertical succes-
sion found in outcrop D can be interpreted as resulting from the longitu-
dinal migration (towards the NE) of the barrier-lagoon over the old inlet
deposits, followed by the mangrove erosion during local coastal trans-
gression.
Fig. 6.21 Facies Mt, intercalated with recurrent facies Sp in point D of the inner
longitudinal profile, mid-southwest of the lagoonal margin. The trunk of facies Mt
was dated in 5,308 – 4,877 cal yrs BP
Facies Sc and Sm (Fig. 6.22) areassociated with the portions of the la-
goon margin sited at the narrowest zone of the island, near Icapara hill
(point F of the inner longitudinal profile). Sc corresponds to whitish fine
sands with cross stratification, which at this place are related to relict def-
lation areas of an active transgressive dunefield. Sm occurs intercalated
with Sc or separating the facies Sp (below) and Sc. It consists of a grey
bed of fine to median sand, centimeters to decimeters thick, rich in vegetal
debris up to 1 cm long (Lab 838 – CENA 437: 262 – 0 cal yrs BP), inter-
preted as a buried soil. On the inner longitudinal profile, the association
Sc/Sm is restricted to the northeast termination because this is the most re-
cent portion of the island, the only place where the aeolian activity oc-
curred beside the lagoon margin existed and was preserved. The study of
aeolian dunes and paleodunes in the interior of the barrier suggest that the
facies association Sc/Sm, sometimes in recurrent intercalations, is very
common and the most typical signature of the aeolian deposits on Ilha
Comprida. Frequent features of this association are: 1. gradual vertical var-
iation of color and phytoturbation degree, generally intensifying upward in
the facies Sm, abruptly cut by Sc (Fig. 6.22A, B, C); 2. lenticular laminae,
centimeters thick and decimeters long (Fig. 6.22D), interpreted as due to
sand trapping around plant stems and roots, in the top of Sc or in the base
of Sm; 3. lateral juxtaposition of sets of opposite dipping cross stratifica-
tion (WNW vs. NE) truncated by a set of cross stratification with interme-
diate dip azimuths (NNW), interpreted respectively as the external walls of
blowouts covered by depositional lobe sands (Fig. 6.22E).
Fig. 6.22 Facies Sc e Sm. A. Established foredune ridge (Sc) above deposit of pa-
leodune (Sm), beside the beach. B. Recent blowout (Sc) above old blowout (Sm)
deposits. C. Two generations of paleosols (Sm) in blowout deposits. D. Cliff
carved in an established foredune with lenticular cross lamination (Sc) above sand
with pedogenesis of upper possible paleodune. Note phytoturbation in the top of
lower depositional facies and in the middle of the upper facies. E. Circular histo-
gram (rose) of frequencies distribution of aeolian cross stratification dip direction
data (number of measures = 302, mean vector = 337.2°, length of mean vector
0.221, circular standard deviation = 99.6°)
The sets of cross stratification in facies Sc are up to 0.8 m thick. The

statistical analysis of dip direction measures taken on the whole island
(Fig. 6.22E) indicates the predominance of dips to the NW (mean vector
356°, for established foredunes, and 333°, for paleodunes), coincident with
the advance of parabolic dunes and depositional lobes observed on aerial
photographs and in the field. This coincidence leads to the conclusion that
the winds which acted in the formation of the paleodunes are the same
which predominate at the present.
The vertical succession of facies found along the back-barrier cliff is in-
dicative of the barrier extending towards the NE, over lagoonal inlet depo-
sits. By leveling the base of the higher occurrence of Callichirus burrows,
typical of the low tide terrace, in relation to the minimum tide, it is possi-
ble to estimate the previous relative sea level (RSL) (Angulo 1993). Using
this premise, the inner beach ridge as well the southwest extreme of the
island (where there is no visible ridge alignment) were formed under a
RSL less than 3 m above the present. The higher paleo-sea level of the
longitudinal profile along the inner margin of the island was found near
Pedrinhas (point C), falling from this point to the SW as well, gradually, to
the NE (dotted curve in Fig. 6.17). Assuming that the island grew from
SW to NE, the RSL rose at the beginning of island formation (between the
points B and C of the longitudinal profile), and fell afterwards. This pat-
tern of initial progradation under rising sea level is similar to what was
found in the Una-Juréia Holocene barrier, to the northeast from Ribeira do
Iguape mouth (Bentz and Giannini 2003), and elsewhere (see Chap. 3, this
volume).
6.4.1.4 Sedimentological Aspects

Grain size and heavy minerals analyses were made on sediments collected
along three sampling profiles (Fig. 6.17), two transverse to the present
coast line and to the main set of coastal ridges and one longitudinal (Gian-
nini et al. 2003b, Guedes 2003). In these transects, the samples were taken
from trenches with a minimal depth of 0.8 m. These transects comprise six
to seven samples from each, from A, the inner one, to F or G, the more
seaward ones, distributed in a constant spacing across the whole width of
the bundle of parallel ridge alignments. On the longitudinal profile, the
samples were collected in cliffs of the island inner margin. All the samples
were taken from the B horizon of the spodosol pedogenetic profile, in de-
posits of facies Sp.
The comparison between the two transects and the statistical parameters
of the grain size frequency distribution (Fig. 6.23A, B) shows different
patterns of variation. Considering that the island grew gradually from the
SW to the NE, this discrepancy is explained by the fact that the southwest
transect records a longer time interval than the northeast profile (Giannini
et al. 2003b; Guedes 2003). From the inflections in the variation of grain
size parameters, the southwest transect (Fig. 6.23A) can be divided into
three segments, from the inland to the coast. The first and the third one are
characterized by coarsening, decreasing sorting and increasing skewness,
towards the coastline. The intermediate segment shows opposite tenden-
cies. In the northeast transect (Fig. 6.23B), the pattern of variation is simp-
ler, being divided into only two segments. The inner and longer one is cha-
racterized by coarsening and increasing sorting and skewness. The more
seawards segment is marked by the inverse pattern.
Along the inner longitudinal profile (Fig. 6.23C), it is possible to ob-
serve a general trend to fining and sorting towards the NE. This trend is re-
lated with the direction of net longshore drift.
The transparent non-micaceous heavy minerals found in the very fine
sand fraction of all the transect samples are in order of decreasing abun-
dance: tourmaline, epidote, zircon, hornblende, rutile, kyanite, staurolite
and sillimanite. Minor amounts of garnet, tremolite, clinopyroxene and ti-
tanite are found also in part of the samples (Guedes 2003).
From the inner and older coastal ridge to the newer one, two subtle and
discontinuous trends of variation are observed (Fig. 6.24): a reduction of
ZTR index and an increase in the unstable minerals. This pattern can be at-
tributed to the preferential post-depositional solution of unstable minerals
in the older ridges, with consequent residual enrichment of their sediments
in ultra-stable resistates (Giannini et al. 2003b; Guedes 2003).
Despite the similar patterns of variation in the two transects, the average
assemblage is less mature in the northeast transect (Fig. 6.24B) than in the
southwest one (Fig. 6.24A). The trend to decreasing mineralogical maturi-
ty towards the NE is confirmed in the results of the longitudinal profile
(Fig. 6.24C). It is analogous to the trend observed by Tessler (1988) and
here in sediments collected along the present beach.
As discussed above in relation to beach-dune sands, the decreasing mi-

neralogical maturity of sediments in the direction of the dominant long-
shore current can be explained by the preferential transport of less dense
unstable heavy minerals, by a eventual “renewed” supply from the Ribeira
do Iguape River, sited in the northeast part of the coastal plain, or by a
possible higher maturity of the southernmost and older part of the barrier,
whose sediments would have been available for a longer time to post-
depositional solution, being therefore depleted in unstable components.
The similarity of pattern found in the present beach and in the older ridges
confirms the viability of this third hypothesis, but it does not permit rejec-
tion of the other two.
6.4.1.5 Ages
Samples collected along the southwest and northeast transects and along
14
the longitudinal profile were dated by OSL in quartz grains or by C
(Guedes 2003).
Fig. 6.23 Variation of statistical parameters of the grain size frequency distribu-
tion (sand fraction), from the inner and older coastal ridge (A) to the more sea-
wards portion (F or G): A. Along the southwest transect; B. Along the northeast
transect; C. Along the inner longitudinal profile (Lon)
Fig. 6.24 Variation in the concentration of ultra-stable (ZTR index: left) and unst-
able heavy minerals (right) in the very fine sand, from the inner and older coastal
ridge (A) to the more seawards one (F ou G): A. Along the southwest transect; B.
Along the northeast transect; C. Along the inner longitudinal profile
The OSL results with technically acceptable reproducibility (residual

luminescence reached in the analysis) are indicative of Holocene ages,
14
confirmed by the C age in the tree trunk in life position collected at point
D of the longitudinal profile. In the southwest transverse profile, the inner
ridge has an OSL age of 6,220 to 5,040 years, while the OSL ages along
all the northeast profile are restricted to the interval between 3,420 and
2,115 years.
6.4.2 Paleolagoon
The lagoon face of Ilha Comprida barrier-island is characterized by the al-

ternation of salients or projections (spits) and re-entrants (embayments)
some kilometers in length (Fig. 6.17). The projections show, as a rule, flat
and featureless relief, lower than re-entrants and other parts of the island,
and a differentiated vegetation cover (including mangroves). The contact
from a plan view between sedimentary deposits of the projections and the
adjacent higher terraces is frequently discordant, indicating the erosion of

the terraces by the processes that formed the projections. These projections
would correspond, therefore, to an old lagoon marginal floor, now
emerged and submitted to regular or occasional tidal flooding. The regular-
ly flooded areas correspond to old submerged sand banks, presently occu-
pied by mangroves.
The morphology of paleo-lagoonal zones is different between the
southwest and the northeast of the island. In the southwest, these zones ex-
tend for many hundreds of meters into the island (toward the SE), cut by
small meandering channels transverse to the barrier, with a character typi-
cal of tidal run-off creeks (Fig. 6.25A). The erosional relation with the
sand barrier is much distinct. In the northeast, mainly from the northern-
most conspicuous spit (Ponta do Frade), the paleo-lagoon zones become
narrow and continuous. They are not associated with important drainage
and roughly accompany the active lagoon margin. To the NE from Pedrin-
has, the inner limit of the paleo-lagoon has a sawed or zig-zag pattern (Fig.
6.25B), indicating the alternation of phases of flooding with phases of pro-
gradation to the NE. The interpretation to the exclusive presence of this
pattern in the northeast part of the island is that the orientation of curved
ridges, transverse to the island inner margin, was propitious to water inva-
sion, along the ridge trenches, during events of lagoon flooding which
probably accompanied the longitudinal growth of the island and the suc-
cessive advance of the lagoonal inlet to the NE. In conclusion, the change
in the paleo-lagoonal morphology from SW to NE is related to the older
age of the southwestern part, with a higher and more dissected strandplain
and to the presence of curved ridge alignments in the northeastern part. It
is also suggestive that in the southwest part of the island, the lagoon can be
a superimposed system, and therefore posterior, to the sand barrier, while
in the remains of the island, the lagoon and sand barrier grew simulta-
neously, with mutual interaction, as shown historically (Geobrás 1966). In
the stratigraphy, this interaction should be represented by interdigitation
between beach sandy and lagoonal muddy facies, that is apparently con-
firmed in backbarrier outcrop at point Lon-D (Fig. 6.17).
6.5 Proposed Evolutionary Model
Former models for the sedimentary evolution of Ilha Comprida were pro-
posed by Geobrás (1966) and Martin and Suguio (1978). According to
these models, the island has two distinct generations of coastal ridges. The
older generation, anchored on a hill of alkaline igneous rock (Morrete),
was described by Martin and Suguio (1978) as beach ridges whose north-
east extremity is curved (“hook-like”), with a convexity towards the NE, a
pattern interpreted as resulting from the longitudinal growth of the island

in this direction. The newer generation of ridges, with alignments wholly
parallel to the present coastline, was interpreted as resulting from a phase
of transverse growth or progradation (Geobrás 1966; Barcelos 1975; Bar-
celos et al. 1976; Martin and Suguio 1978; Tessler 1988).
Fig. 6.25 Aerial photographs and respective interpretative maps illustrating the
two main types of morphology in the paleolagoon terrain: A. To the SW from
Frade spit. B. To the NE from Pedrinhas
A new evolutionary model was proposed by Giannini et al. (2003a)

and Guedes (2003). These authors concluded that the differentiation be-
tween the two generations of ridges indicated in former models does not
explain the ridge pattern, since all the ridge alignments, including the
most seaward and newer ones, have a curved extremity. The geometric
pattern of truncations between ridge alignments shows that the island
growth occurred simultaneously to the transverse growth to the SE, by
the nearly continuous addition of curved ridges with a convexity oriented
to the NE.
According to this new model, the variations in the pattern of ridge align-
ments and truncations infer four phases to the Holocene progradational evo-
lution of the island, in which the longitudinal (to the NE) and transverse (to
the SE) growth components were alternating in relative importance. There is
no evidence of an earlier phase, corresponding to a transgressive barrier.
Despite a previous interpretation based on GPR data (Gandolfo et al. 2001)
that transgressive lagoonal muds do occur in the sub-surface (in the lower
radar-stratigraphic unit, below R2: Fig. 6.5), the re-analysis of cores stu-
died by Suguio and Petri (1973) strongly suggests that instead of lagoonal
muds, regressive Pleistocene sands do occur under the Holocene barrier.
According to this model, the intermediate radar-stratigraphic unit (Fig. 6.5)
represents Holocene sediments of a ravinement surface and/or Pleisto-
cene/Holocene sediments filling incised valleys. Thus, Ilha Comprida
would not be a transgressive barrier stricto sensu but a strandplain with a
lagoon (maybe formed after its initiation) at the rear. This hypothesis is
corroborated by the erosional relation of the lagoonal system with the older
(southernmost) part of the barrier. The initiation of the barrier occurred in
a semi-embayed region between Cardoso and Cananéia islands, favorable
to trapping of sediments transported from the SW by longshore currents. In
this context, there are at least three hypotheses for the initial morphology
of the strandplain barrier: a headland spit, anchored on São João and Mor-
rete alkaline rocks; a mainland or headland beach on the same rocks; or a
barrier attached to Pleistocene deposits of Cananéia Island. The first hypo-
thesis presupposes the existence of a lagoon, contemporaneous to the ini-
tial barrier. In counterpart, the second and third hypotheses indicate that
the lagoon was formed later. Independent of the adopted hypothesis, se-
cure evidence of the complete opening of the Mar Pequeno lagoonal chan-
nel, with the individualization of Ilha Comprida barrier-island, is found on-
ly starting from Pedrinhas where the back-barrier shows a morphology
clearly indicative of coexistence with the adjacent lagoon. Based on results
of facies leveling and dates, it is possible to suggest that the region without
apparent ridges to the SW from Pedrinhas was formed with a rising RSL
(Fig. 6.17), before the maximum sea level prior to 6 – 5 ka BP. It might
correspond to the initial spit or barrier, from which the ridge progradation
took place.
Considering a constant sedimentary supply, the first phase of the regres-
sive barrier, including its initiation, occurred when the RSL rise decele-
rated and the rate of sediment accumulation surpassed the rate of creation
of accommodation space. In this first phase, half of the island area formed
and nearly 70% of its longshore extension occurred, and there was relative
equilibrium between the longitudinal and transverse growth (times 1 to 3,
Fig. 6.26A). The Holocene age of the inner and southernmost beach ridge
14
is confirmed by OSL and C datings (6.2 – 5.0 ka BP at point B of the
southwest transect and 5.3 – 4.9 ka BP at point D of the longitudinal pro-

file, respectively). The restriction of dune ridges to a more seawards strip
of the barrier, only up to 1 km wide, indicates that the formation and/or
preservation of aeolian deposits during this first phase of progradation was
not possible. A probable reason is the high ratio between aeolian accumu-
lation space and sedimentary supply, due to a rapid increase in the
emerged area linked to rapid progradation. The transverse component of
the island growth (to the SE) would be high enough to hinder the accumu-
lation of aeolian deposits, except maybe low and spaced foredune ridges,
nowdays without geomorphological expression.
The second phase of progradation was characterized by the relative in-
crease in the longitudinal component of growth (times 4 to 6, Fig. 6.26B).
The island grew from 70% to more than 90% of its present extension.
Considering that all the dated samples from the northeast transect are with-
in the portion of the island formed during this phase, the maximum and
minimum OSL ages of this transect, 3.4 and 2.1 ka BP respectively, pro-
vide a reasonable idea of its period of formation. The relative decline in
the rate of progradation aids in explaining the greater size (up to 8 m high)
and the sinuous morphology of the inner paleodune ridges (aeolian genera-
tion 1) formed in this phase: the aeolian sediments would begin to accumu-
late as coalesced blowout depositional lobes, up to 50 m wide, and with
considerable persistence along the beach.
The third phase of progradation is related to the reduction in accommo-
dation space in the downstream portion of the littoral longshore drift zone
due to the blockade exerted by Icapara hill, whose hard rock substrate be-
came a obstacle to the erosional advance of the meandering Icapara inlet
(Geobrás 1966). The sediments trapped in this area became an additional
sedimentary stock at the upstream region, favoring the acceleration of
transverse growth of the island (time 7, Fig. 6.26C). With the increasing
rate of progradation and consequent creation of aeolian accumulation
space, the blowouts stabilized and successive foredune ridges with a spac-
ing of up to 50 m (aeolian generation 2) were formed.
The beginning of the fourth phase would have occurred when the pro-
grading barrier reached a width in which the Icapara hill stopped acting as
an obstacle to the longshore current to the NE. The re-establishment of the
accommodation space to the NE permitted intense sedimentary reworking
and growth by northeastward longshore drift, as can be observed in the his-
torical high rate of migration of the Icapara inlet (time 8, Fig. 6.26D).
Fig. 6.26 Schematic model of the evolution of Ilha Comprida barrier, based on
mapping of beach ridge and relict foredune alignments and geometry
The opening of the Valo Grande artificial channel in 1852 plays an im-
portant role in this change. The effect of the abrupt increase of hydraulic
discharge at the Icapara inlet forced the shift of the inlet to the East, deviat-
ing from the Icapara hard rock to the sandy coastal plain adjacent to the
Leste beach. The rapid erosion of this coastal plain by the meandering of
the Icapara inlet accelerated the inlet migration towards the NE, beginning
the present phase of longitudinal growth of the island. According to this
interpretation, the opening of the Valo Grande channel would give rise to
the end of the last phase of transverse growth (Fig. 6.26C) and the re-
instatement of the longitudinal growth (Fig. 6.26D). The zone of narrow-
ing of the island, wholly developed during post- Valo Grande times, is the
morphological record of the initial re-instatement of the longitudinal
growth, being the highest rate of growth before 1882 (based on cartograph-
ic data from Geobrás 1966).
The re-instatement of the longshore growth during the fourth prograda-
tion phase of the island favors the present dominance of deflation aeolian
features, under continuous erosion and reconstruction (aeolian generation
3). The small dunefield of the narrowest portion of the island, near Icapara,
is the main exception. This is related to the higher wind velocity on this
area and to the local excess in the ratio between sand supply and aeolian
accumulation space beside the lagoonal margin (Giannini 2007).
According to the model of growth here adopted, the southwest transect
crosses beach and foredune ridges deposits from four different regressive
phases (times 1 to 8), while the northeast transect traverses only the three
last ones (times 5 to 8). The more complex pattern of granulometric and
mineralogical variation along the southwest transect (Fig. 6.23) is compat-
ible with this interpretation. The transverse segments of the island which
were formed during phases of accentuated longitudinal growth are charac-
terized by an abrupt reduction of the granulometric sorting toward the
newer ridges (seawards). Inversely, the transect segments which were
formed during phases with a dominance of transverse growth show aug-
ment of the granulometric sorting seawards. This pattern of grain-size var-
iation along the transects is coherent with the hypothesis of gradual and
successive reworking of ridge deposits, during phases of dominantly trans-
verse growth. The renewed supply explains the decreasing granulometric
sorting during phases of intensified longshore transport.
The gradual diminishing of mineralogical maturity of the increasingly
younger ridges in the seawards direction along the northeast transect (Fig.
6.24B) can be attributed to the selective concentration of less dense miner-
als (most of them, unstable and meta-stable) by sedimentary reworking
during the regression, as well to the lesser effect of post-depositional dis-
solution on the newer ridges.
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Chapter 7
Barrier and Beach Ridge Systems
of the Rio de Janeiro Coast
Gilberto T. M. Dias and Björn Kjerfve
7.1 Introduction
The objective of this chapter is to summarize the models of the evolution

of barriers and beach ridges of the state of Rio de Janeiro. The coast of Rio
de Janeiro (Fig. 7.1) can be classified into several unique geomorphologic
units. They include:
Rocky Coast: There are two large tectonic bays along the Rio de Janeiro
coast, Baía de Ilha Grande and Baía de Guanabara. Baía de Ilha Grande is
entirely surrounded by a rocky coast and numerous islands with little de-
velopment of transitional sedimentary coastal plains. Because of the prox-
imity to the mountainous relief of Serra do Mar, rocky outcrops slope di-
rectly into the bay and ocean. Baía de Guanabara formed during the
Tertiary as a semi-graben, oriented southwest to northeast, and aligned
with the underlying Precambrian rocks. The basin is located in a 30-km
wide Tertiary depression with numerous Precambrian rock outcrops. Phy-
siographic changes took place during the Quaternary because of adjust-
ments to the drainage patterns during lower stands of sea level, and were
modified by the marine transgression during the Holocene. Elevated paleo-
beaches and marine terraces (+4 m) are common around Baía de Guanaba-
ra. In this chapter, we will not deal specifically with these tectonic bays.
The low-lying Fluminense sedimentary plain: This system is characte-

rized by numerous coastal lagoons, with west-to-east trending mountains
located a few kilometers inland. The drainage network is also orientated
west-to-east, and consequently does neither discharge significant quantities
of water nor sediment directly into the lagoons or ocean along the coast. A
set of double barriers separate a series of coastal lagoons and bays from the
226 G.T.M. Dias and B. Kjerfve
South Atlantic Ocean. These include the Marambaia sand barrier (restin-
ga), which defines Baía de Sepetiba, several shorter barriers between crys-
talline outcrops, separating the Jacarepaguá, Marapendi, Rodrigo de Frei-
tas, Piratininga, Itaipu, Marica, Garapina, and Saquarema lagoon systems
from the ocean, and furthest to the east the extensive Massambaba sand
barrier, which ends in solid crystalline alkaline rocks in the vicinity of Ca-
bo Frio. Note that “restinga” was redefined during a workshop (chaired by
K Suguio at the I Simposio Brasileiro sobre Restingas, Lacerda et al.
1984) to refer to any coastal sand areas independent of the genetic origin.
Botanists and ecologists apply the term to the coastal vegetation complex
and geologists and geographers to barrier systems (Lamego was the first to
use this term in 1945).
Fig. 7.1 Landsat 4 (2000) satellite image of the coast of Rio de Janeiro (see Fig. 7.2
for more detailed images of subsystems of the Rio de Janeiro coast from west to
east)
Beach ridge plains: Beginning at Búzios, the Rio de Janeiro coast is

oriented SW-NE, and is influenced by two river systems. São João river
discharges intermittently into the sea between Búzios and Macaé, where
the coast is defined by a smaller beach ridge plain. Paraíba do Sul river,
constrained by 1,400 km of southwest-to-northeast trending mountain
ranges, is the major river of southeastern Brazil with numerous dams and
3 -1
industrial complexes and has an average discharge of 600 – 900 m s . The
entire coastal zone between Macaé and Guaxindiba is characterized by
wide sandy plains, consisting of shore-parallel beach ridges of different
ages.
7 Barrier and Beach Ridge Systems 227
Fig. 7.2 Detailed images subsystems of the Rio de Janeiro coast from west to east:
(a) 1- Serra do Mar; 2- Baía de Ilha Grande, 3-Baía de Sepetiba, 4- “Ilha” de
Marambaia; 5- Restinga de Marambaia, 6- Barra de Guaratiba; (b) 1- L.
Marapendi, 2-L. Tijuca- Jacarepagua; 3-L.Rodrigo de Freitas; 4- Baía de
Guanabara, 5-L. Piratininga, Camboinhas, L. Itaipu, 6- Itaipuaçu; 7- L. Maricá and
L. Padre, 8-L. Guarapina, 9- L. Saquarema; (c) 1- L. Araruama; 2- internal spit, 3-
L. Vermelha; 4- L Brejo do Espinho; 5- Ilha de Cabo Frio; 6- Cabo Frio Dunes; 7-
Cabo Búzios; 8- Beach ridges plain related to São João river ; (d) 1- Macaé; 2- L.
Carapebus, Cabiúnas; 3- Oldest beach ridges plain; 4- Long single transgressive
bar and truncated lagoons; 5) L. Feia; 6- Artificial channel, Barra do Furado; 7-
Campos City; 8- Cabo São Tomé; 9- Oldest fluvial complex: Campos–São
Tomé;10- Grussai; 11- Currently active beach ridge plain related to Paraíba do Sul
river; 12- Atafona, mouth of Paraíba do Sul river. 13- Gargaú; 14 - Guaxindiba; 15
- Tertiary Cliffs (Barreiras Group) 16 - Beach ridges plain of Itabapoana river
Tertiary beach cliffs: A geological unit of the Barreiras Group form sandy
clay deposits of continental Tertiary origin further to the northeast, towards
the border between Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo. These cliff deposits
limit the expansion northward and landward of the beach ridges associated
with Rio Paraíba do Sul (Fig. 7.2d).
Various authors (Dias 1981, 1984a, b; Maia et al. 1984; Silva 1987;
Turcq et al. 1999; Muehe 2006) have analyzed the barriers and beach ridge
systems of the Rio de Janeiro coast. As a generalization, the collective
opinion attributes barriers to transgressive sea level periods and the beach
ridge systems to regressive sea level periods. However, there exists con-
troversy as to the age of formation of the geomorphologic features and dis-
agreement as to which features are of Holocene and which are of Pleisto-
cene age. Also, the extensive beach ridge plains south of the mouth of
Paraíba do Sul river are alternately considered to be deltaic deposits or not.
7.2 Geologic Setting
Rio de Janeiro is characterized by Precambrian rock outcrops, dominated

by the Ribeira belt, which is a compound folding-belt with a NW trend and
extending for 1,400 km. The rocks show evidence of crustal compression
related to the collision of two lithospheric plates and the subsequent amal-
gamation of Gondwana during the beginning of the pre-Cambrian (Heil-
bron et al. 1995). Tectonic reactivation subsequently occurred during the
Mesozoic, when Gondwana broke apart and the Atlantic Ocean began to
open up 180 Ma ago (Valeriano et al. 2000). The extension of this orogen-
ic belt is also found along the west coast of Africa. The orogenic belt de-
veloped as the São Francisco and Congo cratons, respectively, on the two
continents (Fig. 7.3).
According to Zalán and Oliveira (2005), after 25 Ma the rifting was in-
terrupted (134–114 Ma), and the southeastern area was uplifted as a result
of the South American plate drifting across a mantle thermal anomaly.
This uplift, during the beginning of the Cretaceous, created a mega plateau
2
measuring 300,000 km . The plateau provided the main source of Creta-
ceous sediments to the Paraná, Santos, and Campos basins. The gravita-
tional collapse of the mega plateau began 7 Ma after the uplift had come to
an end. During the Cenozoic (58 – 20 Ma), the continental crust was frac-
tured in several linear areas, forming corridors of parallel grabens along
the coast. These structural events caused the formation of the Guanabara,
Sepetiba, and Ilha Grande bays.
Fig. 7.3 Tectonic map of Southeastern Brazil (1) São Francisco Craton, (2) Brasi-
lia Fold Belt; (3) Cabo Frio Terrain; (4) Oriental Terrain-Costal domain; (5)
Oriental terrain- Rio Negro Magmatic Arc; (6) Paraíba do Sul Klippe; (7) Ociden-
tal Terrain; (8) Paraná Basin; (9) Late Cretaceous to Eocene alkaline bodies; (10)
Sedimentary basin of the continental rift of Southeastern Brazil (CRSB) : A- São
Paulo, B- Taubaté, C-Resende, D- Volta Redonda, E- Macacu, F- Itaboraí, G-
Barra de São João; (11) Cenozoic sediments; (12) Reverse fault nappes; (13) Cabo
Frio Magmatic Lineament; (14) Boundaries of CRSB grabens. After Riccomini
(1989), Ferrari (1990) Mohriak and Barros (1990) and Heilbron et al. (2000) and
Ferrari (2001), modified
Extensional tectonic forces were accompanied by production of basic

magma during the Cretaceous and alkaline magma during the Tertiary
(Heilbron et al. 2000; Riccomini et al. 2004), resulting in faulting, uplift,
and erosion of the continental areas, producing an increase in the supply of
clastic silicate sediment to the subsiding adjacent sedimentary basins (Ei-
rado Silva 2006). Almeida and Carneiro (1998) attribute the uplift of the
Serra do Mar to isostatic compensation between subsiding basins and the
uplifted areas.
The Rio de Janeiro coast shows peculiar pocket beaches occupying
areas between prominent outcrops of pre-Cambrian basement. These fea-
tures (referred to as inselbergs) are steep-sided hills of resistant solid rock,
rising out of the coastal plain. They have a rounded appearance caused by
so called onion-skin weathering (exfoliation), in which the surface is
eroded in successive layers in the form of scales. Pão de Açucar (Sugar
Loaf) in Baía de Guanabara is a well-known example of such a sculpted

gneissic rock (Valeriano et al. 2000).
7.3 Relative Sea Level Change
Of all forcing functions, the variability of relative mean sea level is argua-
bly most important in dictating the resulting coastal forms along sedimen-
tary coasts. Although the details of Holocene relative sea level variability
along the coast of Brazil has been argued intensely for several decades, the
recent review by Angulo et al. (2006) and findings by Angulo and Lessa
(1997) seem to have settled this matter rather convincingly.
The main findings are that a rising relative Holocene sea level along the
coast of Rio de Janeiro, reached the present mean sea level stand as early
ago as 7,550 yrs BP based on dating of wood debris and shell samples, or
as late as 6,500 yrs BP based on dating of fossil vermetid (Petaloconchus
varians) reefs. Relative sea level then continued to increase 3 – 4 m to a
Holocene sea level high stand between 5,000 and 5,800 yrs BP, lasting for
a couple of hundred years, and then falling with a gently oscillating decline
to the present-day mean sea level. This trend is not only characteristic of
much of the Brazilian coast, but is also broadly consistent with the trend
for much of the southern hemisphere (Angulo et al. 2006).
Much of the recent arguments and disagreements with respect to Holo-
cene sea level variability along the coast of Brazil have centered on (i) the
elevation of the Holocene high stand, and (ii) the presence or absence of
high-frequency sea-level oscillations during the past 5,000 years (Martin
and Suguio 1975; Suguio et al. 1976). Angulo et al. (2006) chose to ex-
clude the data from archeological debris (shell middens) because of poten-
tial misinterpretations and also considered the elevations of wave-built
terraces to be overestimates of mean sea level. The analysis by Angulo and
Lessa (1997) and Angulo et al. (2006) eliminated the major high-frequency
sea level oscillations during the past 5,000 years, proposed by Martin and
Suguio (1975) and Suguio et al. (1976), leading to different interpretations
of the coastal landforms along the coast of Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere:
“the highstand elevation does not appear to have exceeded 4 m to the north
of Santa Catarina, where the maximum Holocene sea level was about 2.1
m suggesting that broadly similar hydro-isostatic adjustment may have oc-
curred throughout the Southern Hemisphere, as predicted by global isostat-
ic models” (Clark et al. 1978; Milne et al. 2005).
In general, coastal barriers are related to transgressive sea levels. On the
other hand, beach ridges form during coastal progradation, related to fluvi-
al sediment supply or relative sea level fall. Hayes and Kana (1976) sum-
marized the three major prevalent models of barrier formation (i) evolution
from an offshore bar (de Beaumont 1845; (ii) longshore spit progradation
(Gilbert 1885, Fisher, 1968); and (iii) mainland beach detachment (Hoyt,
1967). Various sections along the Rio de Janeiro coast have landforms
which seemingly fit each of these models. Barrier islands fronting the Pa-
raíba do Sul delta are built from the evolution of offshore bars. Transverse
spits along the southwest margin of Paraíba do Sul river are formed by
long-shore drift and spit accretion. The extensive transgressive barrier sys-
tems between Cabo São Tomé and Macaé, and also between Cabo Frio and
Ilha de Marambaia, evolved from the drowning of coastal sand ridges and
thus fit Hoyt’s (1967) model.
7.4 Physical Forcing Functions
The coast of Rio de Janeiro experiences a semi-humid tropical marine cli-

mate with a medium annual temperature of 24°C, hot austral summers with
temperatures reaching 40°C. Most of the rain falls in the austral summer
-1
and typical rates vary from 1200 to 1400 mm yr . The exception is the arid
region in the vicinity of Cabo Frio, where rainfall averages only 800 mm
-1
yr as a result of a persistent oceanic upwelling regime, which interacts to
generate the arid local micro-climate.
The south-flowing Brazil Current parallels the Brazilian coast from Per-
nambuco to Cabo Frio, flowing within a few kilometers of the coast along
the northeastern coast of Rio de Janeiro because of a narrow continental
shelf. Where the coast and the deep isobaths make a 90° turn towards the
west at Cabo Frio, the Brazil current separates from bathymetric steering,
disintegrates into a series of meso-scale oceanic eddies, and generates per-
sistent upwelling along the coast at Cabo Frio. The upwelling region fre-
quently extends as far west as the city of Rio de Janeiro, with surface
ocean temperatures measuring 12 – 16°C in regions where the ambient sur-
face temperature is 24 – 30° C.
Winds along the coast of Rio de Janeiro mostly blow from the northeast
as a result of persistent high pressure systems in the South Atlantic, espe-
-1
cially during the austral summer. These winds mostly blow 3 – 6 m s but
-1
frequently exceed 10 m s (Bastos and Silva 2000). Strong winds from the
northeast serve to intensify the coastal and oceanic upwelling at Cabo Frio.
Strong occasional winds from the south and southwest are most common
in the austral winter months and are associated with northward progressing
-1
cold fronts and occasionally result in peak winds exceeding 40 m s .
The coast of Rio de Janeiro largely experiences a micro tidal, mixed,
mostly semidiurnal regime. The range along the west-east trending coast
from Baía de Ilha Grande to Cabo Frio measures 0.7 m during spring tides
and 0.3 m during neap tides, and the tidal phase is for most parts in phase
along this stretch of coast. From Cabo Frio to the border to the state of Es-
pirito Santo, the semi-diurnal tide has a somewhat greater tidal range, mea-
suring 1.3 m during spring tides and 0.5 m during neap tides and propa-
gates towards the equator as a Kelvin wave. The tidal form number
averages 0.3 along the coast, becoming increasingly more semidiurnal to-
wards the northeast.
Long-term wave measurements from a wave rider on the continental
shelf in 130 m of water depth in the Campos basin indicate that the most
frequent waves arrive from the northeast and east with an average deep
water wave height of 1.6 – 2.0 m (Souza 1988). Waves with deep-water
heights exceeding 3.0 m, however, arrive mostly from the south-southeast,
south, and south-southwest, during the austral winter and typically precede
intense cold fronts. Although less frequent, these are the waves with the
most energy (Muehe and Correa 1989).
7.5 Beach Ridge Plains
Extensive beach ridge plains are located in the northeastern part of the
state of Rio de Janeiro, where the Paraíba do Sul river reaches the coast
and forms an extensive delta complex. The beach ridges of Rio de Janeiro
coastal zone are storm wave-built ridges (Psuty 1965) or submerged bar
beach ridges (Komar 1976) and not genetically related to the foredune
ridges described by Hesp (1984, 1999). Rio de Janeiro beach ridges are
formed by quartzose medium sand in areas not dominated by wind action.
The Paraíba do Sul river flows parallel to the fractures of the Ribeira
belt for 1,400 km, from the state of São Paulo at the top of the Serra do
Mar until the river descends the coastal plain. The river delta complex is
characterized by a set of sedimentary lobes related to several phases of del-
taic evolution: (i) Fluvial complex of the Campos-São Tomé coast, where
the oldest alluvium soils are preserved, and where paleo-channels can still
be observed in aerial photographs and satellite images; (ii) Lagoa Feia and
adjacent region, the remains of an ample lagoonal-estuarine complex,
where mangroves developed in the period from 7,200 to 5,600 yrs BP; (iii)
Plains of beach ridges, characterized by a gently undulating landscape,
consisting of a succession of ridges and sandy swales, with two distinct
phases of the development of beach ridge systems: (a) a plain with beach
ridges situated southwest of Cabo São Tomé related to an older system of
paleo-channels of the Paraíba do Sul river, and (b) the currently active
beach ridge plains northeast of Cabo São Tomé related to the current
course of Rio Paraíba do Sul.
The set of beach ridges characterizing the Paraíba do Sul river coastal
plain can be divided into several sets based on sharp unconformities
(Fig. 7.4). There are at least seven sets, evidenced by directional changes
in the orientation of the beach ridges. This indicates intense phases of
erosion that interrupted the progressive sequence of beach ridge systems.
A processed altimeter image (Fig. 7.5) obtained from SRTM data
(http://seamless.usgs.gov) shows a set of these beach ridge systems. The
tabular relief of the Barreiras Group is evident in the image, as are the old
system of beach ridges to the southwest of Cabo São Tomé. These beach
ridges are on average higher than the more recent beach ridges further to
the northeast near the present river mouth. In addition, the paleo-channels
of the old fluvial axis, directed towards Cabo São Tomé, are also clearly
visible in the digital terrain models.
Bastos and Silva (2000) defined four distinctive morphodynamic com-
partments of the northeastern Rio de Janeiro coast. They based their analy-
sis on profiles across the beach and inner platform and the determination
of a shoreline mobility index, sediment size, and the slope of the beach
face. They recognized (i) Atafona and the area around the mouth of Pa-
raíba do Sul river as an intermediate to dissipative shore with a high mobil-
ity index and erosion rate; (ii) the shore south of Atafona to Cape São
Tomé as an intermediate to reflective shore with a low beach mobility in-
dex; (iii) the area surrounding Cabo São Tomé as a reflective to interme-
diate shore with a high beach mobility index; and (iv) the shore from Cabo
São Tomé to Cabiúnas as a reflective shore with a low beach mobility in-
dex. Southwest of São Tomé the coast is characterized by a single barrier
and steep beach gradients and coarse sand size.
Dias et al. (1984a) surveyed and profiled the current beach ridge plain
and related their findings to shallow bore holes made by Petrobras (Araújo
et al. 1975), resulting in the definition of a sequence of three stratigraphic
sedimentary facies (Fig. 7.6): (i) clay-sand sediment containing limonitic
concretions related to the Barreiras Group at depth; (ii) mud sediment cov-
ered by transgressive quartzose sands with a high content of carbonates
(coralline algae, coral fragments and gastropods), indicating deposits from
lagoons and mangroves, later covered by marine sands; and (iii) at the top,
clay sediment with marine fauna, later covered by micaceous silts and
capped by quartzose sands (beach ridges), indicating pro-delta muds with
marine micro-fauna, overlaid by quartzose sands of the delta front.
Dias et al. (1984a) interpreted stratigraphic relationships based on bore
holes on land. Additionally, two submarine jet probe cores (G and H,
Fig. 7.6), confirmed the continuity of the muddy pro delta environment,
overlain by sands from the delta front. All sediment facies were also
mapped underwater, adjacent to the mouth of Paraíba do Sul river (Dias
et al. 1984b). The findings indicate a remarkable correlation between the

depths and thicknesses of the layers on the coastal plain and the corres-
ponding surface sediment on the adjacent seabed (Fig. 7.7). Dias et al.
(1984b) identified the existence of a prominent submerged sand lobe based
on bathymetric surveys, curving symmetrically on both sides of the axis of
Paraíba do Sul river and extending to the shore on both sides of the present
river mouth. The landward limit of this lobe is defined by the 2 m isobath.
The frontal portion of the lobe slopes seaward at 1.7° in front of the river
mouth and 0.3° on the sides. The base of the lobe is located at a depth of
8 – 9 m seaward and 4 – 5 m on the sides.
The sediment at the delta front and on top of the frontal portion of the
submarine delta lobe consists of medium to coarse sand, changing gradual-
ly to medium to fine sands further seaward at depths of 8 – 11 m. At the
base of the sandy lobe, the seabed becomes sub-horizontal and is made up
of micaceous silts, which gradually change to clays at greater depths. The
mud deposits extend laterally along the coast to the proximity of Cabo São
Tomé (Araújo et al. 1975) and were recently corroborated by seismic
profiling.
Besides the Paraíba do Sul delta complex, there are at least three addi-
tional areas along the coast of the state of Rio de Janeiro with beach ridge
systems, albeit less well developed as compared with those associated with
the Paraíba do Sul river: (i) sedimentary plains surround Baía de Ilha
Grande but suffer from lack of a significant fluvial sediment contribution;
rather, changes in these shoreline environments are primarily due to the
fall of relative sea level in response to hydro-isostatic adjustments during
the past 5,000 years; (ii) beach ridge plains of the São João river between
Cabo de Búzios and Macaé are associated with this second largest river
system in the state of Rio de Janeiro; (iii) the Itabapoana river has created
a beach ridge system in the northeastern corner of the state of Rio de Janei-
ro, evolved from the cutting of estuarine channels into the tablelands of the
Barreiras Group.
There is strong evidence to consider the beach ridges plain of Paraíba do
Sul river as a typical wave dominated delta. Dominguez (1990) questioned
the model of Coleman and Wright (1971) and Wright and Coleman (1973),
considering the morphology and three-dimensional structure of delta depo-
sits as being controlled by fluvial discharge, tidal amplitude, and wave
energy. The main shortcoming of this delta model is the absence of effects
of (i) variation of relative sea level and (ii) longitudinal accretion of sedi-
ment due to littoral drift. In the case of the Paraíba do Sul river, sediment
transported by the south-to-north littoral drift would be captured hydrody-
namically on the eastern side of the river.
Dominguez et al. (1983) concluded that the main direction of sediment

transport, seaward of the Paraíba delta lobes, is from south to north in re-
sponse to high-energy storm waves from the southeast. As evidence, they
point to sand accumulation south of the jetty at Barra do Furado with sig-
nificant erosion north of the river mouth. Cassar and Neves (1993) con-
cluded that the residual sediment transport throughout the year between
Atafona and Grussaí is from north to south, but that the transport between
Barra do Furado and Cabo São Tomé is from the south to north as a result
of the most energetic, albeit infrequent waves from the southeast. Further,
Zetune (2004) used heavy minerals as trace markers to determine the di-
rection of the littoral drift and confirmed the findings of Dias (1981) and
Cassar and Neves (1993) that there is a significant residual littoral trans-
port from north to south between the mouth of Paraíba do Sul river and
Grussaí.
7.6 Coastal Dunes
Coastal aeolian dunes occur only in the vicinity of Cabo Frio, as a conse-
quence of a local arid microclimate, generated by periodic but intense
oceanic upwelling. The dunes have a dominant NE direction. Two mor-
phologic types are common in this region: (1) blow-out dunes formed by
wind erosion of the barrier flank (during the Holocene arid phase), and (2)
transgressive dunefields, predominantly consisting of mobile transverse
and barchan dunes between Cabo Frio and Arraial do Cabo due to ample
supply of fine-grained offshore sands, brought onshore by the intense and
almost constant northeasterly winds (Fernandez 2003).
7.7 Coastal Barriers
7.7.1 Barrier Islands and Spits
The coastal sections located immediately to the north and south of the
mouth of Paraíba do Sul river are morphologically significantly different
(Fig. 7.4b). To the south, the coastal plain is characterized by a succession
of beach ridges with an average inter-ridge distance of 100 – 150 m, and a
Fig. 7.4 Beach ridge sub-systems of the coastal plain related to the current course
of Paraíba do Sul river: (A) aerial photo; and (B) schematic map showing (i) the
beach ridge crests and unconformities (ii) dating of organic mud layers of the inter
ridge marshes (Beta 102069 and 102070; Moreira 1998)
Fig. 7.5 Hypsometric map of the deltaic complex of Paraíba do Sul river based
on processed data from SRTM - Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission
(http://seamless.usgs.gov)
Fig. 7.6 Stratigraphy of the sedimentary deposits of the coastal plain related to the
most recent beach ridge plain of Paraíba do Sul river (Dias et al. 1984a)
height between crests and troughs of 2 – 3 m on average. To the north of

Paraíba do Sul river, all the way to the community of Gargaú, the coastal
plain is formed by a sequence of barriers or attached barrier islands, which
alternate with muddy swales, which are occupied by mangroves and small
lagoons. With the progradation of the delta front, the mangroves are trans-
formed into marshes, which dry up as the process continues. The barriers
are related to the strong sedimentary dynamics associated with the Paraíba
do Sul river.
North of the river mouth, the coastal barriers start as longshore bars and
eventually become shallow sand bars with an elevation of only ~2 m, lo-
cated between the line of breaking waves and the shoreline in front of the
delta lobe. These features accumulate sediment as a result of wave interac-
tion with the fluvial discharge and eventually become barrier islands. At
the front, south of the river mouth, a curving sandy spit is oriented trans-
versely to the main channel. During the Paraíba flood season, the spit is
sometimes completely eroded by strong fluvial forces. Remnants of similar
features on the adjacent plain to the south of the river are evidence of older
growth phases and the subsequent fluvial erosion of the beach ridge sys-
tems and spits.
Fig. 7.7 Sediment distribution on the delta front of Paraíba do Sul river (Dias et al.
1984b)
The barrier islands protect the coastal areas, allowing the development
of mudflats, which are rapidly colonized by mangroves. The barrier islands
grow laterally towards the north, and when they reach the shore they often
isolate low-lying areas which develop into small lagoons. The orientation
of spits towards the northwest has lead to the conclusion that the littoral
drift is constantly towards the northwest in response to energetic waves

from the southeast. However, refraction by waves from the northeast by
the seaward delta lobe often causes littoral drift simultaneously in opposite
directions from the apex of the lobe (Figs. 7.7and 7.8).
Fig. 7.8 Spit and barriers related to the Paraíba do Sul delta front (Photo by G. T.
M. Dias)
7.7.2 Single Transgressive Barriers
A well-developed very long single transgressive barrier stretches from

Cabo São Tomé towards the southwest to the vicinity of Macaé, isolating a
series of narrow coastal lagoons from direct contact with the sea. Several
of these lagoons are seasonally or occasionally exchanging water with the
coastal ocean during breaches in the barrier, but are for most parts cut off
from the sea by the barrier. The transgressive nature of the extensive single
barrier is evidenced by truncated lagoon spits, indicating a migration of
these features landward across the sands of old beach ridge plains (Fig. 7.9).
Fig. 7.9 Single transgressive barrier southwest of Cabo São Tomé: schematic stra-
tigraphic section (Silva 1987); and aerial photo of the barrier (Photo by C. Silva)
Studies of the evolution of the Paraíba do Sul delta complex by scien-

tists from LAGEMAR (Universidade Federal Fluminense) during the past
25 years have yielded a time series of observations of changes along the
coast. Aerial photos from 1979 show the mouth of an artificial channel at
Barra do Furado and an adjacent single transgressive coastal barrier. The
morphology of the shoreline in 1979 indicates that the barrier is equally
wide on both sides of the channel. The existence of a sandy spit, oriented
towards the southwest, is indicative of littoral transport towards the south-
west, and suggests that the barrier system has been in a state of dynamic
equilibrium for the past few thousand years. However, in 1981, two per-
manent jetties were constructed from heavy boulders protruding into the
ocean (Fig. 7.10). The jetties had a large subsequent off-set impact on the
local shoreline, resulting in extensive sand accumulation on the south side,
and at the same time extensive erosion on the north side of the jetties (Dias
and Silva 2003). Thus, the dynamic equilibrium is easily upset.
7.7.3 Double Transgressive Barriers
The 200 km long east-west oriented sedimentary coast between the “isl-
ands” of Marambaia and Cabo Frio has no significant fluvial water or se-
diment input and is characterized by a massive shore-parallel double bar-
rier system, evidence of two transgressive development phases. The
current beaches are located to the south side of the double barriers. The
barriers are interrupted by the entrance to Baía de Guanabara, but stretch in
a submerged phase across the mouth of the bay and are similarly devel-
oped on both sides of the bay entrance (Kjerfve et al. 1997). Beach profile
measurements by Muehe and Correa (1989) indicate that longshore drift is
practically non-existent along this east-west oriented coast.
Furthest to the west, the Restinga da Marambaia is a double barrier
which measures 40 km in length. The older landward barrier has an eleva-
tion of 8 – 12 m, while the seaward barrier is 4 – 7 m high (Borges 1990,
1998). At Barra de Guaratiba, the barrier is 1.8 km wide but narrows to
just 120 m in the central section, where the elevation measures 5 m. To the
east, close to Barra de Guaratiba, there exists an extensive dune field with
elevations up to 30 m. These dunes are parabolic (Ponçano 1976) with a
northeast-southwest direction. The Restinga da Marambaia is a well de-
fined double barrier for most of its extent, except for in the vicinity of Bar-
ra de Guaratiba where only the seaward barrier remains. Here, the land-
ward barrier has been eroded by currents in Baía de Sepetiba. Further, the
construction of an internal spit is related to this process (Fig. 7.2a). Sedi-
ment samples collected on the oceanic side of the Restinga de Marambaia
show decreasing sediment size. From the west to the central section of the
barrier system, coarse sand predominates, while further to the east towards
the channel at Barra de Guaratiba fine sand predominates.
The sedimentary plains of Jacarepaguá, between Restinga da Maram-
baia and the city of Rio de Janeiro, also display the double barrier system
(Roncarati and Neves 1976). The landward older barrier is 17.5 km long,
950 m wide and 9.5 m high towards the west, 11.5 m high in the center,
but only 150 m wide and 8.5 m high towards the east. The younger sea-
ward barrier is 18 km long, 300 and 20 m wide, respectively, in the west
and east, with an elevation between 4.5 and 6.5 m.
Fig. 7.10 Permanent jetties at Barra do Furado (southwest of Cabo São Tomé)
with the adjacent single transgressive coastal barrier and the subsequent off-set
impact on the local shoreline (Dias and Silva 2003; Photo by C. Silva)
East of Baía de Guanabara, the barriers at Piratininga, Camboinhas,

Itaipu, and Maricá/Guarapina (Fig. 7.1b) are single sand barriers as a result
of either a merger of the two barriers or erosion of the most landward bar-
rier (Turcq et al. 1986; Muehe and Correa 1989). In the Itaipuaçú region
(Fig. 7.1b), between Itaipu and Maricá/Guarapina, smoothed beach ridge
deposits are situated at a lower elevation between the landward barrier and
continental deposits (Perrin 1984; Coe Neto et al. 1986). Turcq et al.
(1999) suggested that these beach ridges are deposits corresponding to a
high sea level stand older than the landward barrier.
Further east, the massive 65 km long Restinga de Massambaba (Fig.
7.11) is quite similar to Restinga de Marambaia (Fig. 7.1a) and for most
parts made up of well-developed double barriers. However, one of four
transversal profiles (Muehe 2006) across the Restinga de Massambaba in
(Fig. 7.11; profile D) lacks the landward barrier. This is most likely the re-
sult of local erosion of the older barrier, a process which was also de-
scribed by Alves (2006) to explain the formation of the internal spits in
Lagoa de Araruama and other coastal lagoons.
7.8 Evolution and Chronology of the Rio de Janeiro

Barriers
The formation of the double barrier system of the east-west-oriented Rio

de Janeiro coast has been the subject of numerous studies and intensive
debate for more than 50 years. The formation of the barriers is intimately
tied to the variation of relative sea level. Recent evidence suggests that the
landward barrier is Pleistocene and the seaward barrier is Holocene. La-
mego (1945) first proposed a model to explain the formation of the coastal
lagoons along the coast of Rio de Janeiro, suggesting that their origin was
related to the growth of spits parallel to the shoreline. Roncarati and Neves
(1976) used the same model to explain the formation of Lagoa de Jacare-
paguá.
Muehe (1982) and Coe Neto et al. (1986) determined Holocene ages for
14
both barriers of the Restinga de Massambaba based on C measurements
of shells (Anomalocardia) from Lagoa de Araruama. This lagoon is si-
tuated landward of the internal barrier (Fig. 7.1c).
Maia et al. (1984) inferred that lagoon beaches were first established at
the edge of the Jacarepaguá coastal plain during the period of the Holocene
sea-level high 5,100 yrs BP. They dated shell fragments collected from
sands below one of the lagoon beaches, yielding dates of 5,065 ± 120 and
4,445 ± 150 yrs BP. They concluded that a barrier island formed, isolating
a large coastal lagoon from the open sea, during the last sea level trans-
14
gression phase from 7,000 to 6,100 yrs BP. A C date of 5,970 ± 230 yrs
BP was determined. The sands at the bottom of the internal lagoon con-
sisted of great amounts of shells, many still closed, indicating that they
remained in situ as the lagoon dried. Some shells were dated with ages de-
termined to be between 5,740 ±150 yrs BP and 4,090 ± 110 yrs BP. This
seems to confirm that the first lagoon phase already was established before
the time of the maximum sea level stand. The size of the seaward lagoon is
considerably smaller than the landward system.
The reconstruction of the evolutionary stages of the Jacarepaguá coastal
plain and adjacent double barriers (Maia et al. 1984) relies not only on ra-
diometric dates, but also on the claims of high frequency Holocene relative
sea level variations along the coast of Rio de Janeiro, Bahia, and São Paulo
(Martin et al. 1980).
Turcq et al. (1986) described Pleistocene deposits in contact with the
landward edge of the oldest and most landward of the Holocene double
barrier at Itaipuaçu. Also, Ireland (1987), based on the study of diatoms in
Lagoa Padre and Lagoa de Itaipu, discovered compacted clays below Ho-
locene sands, suggesting that the landward barrier was Pleistocene and the
seaward barrier was formed at 7,150 years BP.
Turcq et al. (1999) analyzed cores obtained from Lagoa Brejo do Espin-
ho and Lagoa Vermelha, seaward of Lagoa de Araruama, and determined
ages greater than 7,000 yrs BP. They concluded that the landward barrier
could not have been formed during the Holocene. The radiocarbon ages of
shells obtained from depths of 340 – 335 cm and 324 – 320 cm, respective-
ly, indicated ages of 7,100 ± 110 yrs BP (Beta 45727) and 6,660 ± 70 yrs
BP (Beta 45726). Turcq et al. (1999) showed that the sands, rich in mol-
lusks, correspond to the beginning of the submergence of old marine sands
impregnated by humic acids in a continental environment 7,200 yrs BP,
when the relative sea level was 3 m below the present, and the seaward
barrier had yet not formed. The sand, rich in marine shells, was covered by
30 cm of alternating organic mud/shelly sands. The presence of organic
mud indicates changes in the sedimentary environment, corresponding to
the beginning of a lagoon environment, isolated from the open sea by a
sand barrier. The coastal evolution proposed by Turcq et al. (1999) from to
123,000 to 7,000 BP assumes the existence of drainage channels cutting
perpendicularly through the landward barrier during the last glacial period.
These drainage channels would be located in the east below discontinuities
in the landward barrier.
Fig. 7.11 Topographic sections across the Massambaba double barrier system
(Muehe 2006). (General location in Fig. 7.1c)
Muehe (2006) used a 7 KHz sub-bottom profiler for a bathymetric and

geophysical survey in the Lagoa de Araruama, finding that the lagoon was
in most cases shallower than 3 m. From the seismic profiles, he showed the
existence of a well-pronounced WNW-ESE-oriented paleo-trough, defin-
ing the actual main channel of the lagoon, and corresponding to the deep-
est parts of the lagoon (~12 m). The southern edge of the channel, covered
by muddy organic sediment rich in diatoms, extends to depths greater than
17 m. Short and well-cut paleo-channels, perpendicular to the longitudinal
axis of the lagoon are filled with muddy sediment, indicating pre-Holocene
episodes related to fluvial erosion prior to the existence of the landward

barrier. Muehe (2006) considered the southern flank of the channel as the
limit for the Pleistocene barrier, and related the northern flank to the old
shoreline. This conclusion is supported by the existence of fluvio-lagoon
sands in the lagoon, and the existence of sands on the bottom of the lagoon
south of the trough (Branco and Ramalho 1984). The formation of the ex-
tensive sand spits within the lagoon, and the dune field currently covering
portions of the coastal barrier, are a consequence of the erosion of sands
from the landward side of the barrier by persistent and strong winds from
the northeast.
Development of coastal barriers occurs during periods of transgressive
sea level when the relative sea level increases. Coastal barriers also form
along coasts with low fluvial sediment supply and accretion with sediment
mostly supplied from the continental shelf. The low gradient of the shelf
also favors the emergence of barriers. This would explain the lack of such
features in Ilha Grande bay, where the shelf slopes are much steeper.
As previously discussed, the recent reanalysis of relative sea level data
(Angulo and Lessa 1997) indicates the absence of high-frequency oscilla-
tions in the sea level record during the past 5,000 years. Previous models
considered these oscillations and used them to explain the formation of the
double barriers as Holocene features. The current model considers a single
transgressive event during the Holocene, which is consistent with hydro-
isostatic adjustment models applied to other regions (Clark et al. 1978;
Milne et al. 2005), thus confirming a Pleistocene age for the landward bar-
rier.
Further, the contiguous beach ridge plain southwest of Cabo São Tome
is certainly of Pleistocene age. This is corroborated by a 7 KHz sub-bottom
profiler seismic survey and coring (Soares de Almeida 1997), indicating
that Lagoa de Carapebus is, a constrained paleo-channel carved into the
sand of the most landward beach ridges. Dating from the paleo-channel
sub bottom yielded ages of 6,460 ± 60 yrs BP (wood fragments at a depth
of 150 cm) and 7,400 ± 250 yrs BP (paleo soils at a depth of 240 cm).
Absolute dating performed in the inter-barrier lagoons yielded a Holo-
cene age (Turcq et al. 1999). Therefore, as the landward barrier migrated
inland during a transgressive relative sea level rise, the inland barrier could
only have formed during the Pleistocene marine transgression event
123,000 years ago. The seismic profiles from Lagoa de Araruama show the
existence of a sandy sequence beyond the landward barrier, ending abrupt-
ly within the lagoon at the limit of the longitudinal canal. This feature is
similar to a precipitation dune, and its boundaries have an east-southeast
orientation. There is no evidence of fluvial channels eroding this sandy
package, as was suggested by Turcq et al. (1999). The mouth of the Pleis-
tocene lagoonal-estuarine system was oriented towards the east-southeast.
The single transgressive barrier across the plain of beach ridges southwest
of Cabo São Tomé is the equivalent of the external barrier along the coast
between Marambaia and Cabo Frio.
7.9 Conclusions
Along the Rio de Janeiro coast, there are excellent examples of transgres-
sive sedimentary sequences (barriers) and regressive sedimentary se-
quences (beach ridges) of Quaternary age.
The coast of Rio de Janeiro is characterized by a Holocene relative sea
level high stand +3 – +4 m above the present sea level. Recent studies of
relative sea level change during the past 5,000 years indicate a more or less
linear fall in relative sea level, broadly similar to hydro-isostatic adjust-
ments simulated by global models for much of the southern hemisphere.
Beach ridge plains in northeastern Rio de Janeiro are sedimentary fea-
tures of a wave dominated delta. The beach ridge plain situated southwest
of Cabo São Tomé is related to an older (Pleistocene) system of paleo-
channels of the Paraíba do Sul river, and the currently active beach ridge
plain northeast of Cabo São Tomé is related to the modern course of the
Paraíba do Sul river. A variety of data confirm the continuity of a muddy
prodelta environment, overlain by sands from the delta front.
Double barriers extend shore-parallel for much of the Rio de Janeiro
coast. The system of double barriers in the vicinity of Lagoa de Araruama
indicates that the lagoon and seaward barrier are of Holocene age. Thus, as
all barriers have migrated inland during periods of transgressive sea level,
the landward barrier could only have formed during the Pleistocene marine
transgression event 123,000 years ago.
The single transgressive barrier across the beach ridge plain southwest
of Cabo São Tomé is the equivalent to the seaward barrier along the coast
between Marambaia and Cabo Frio.
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Fluminense
Chapter 8
The Holocene Barrier Strandplains of the State
of Bahia
José M. L. Dominguez, Ana C. S. Andrade, Angela B. Almeida and

Abílio C. S. P. Bittencourt
8.1 Introduction
This chapter presents a review of the current state of knowledge of the

strandplains (regressive barriers) present along the coast of the state of Ba-
hia, located in the central portion of the Brazilian coastal zone (Fig. 8.1).
The state of Bahia has the longest coastline in Brazil, totaling almost 1,000
km. This coastal zone presents us with the opportunity to investigate res-
ponses of strandplain systems to different forcing factors, such as sea-level
changes and sediment supply and local physiographic controls (effects of
incised valleys and coral reefs).
8.2.1 Geology
Figure 8.1 presents a simplified geological map of the Bahia coastal zone.
The general framework of the coastal zone has a strong control of the geo-
logical heritage which goes back to the Early Proterozoic-Archean. The
oldest geological elements of the coastal zone are from south to north: the
Araçuaí Foldbelt (Late Proterozoic), and the São Francisco cráton (Early
Proterozoic-Archean). These two major provinces have exerted a funda-
mental control on the development of the coastal zone, during and after the
South American – Africa breakup. Cratonic areas as opposed to foldbelts
are characterized by a very thick and stable continental crust (Matos 1999,
254 J.M.L. Dominguez et al.
Alkmim 2004). Thus, during the continental break-up, the rifted areas are
much narrower than those developed in the foldbelt province. Thermal
subsidence after break-up is also very limited in the cratonic areas. As a
result, the continental shelf where the coastal zone intersects the foldbelt is
much wider than in the cratonic section. In fact the cratonic section is cha-
racterized by the narrowest continental shelf of the entire Brazilian conti-
nental margin. This “cratonic coast” is also one of the few stretches of the
Brazilian coast where Mesozoic rift basins outcrop, possibly reflecting li-
mited thermal subsidence since the break-up (Karner et al. 1992). These
are the Recôncavo, Camamu, and Almada basins. On the exhumed rem-
nants of these rifted basins, some of the largest bays of Brazil developed as
a result of the Postglacial Marine Transgression. These are the Todos of
Santos and the Camamu bays. A third bay, the Almada (Lagoa Encantada)
bay has been completely filled during the Holocene (Almeida 2006).
Starting in the Early Miocene and possibly extending up to the Pliocene,
an important depositional event took place along almost the entire coastal
zone of Brazil, which resulted in the deposition of the Barreiras Formation
The origin of the Barreiras Formation is still not completely understood.
Traditionally it has been interpreted as the result of deposition in alluvial
systems. More recently however, several papers have shown that in north-
ern-northeastern Brazil, deposition, at least in its lower portion, took place
in transitional coastal environments such as estuaries and tidal flats (Ros-
setti 2006 and D.F. Rossetti, personal communication). According to these
more recent interpretations most of the Barreiras Formation is the result of
a coastal onlap associated with Mid-Early Miocene high sea levels (Arai
2006).
The Barreiras Formation is present along the entire coast of Bahia, ex-
cept for that section where the Mesozoic rifts outcrop along the coast. This
might suggest that this section has possibly experienced uplift during the
Miocene or afterwards. Differential erosion between crystalline rocks of
the São Francisco craton and the sedimentary rocks of the Mesozoic rifts
produced the present day physiography of this section (Fig. 8.2), in which
the rift basins occupy low lying areas (40 m high) bordered abruptly by
Precambrian terrains (100–200 m high). These low lying areas were later
flooded during the Quaternary highstands originating the Todos os Santos,
Camamu and Almada bays.
During the Quaternary, strandplains of different dimensions and varying
evolutionary histories developed along this coastal zone, as a result of
complex interactions between sediment supply, sea-level history, coral reef
8 The Holocene Barrier Strandplains of the State of Bahia 255
development, waves and tides, and climate. The most extensive

strandplains present along the coastal zone are shown in Fig. 8.1.
8.2.2 Atmospheric Circulation, Waves and Tides
The basic elements of the general atmospheric circulation along the coast
of Bahia include: (i) air masses originating in the South Atlantic high-
pressure cell and (ii) periodic advances of air masses of polar origin. Hur-
ricanes do not affect coastal processes in Bahia. The South Atlantic anti-
cyclone cell constitutes the main centre of circulation. This anticyclone
cell is located in a fairly fixed position in the South Atlantic ocean, and
undergoes only slight seasonal variations. This permanence is reflected in
the extreme constancy in speed and direction of the trade winds. During
the summer, northeasterly and easterly trade winds blow along the coast.
During the winter southeasterly winds dominate. Antarctic polar fronts in-
vade the South American continent in great anti-cyclones east of the Andes
Mountain range moving along the coast towards the equator and reaching
o
latitudes as far north as 10 S during the winter. Gale force winds have been
reported associated with these polar air masses (Bandeira et al. 1975).
A discussion of the wave generation mechanisms for the eastern coast of
Brazil in presented in Dominguez et al. (1992). Because of the extreme
constancy in the speed and direction of the trade winds, and the geographic
location of the study area, lying entirely within the trade wind belt, waves
generated by these winds strongly influence coastal processes in Bahia. N-
NE waves are somewhat present all year round. Beginning in April and ex-
tending through August, E-SE waves comprise a significant percentage on
the wave trains impinging the coast. Thus, during the fall (Apr.–May) and
the winter (Jun.–Aug.) east-southeastern waves with average heights of
1.5–2.0 m and average periods of 6 to 7 s are common. During the spring
(Sep.–Nov.) and the summer (Dec.–Feb.) north-northeastern waves with
average heights of 1.0 m and periods of 5 s or less dominate in the region.
As a result of this seasonal variation in wave regime, reversals in long-
shore sediment transport also occur seasonally, as has been shown by Fa-
rias et al. (1985) who examined seasonal beach rotation at Armação beach
in Salvador city.
Tidal range along the coast is slightly over 2 m (Lower Mesotidal) and
exhibits a small tendency to increase from south to north.
Fig. 8.1 Simplified geology of the coastal zone of the State of Bahia, which ex-
tends from Mucuri (south) to Mangue Seco (north). The small rectangles indicate
the locations of studied areas
Fig. 8.2 Digital elevation model (DEM) showing the differences in elevation
between the Mesozoic rifts and the Precambrian basement
8.2.3 Sediment Dispersal
Bittencourt et al. (2000) using the average directions of main wave fronts,
their heights and periods, modeled the wave-refraction patterns along the
coast of Bahia, and from that deduced sandy sediment dispersion along the
coastline. They concluded that overall, the longshore transport from Mucu-
ri to Salvador is dominantly northwards, whereas from Salvador to Man-
gue Seco it is dominantly southwestwards. Integration of this regional ap-
proach with more detailed wave refraction models made available in
Dominguez (2003), Dominguez et al. (2006) and Dominguez and Corrêa-
Gomes (2006), has allowed the production of a more refined longshore se-
diment dispersal model which is shown in Fig. 8.1.
8.2.4 Climate
Climate along the coastal zone is humid. The largest annual rainfall
(>2,000 mm) is concentrated in a zone that extends from Ilhéus to Salva-
dor. North and south of that zone annual rainfall drops to a minimum of
1,400 mm.
8.2.5 Continental Shelf Physiography and Sedimentation
The continental shelf from Belmonte to Mangue Seco is very narrow with
an average width of 20 km. In front of Salvador and Ilheus the shelf break
is located just 5–8 km from the shoreline. The shelf break along the entire
study area is just 60 m deep. South of Belmonte the shelf widens dramati-
cally forming the Royal Charlotte and the Abrolhos Bank as a result of
volcanic activity during the Paleocene-Eocene (Szatmari et al. 2000).
Sedimentation on the continental shelf is dominantly biogenic, particu-
larly in the middle and outer shelves. The major constituent of continental
shelf sediments is coralline algae. Siliciclastics are present only on the in-
ner shelf in close proximity with the present day shoreline. Recent studies
have shown that the middle and outer shelves are characterized by very
low rates of sedimentation, since inundation after the Last Glacial Maxi-
mum (Freire 2006). Only 3–4 m of biogenic sediments have accumulated
in these shelf areas (Freire 2006). The most important coral reefs buildups
are present in the southern and north-central coast of the State. These areas
are characterized by the existence of suitable hard substrates for reef
growth (abrasion terraces, basement and structural highs) and low sedi-
ment supply. Reef development has exerted a strong control on coastal se-
dimentation by inducing changes in coastal hydrodynamics, as discussed
below.
8.2.6 Sea-Level History and Coastal Evolution
At least two episodes of higher than present sea levels have been identified
for the last 123,000 yrs BP (Suguio et al. 1985, Dominguez et al. 1987,
Martin et al. 1987). The Penultimate Transgression (Bittencourt et al.
1979) reached a maximum around 123,000 yrs BP, when sea level was po-
sitioned around 5 to 8 ± 2 m above the present level (Martin et al. 1980;
Lambeck et al. 2002). The subsequent regressive trend culminated around
19,000 yrs BP, when sea level reached a minimum of 100–120 m below
the present level (Hanebuth et al. 2003). The most recent transgressive epi-
sode, which initiated around 19,000 yrs BP, is known as the Last Trans-
gression in Bahia (Bittencourt et al. 1979) and reached a maximum ap-
proximately 5,600 cal yrs BP when sea level stood 4–5 m above the
14
present level. This last event left several records that were dated by the C
method, allowing the construction of relative sea-level curves for the last
7,700 cal yrs BP (Suguio et al. 1985, 1988; Martin et al. 1987, 2003).
The relative sea-level curve constructed for the Salvador region is by far
the most detailed of the entire eastern-northeastern coast of Brazil. Martin
et al. (2003) have recently presented a new version of this curve incorpo-
rating corrections for the reservoir effect and calibrations for calendar ages
(Fig. 8.3).
Angulo and Lessa (1997) questioned the existence of the two high-
frequency sea-level oscillations of the Salvador curve. According to these
authors, most of the sea-level indicators used in the determination of the
two high-frequency oscillations come from mollusks and not vermetid in-
crustations, which they consider to be the best and more precise indicator.
Martin et al. (1998, 2003) however, pointed out that a sea-level curve
should not be constructed based on a single sea-level indicator but should
incorporate information from other biological, sedimentological, ar-
chaeological and morphological indicators.
Besides these two transgressive events a high sea level older than
123,000 yrs BP was recognized in the northern portion of the State of Ba-
hia by Martin et al. (1980, 1988), based on geomorphological evidence
(fossil sea cliffs). This highstand could possibly be correlated to the Bar-
rier II system of the Rio Grande do Sul coast (Villwock et al. 1986).
Integration of this sea-level history with mapping of coastal environ-
ments (Bittencourt et al. 1981; Dominguez et al. 1981, 1987; Suguio et al.
1981; Barbosa et al. 1986; Dominguez and Wanless 1991, Martin and
Dominguez 1994) has demonstrated that during rising sea level, barrier isl-
and-lagoonal-estuarine systems are the dominant mode of sedimentation.
Rivers do not reach the inner shelf but tend to construct bay head deltas in
protected environments such as estuaries. Beach or foredune ridge plains
are virtually absent. This was the dominant mode of sedimentation along
the coast of Brazil during the Last Transgression.
Fig. 8.3 Relative sea-level curve for the Salvador region (see Fig. 8.1 for location).
Modified from Martin et al. (2003)
By contrast, sea-level fall poses highly unfavorable conditions to the

genesis and maintainance of barrier island-lagoonal-estuarine systems. La-
goons and bays become emergent. Beach or foredune ridge plains rapidly
prograde, creating regressive deposits. Rivers empty directly onto the inner
shelf. This is the case for the coast of Brazil today where narrow elongated
barrier islands separated from the mainland by a lagoon/estuary are virtual-
ly absent, although common in the past. These features have been replaced
by extensive beach or foredune ridge plains (regressive barriers).
This evolutionary model fits nicely in Boyd’s classificatory scheme for
coastal zone environments (Boyd et al. 1992).
This varied geological-geomorphological setting allows us to explore
different evolutionary histories for strandplains (regressive barriers) during
the Late Quaternary. In order to illustrate how different combinations of
the factors discussed above interact to produce different styles of
strandplain evolution, four examples are discussed, for which detailed in-
formation is available (Fig. 8.1):
(i) The Caravelas Strandplain is located in the southern portion of
the State of Bahia. It has no association with a major river. Its
Quaternary evolution has been controlled, besides sea-level
history, by the coeval development of the inner coral reef tract
of the Abrolhos.
(ii) The Jequitinhonha strandplain is the largest strandplain on the
coast of Bahia. It is associated with one of the largest rivers
emptying into this section of the Brazilian coastline. It can be
considered as an example of a wave-dominated delta.
(iii) The Lagoa Encantada bay, associated with the small Almada
river, is located in the central portion of the state. It presents
an evolution that includes an initial phase during which it be-
haved as an open marine bay, later infilled and replaced by a
prograding beach or foredune ridge plain.
(iv) The Itapicuru strandplain, located in the northern portion of
the coastal zone, is associated with the Itapicuru river. Its
evolution resembles the classical scheme for the infilling of a

wave-dominated estuary.
8.3 The Caravelas Strandplain
The Caravelas strandplain fronts a wide continental shelf extending up to

246 km offshore – (Fig. 8.1) forming the Abrolhos Bank of volcanic ori-
gin. Ar-Ar ages indicate that the volcanic activity spanned the Paleocene-
2
Eocene (Szatmari et al. 2000). The strandplain has an area of 800 km and
is bordered by the tablelands of the Barreiras Formation (Fig. 8.4). The
Abrolhos coral reefs, present on this shelf, comprise the largest and the
richest reef complex of the Western South Atlantic (Leão 1982). These
reefs have developed on top of volcanic rocks (outer reef tract) and struc-
tural highs (inner reef tract) of the Abrolhos bank (Mohrriak 2004). During
the Quaternary the evolution of the Caravelas strandplain was strongly
controlled by sea-level changes and the development of the Abrolhos inner
reef tract.
8.3.1 Development of the Abrolhos Inner Reef Tract
Data obtained from a core taken in the Coroa Vermelha reef (Fig. 8.4) al-
lowed the calculation of coral reef growth rates. The island surface is about
1.5 m above mean sea level (Leão 1982). The Coroa Vermelha core
reached a total depth of 15.2 m. The top of the pre-Holocene sequence was
found at 11.2 m below present mean sea level. Coral samples collected in
different depths in relation to the present mean sea level provided ages of
7,371–7,096 cal yrs BP (–11 m), 5,728–5,485 cal yrs BP (–8.5 m) and
4,527–4,287 cal yrs BP (–2.4 m). A sample dated from the reef border
provided an age over 1,683–1,504 cal yrs BP (Leão and Kikuchi 1999).
Leão and Kikuchi (1999, 2001) and Leão et al. (2003) have recon-
structed the evolution of the Abrolhos inner reef tract in four major stages:
Stage A (initial reef establishment) – the oldest age from the Coroa
Vermelha core indicates that during the Holocene the corals started colo-
nizing the area around 7,200 cal yrs BP, after rates of sea-level rise have
significantly decreased (see Fig. 8.3). The reef growth rate in this stage
was small, around 1.5 mm/year.
Fig. 8.4 Simplified geology-geomorphology of the Caravelas strandplain (see

Fig. 8.1 for location). Modified from Andrade (2000) and Andrade et al. (2003)
Stage B (rapid vertical accretion of the reefs) – this stage took place
around the maximum of the Last Transgression and it was characterized by
a rapid reef growth, with rates in the order of 5.5 mm/year. The corals
dated from the top of the Coroa Vermelha core (4,527–4,287 cal yrs BP)
indicate that by this time this reef reached the present mean sea level.
Stage C (lateral growth of the reefs) – the vertical accretion of the reefs
stopped when they reached sea level. Since that time, the reefs have had
their tops truncated and started growing sideways. The age of 1,683–1,504
cal yrs BP, obtained from the border of the reef, which is younger than the
one from the top, corroborates this statement.
Stage D (reef degradation) – this stage is marked by a decline of the reef
growth which persists to the present day, possibly resulting from the com-
bined effect of a drop in sea level and progradation that brought the shore-
line close to the reefs thus increasing turbidity.
8.3.2 Quaternary Evolution of the Caravelas Strandplain
Five major geologic-geomorphological units were mapped in the Carave-

las strandplain (Fig. 8.4): Pleistocene and Holocene beach/foredune ridges,
lagoonal deposits, freshwater marshes and tidal flats/mangroves. In the
subsurface, vibracoring allowed the identification of sedimentary facies
deposited in the littoral zone, shoreface, lagoon, mangrove and freshwater

wetlands.
The evolutionary model proposed for the Caravelas strandplain (An-
drade 2000, Andrade et al. 2003) based on integration of radiocarbon dat-
ing, vibracoring, and surface mapping is summarized below:
Stage I: Construction of the Pleistocene strandplain (Fig. 8.5) - This
stage corresponds to the regressive event that followed the maximum of
the Penultimate Transgression (~123,000 yrs BP). During this period, se-
diments brought by longshore currents into the area, from the eroding sea
cliffs of the Barreiras Formation located both north and south, favored
progradation of the coastline through the successive accretion of
beach/foredune ridges. The initial accumulation of sediments in the plain
might have been favored by a change in the initial shoreline orientation,
represented by the Barreiras Formation sea cliffs, later enhanced by the
development of the Pleistocene reefs. The paleogeographic reconstruction
depicted in Fig. 8.5 shows that the coastline exhibited a great lateral conti-
nuity and was made up of sandy beaches. The general configuration of the
Pleistocene coastline was very similar to the present day coastline, reflect-
ing the presence of offshore obstacles such as the Parcel das Paredes coral
reefs. Analysis of beach/foredune ridge alignments show progradational
phases intercalated with erosional episodes as evidenced by the presence
of beach/foredune ridge truncations. Inversions in the longshore transport
direction, as indicated by sandy spit growth, are also observed.
Stage II: Drowning of the Pleistocene strandplain during the Last Trans-
gression (Fig. 8.6) – The Last Transgression drowned the Pleistocene
strandplain, with partial erosion and reworking of the Pleistocene
beach/foredune ridge terraces. As a result a barrier island/lagoon system
was formed. The paleo-geographical reconstruction of the strandplain by
that time shows the existence of two lagoonal systems: one located in the
southern sector (Lagoonal System I) and the other in the northern sector of
the Caravelas strandplain (Lagoonal System II). Radiocarbon dating of
these lagoonal sediments shows that the barrier island/lagoon system was
already present before the maximum of the Last Transgression (5,600 cal
yrs BP). Strong evidence of the presence of a lagoon around 7,700 cal yrs
BP was found in a vibracore, retrieved from the southern sector of the
strandplain. Shells collected in a mangroves facies near the contact with
the superimposed foreshore facies provided an age of 7,913–7,802 cal yrs
BP The sea level by that time can be positioned 6.7 m below the present
one, since the mangrove facies, which accumulated in an intertidal zone, is
now located about 6.7 m below its modern equivalent.
Fig. 8.5 Caravelas strandplain. Evolutionary Stage I – Construction of the Pleisto-

cene strandplain. See text for details. Modified from Andrade (2000) and Andrade
et al. (2003)
Another important aspect is the presence by that time, of the paleo-

Ponta do Catoeiro cape in the barrier island chain that protected lagoonal
system I. This cape-like form of the coastline is probably the result of the
influence of the Coroa Vermelha, Viçosa and Sebastião Gomes reefs on
the wave refraction-diffraction patterns in shaping the barrier island chain.
At the lagoonal system II, the southern tip of the barrier island was anc-
hored in the paleo-Ponta da Baleia cape and extended northwards as a re-
sult of the dominant longshore drift. A general north-directed longshore
drift affected almost the entire coastline of the barrier island system by that
time.
Fig. 8.6 Caravelas strandplain. Evolutionary Stage II – Drowning of the Pleisto-

cene strandplain during the Last Trangression. See text for details. Modified from
Andrade (2000) and Andrade et al. (2003)
Radiocarbon dates available for the paleolagoon sediments (Andrade

2000, Andrade et al. 2003) suggest that by the maximum of the Last
Transgression the paleolagoons were already filled up with sediments.
Stage III: Coastline progradation in the embayment situated between the
paleo-Ponta da Baleia and Ponta do Catoeiro (Fig. 8.7) – The sea-level
drop after the maximum of the Last Transgression (5,600 cal yrs BP) fa-
vored coastline progradation. Apparently, this progradation happened first
in the small embayment situated between Ponta da Baleia and Ponta do
Catoeiro. In other sectors of the strandplain, the coastline did not prograde
at first in a significant way.
Fig. 8.7 Caravelas strandplain. Evolutionary Stage III – Initial coastline prograda-
tion. See text for details. Modified from Andrade (2000) and Andrade et al. (2003)
Stage IV: Beginning of the sedimentation in the northern sector of the

Caravelas strandplain (Fig. 8.8) – This stage marks a major change in the
dominant longshore drift direction in the northern sector of the strandplain.
Initially, the dominant direction was northeastwards and later changed to
southwards. A possible reason for this inversion could be the emersion of
the inner reef tract by 4,415 cal yrs BP, as a result of the combined effect
of reef growth/sea-level drop. This emersion blocked in a significant way,
the propagation of southeast waves into the northern sector. As this hap-
pened, the northeastern waves became more effective in determining the
dominant longshore drift direction, therefore originating an inversion in
the net longshore transport direction in that sector (Fig. 8.9).
Fig. 8.8 Caravelas strandplain. Evolutionary Stage IV – Beginning of the sedimen-

tation in the northern sector. See text for details. Modified from Andrade (2000)
and Andrade et al. (2003)
By that time, two major capes, the paleo-Ponta da Baleia and the paleo-
Ponta do Catoeiro were present. This general shoreline orientation is in
conformity with present coastal processes.
Stage V: Erosional episodes (Fig. 8.10) – Beach-ridge orientations in the
northern sector of the strandplain indicate that during the Holocene, severe
episodes of shoreline erosion have occurred, generating truncations in
beach/foredune-ridge alignment.
The most dramatic erosional episode recorded in the strandplain is the

one shown in Fig. 8.10 which resulted in erosion of the paleo-Ponta da
Baleia cape. Radiocarbon ages of vegetable debris collected from a la-
goonal facies that infill the low-lying area associated with this
beach/foredune ridge truncation and from shells collected from the
beach/foredune ridge located closest to the truncation provided ages of
2,338–2,153 cal yrs BP and 2,353–2,331 cal yrs BP respectively. Andrade
(2000) and Andrade et al. (2003) have attributed this erosional episode to
the most recent high-frequency sea-level oscillation of the Salvador sea-
level curve based on the coincidence of the radiocarbon dates. This ero-
sional episode was followed by an intensification of the southward di-
rected longshore drift, which caused the displacement of the Caravelas
channel as depicted in Fig. 8.11. This displacement could have been re-
sponsible for the severe erosion that affected Caçumba Island by that time.
The existence of a possible paleochannel with a geometry like that pre-
sented in Fig. 8.11 is suggested by the presence of a tidal channel facies in
vibracores at this location. Radiocarbon dating of mollusk shells and peat
associated with this erosional shoreline provided ages of 1,310–1,273 cal
yrs BP and 1,175–980 cal yrs BP respectively in the southern and northern
portion of the plain.
Stage VI: Renewed coastline progradation (Fig. 8.12) – This final evolu-
tionary stage corresponds to a renewed coastline progradation after the se-
vere erosional episode of Stage V. The growth of the Ponta da Baleia cape
in association with further emergence and lateral growth of the coral reefs
of Sebastião Gomes, Coroa Vermelha, Viçosa and Parcel das Paredes
created a low energy zone in the neighborhood of the Caçumba Island, fa-
voring the deposition of fine sediments, in extensive mangroves/tidal flats.
As a result, a change in sedimentation style occurred in this sector of the
strandplain, which began to present characteristics more typical of a tide-
dominated environment.
Fig. 8.9 Refraction diagrams (wave heights) for NE (A) and SE (B) waves show-
ing the blocking effects of the coral reefs. See text for details
Fig. 8.10 Caravelas strandplain. Evolutionary Stage V – Severe coastline erosion

at Ponta da Baleia cape, possibly related to the most recent high-frequency oscilla-
tion of the Salvador sea-level curve. See text for details. Modified from Andrade
(2000) and Andrade et al. (2003)
8.4 The Jequitinhonha Strandplain

2
The Jequitinhonha strandplain has a total area of 800 km (Fig. 8.13). The
2
Jequitinhonha river drains an area of 70,315 km , and has a sediment
6
discharge of 7.89 x 10 t/year. The Pardo river also empties into this
2
plain (drainage basin: 33,070 km ). The large sediment discharge of the
Jequitinhonha river is the result of a combination of high mean relief
Fig. 8.11 Caravelas strandplain. Evolutionary Stage V (cont.) – Southward dis-

placement of the Caravelas channel due to intensification of the southward di-
rected longshore drift, around 1,070–1,290 cal. yrs BP. See text for details. Mod-
ified from Andrade (2000) and Andrade et al. (2003)
and precipitation values in the drainage basin of that river. Major river
discharges occur during the southern hemisphere summer as a result of ad-
vection of cold fronts along the hinterland, and the southward migration of
the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). During the winter, the cold
fronts advance only along the coastal zone, and precipitation on the drai-
nage basin is very much reduced.
Fig. 8.12 Caravelas strandplain. Evolutionary Stage VI – Renewed coastline pro-

gradation, after southward displacement of the Caravelas channel. See text for de-
tails. Modified from Andrade (2000) and Andrade et al. (2003)
Geological-geomorphological units present on the strandplain are very

similar to those found in Cavarelas, but for the presence of fluvial deposits
(coarse-grained channel and overbank) associated with the Jequitinhonha
and Pardo rivers.
Quaternary evolution of this plain has been reconstructed in detail by
Dominguez (1983, 1987) and follows the general scheme previously dis-
cussed for Caravelas. During the Last Transgression, the Pleistocene plain
was partly eroded and drowned. The Jequitinhonha and Pardo river valleys
were also drowned forming estuaries. Barrier Island /Lagoonal/Estuarine
Systems also formed during this time. Radiocarbon datings of lagoonal
sediments indicate that barrier islands already existed in the region by

8,600–7,700 cal yrs BP. A well-defined bay head delta has not been ob-
served in the Jequitinhonha strandplain, possibly because of the reduced
dimensions of the paleolagoon/estuary in this area. A radiocarbon date of a
paleochannel of the Jequitinhonha river, located near the city of Canaviei-
ras provided a maximum age of 6,200 cal yrs BP for this channel, suggest-
ing that by that time most of the estuary had been filled up and the river
was emptying directly into the open ocean shoreline. In the northern por-
tion of the strandplain detailed reconstruction of the paleolagoon-barrier
system also shows that by the maximum of the Holocene transgression
most of the lagoon floor had built up to the intertidal level and was occu-
pied by extensive mangrove forests, that were rapidly replaced afterwards
by freshwater marshes (Dominguez 1987, Martin and Dominguez 1994).
The Holocene portion of the Jequitinhonha strandplain is characterized
by impressive sets of beautifully preserved beach/foredune ridges, which
in some sectors are more than 10 km wide. Dominguez (1983) and Do-
minguez et al. (2006) have performed a detailed analysis of the
beach/foredune ridge geometries, particularly their truncation patterns and
concluded that the beach/foredune ridges can be grouped into three major
sets, associated with three different locations of the Jequitinhonha river
mouth (Fig. 8.14). Thus, during the Holocene, the Jequitinhonha river
mouth has changed position 3 times, through avulsion-like processes. Each
avulsion episode sequentially brought the river mouth to a more southern
position. These changes have been attributed by Dominguez (1983, 1987)
and Dominguez et al. (1987) to the high-frequency oscillations of the Sal-
vador curve, however not much supporting evidence has been provided by
this author.
The geometry of these beach/foredune ridges, their orientation and trun-
cation patterns can provide us with a wealth of information concerning
changes in wave climate and past episodes of severe shoreline erosion.
One of the most dramatic changes took place approximately 1,100 cal yrs
BP. This change caused a massive transport of sediment from the cuspate
form present at the Jequitinhonha river mouth, to the southern portion of
the plain, forcing a southward migration of the small Mogiguiçaba river
for a distance of approximately 10 km (Fig. 8.15) Dominguez et al. (2006)
have concluded, using wave-refraction and sediment dispersal modeling,
that this dramatic change resulted from an increase in the intensity of the
NE-E waves which enhanced sediment dispersal towards the southern
portion of the plain. Thus, during an extended period of time, SE and
Fig. 8.13 Simplified geology-geomorphology of the Jequitinhonha strandplain.

(See Fig. 8.1 for location). Modified from Dominguez (1983)
Fig. 8.14 Beach-ridge sets mapped for the Jequitinhonha strandplain and former
positions of the Jequitinhonha river mouth. Modified from Dominguez (1983)
SSE waves have had their frequencies greatly reduced. Martin et al. (1984)
have called attention before, to the possible existence, during the Holo-
cene, of prolonged periods of “El Nino”-like conditions affecting the east-
ern coast of Brazil. During those periods, the northward advance of cold
fronts was blocked, resulting in a decrease in S-SE waves.
It is interesting to note that a similar increase in southerly sediment
transport has also been observed in the Caravelas plain, somewhat around
that time. However the few available radiocarbon dates preclude a better
correlation between these two events.
8.5 The Lagoa Encantada Bay
Almeida (2006) has recently concluded a detailed reconstruction of the in-

filling history of the Lagoa Encantada bay (Fig. 8.16). This strandplain,
2
with a total area of 85 km , actually is located in the head of a large subma-
rine canyon, the Almada canyon, active at least since the Late Cretaceous
(Bruhn and Moraes 1989, D’Ávila et al. 2004). Surface mapping shows
that this strandplain has the same geological-geomorphological units
present in the Jequitinhonha plain. During the drop in sea level after the
Penultimate Transgression, the last incision of the valley/canyon took
place. After the Last Glacial Maximum the rapid rise in sea level rapidly
flooded the canyon, in such a way that about 7,900 cal yrs BP the entire
stretch of the incised valley was affected by open marine conditions (Fig.
8.17). By this time the Lagoa Encantada strandplain was an open marine
bay, with corals thriving in its most interior portion, where the Lagoa En-
cantada lake is located today. When rates of sea level rise decreased after
7,000 cal yrs BP, this bay was rapidly filled with marine sands (Fig. 8.18).
By the time the maximum of the Holocene highstand was reached, the in-
filling was completed (Fig. 8.19). Decrease in tidal prism as the infilling
progressed allowed the construction of a sand barrier that blocked the en-
trance of the bay. From that point on a change in the style of sedimentation
took place with the replacement of the open marine bay by a wave-
dominated estuary.
This change took place around 5,900 cal yrs BP as indicated by radi-
ocarbon dates. After construction of the sand barrier, the Almada river
mouth was continuously displaced southward during progradation of the
shoreline. One important aspect of this evolutionary history is that the se-
diments infilling the Lagoa Encantada bay are essentially marine in origin.
2
Although the Almada river (drainage basin area – 1,678 km ) has played
an important role in the incision of the valley, it has had only a minor im-
portance during the infilling phase. This is corroborated by sediment pro-
duction modeling studies for the Almada river drainage basin (Almeida
et al. 2006). These studies show that sediment production at the drainage
basin can account for only a quarter of the volume of sediments stored at
the strandplain.
Fig. 8.15 Massive southward transport of sediments, beginning around 1,100 cal
yrs BP, forcing a southward migration of the Mogiguiçaba river for a distance of
approximately 10 km. This massive transport is possibly related to an increase in
the intensity of the NE-E waves. See text for details
Fig. 8.16 Simplified geology-geomorphology of the Lagoa Encantada strandplain

(see Fig. 8.1 for location). Modified from Almeida (2006)
Fig. 8.17 Paleogeographic reconstruction of the Lagoa Encantada strandplain,

around 7,900 cal yrs BP. See text for details. Based on diagrams from Almeida
(2006)

(2006)

(2006)
8.6 The Itapicuru Strandplain

2
The Itapicuru strandplain has a total area of 240 km (Fig. 8.20). The Itapi-
2
curu river drains a total area of 36,440 km . Aquino et al. (2004) has esti-
mated an annual discharge of suspended sediments of about 16,705 tons
for that river. Most of the upper river course, however, where rainfall is
concentrated, is dammed. In the coastal zone, besides the Pleistocene and
Holocene beach/foredune ridge deposits, it is present a third set of sandy
deposits, higher than the other two, which has been attributed by several
authors (Martin et al. 1980, Vilas Boas et al. 1979) as the result of deposi-
tion in alluvial fans at the foot of sea cliffs carved into the Barreiras For-
mation, during a high sea level named by those authors as the Most An-
cient Transgression. This highstand would correspond to the one recorded
in the Rio Grande do Sul coast as the Barrier II (Villwock et al. 1986).
These so-called Pleistocene alluvial fan deposits have a surface that slopes
towards the sea, which could be one of the reasons to attribute to these de-
posits an origin as alluvial fans.
Recent detailed mapping of the coastal zone (1:15,000 scale) (Domin-
guez 2006a and b) shows that the seaward margin of these deposits are 10
m high whereas its landward border reaches up to 30–40 m, sometimes
climbing the coastal tablelands (The Barreiras Formation) and showing
very distinctive slipfaces (Fig. 8.21), thus suggesting that this sloping mor-
phology might be the result of aeolian reworking of older beach ridge de-
posits. In other sectors of the coast, these deposits are perfectly flat. This
evidence and the close association of these deposits with the fossil sea
cliffs of the Barreiras Formation, suggest that the Pleistocene alluvial fans
could very well be beach and dune deposits (regressive barriers). In this
case, it truly correlates to the Barrier II deposits of the Rio Grande do Sul
coast. This aspect however needs further investigation.
The Itapicuru strandplain is also associated with a large incised valley
which extends into the continental shelf as shown by the geometry of the
isobaths (Fig. 8.20). On the continent the valley is carved into the coastal
tablelands/Precambrian basement. Preliminary geophysical investigations
indicate multiple infilling episodes, with the oldest episodes concentrated
in the southern portion of the valley (J.M.L. Dominguez, unpublished da-
ta). The approximate distribution of sediments related to the Last Trans-
gression is indicated in Fig. 8.20.
A major difference when comparing this area to the others is the pres-
ence of a well developed paleo-bay head delta associated with the Itapicu-
ru river and extensive mangrove forests in its low-river course. Ongoing
Fig. 8.20 Simplified geology-geomorphology of the Itapicuru strandplain
research at this plain shows that a bay/estuary at least 10 m deep existed in

this region by the end of the Last Transgression. The bay head deltaic de-
posits reach up to 6 m in thickness. Radiocarbon dates available for this
plain, show that by 7,200 cal yrs BP intertidal areas were already present
in the area. A large shell midden is located in the northern margin of the
paleo-bay. The base of the midden is dated around 5,100 cal yrs BP whe-
reas the top provided an age of 3,465 cal yrs BP (Silva 2000). The midden
is made up of Crassostrea rhizophorae shells indicating the existence of
mangrove forests in its vicinity, during that time span. This also suggest
that most of the bay-estuary substrate have reached the intertidal level by
5,100 cal yrs BP, or even before, so mangrove forests could colonize the
area. This scenario is very similar to what is observed at Lagoa Encantada.
The major difference is that at the Itapicuru strandplain there has been al-
most no progradation of the shoreline during the Holocene, despite the
presence of a well developed bay head delta. This lack of progradation is
corroborated by the presence of an almost continuous beach rock (ce-
mented surf zone deposits) bordering the shoreline (Figs. 8.20 and 8.22).
This beach rock shows widespread presence of intraformational conglo-
merates, indicating long time exposure with repeated, fragmentation and
cementation. The reason why the shoreline has not prograded as compared
to the Lagoa Encantada strandplain is possibly the absence of a suitable

physiography to trap sediments in this area, since immediately north of the
Itapicuru almost 4 km of progradation of the shoreline has occurred during
the Holocene.
Fig. 8.21 Aerial view of a sector of the northern littoral of the State of Bahia,
showing three sets of sandy terraces. See text for details
8.7 Discussion
The four examples of strandplains/regressive barriers presented herein

show how these features evolved since the Last Transgression highstand
highstand and the drop in sea level (forced regression) that followed.
The four studied areas present overall similarities in that in all of them,
Pleistocene and Holocene beach/foredune ridges, and paleolagoon-
al/estuarine deposits are present. All areas have been subjected to the same
sea-level history, and in all of them the paleo-lagoons/estuaries and bays
that formed during the Last Transgression were rapidly filled as soon as
the rates of sea-level rise decelerated, and the present level was ap-
proached. By the maximum of the Last Transgression most of the infilling
has already occurred. The drop in sea level after 5,600 cal yrs BP apparently
Fig. 8.22 Present day coastline at the Itapicuru strandplain, showing a well-
developed dune-ridge and beach-rock (cemented upper shoreface sediments).
These features are indicative of long-term trends of shoreline retreat
did not play a major role in this infilling, contrarily to what has been em-
phasized in previous research (Martin et al. 1980, Dominguez et al. 1987,
1992). Despite these superficial similarities, in detail, the evolution of each
of the documented examples is very different and defies simplifications.
As pointed out by Phillips (2007) landscapes are circumstantial, contin-
gent results of deterministic laws operating in a specific environmental
context. The historical and place contingencies are very important to un-
derstand local evolution.
Although the presence of a major river is certainly an important factor to
induce large scale progradation of the shoreline as exemplified by the Je-
quitinhonha strandplain, it is not necessarily a limiting factor, as is the case
of the Caravelas and the Lagoa Encantada strandplains, where riverine se-
diments did not play a role at all in progradation of the shoreline. Even the
presence of a river is not a guarantee that beach/foredune ridge plains/ re-
gressive barriers will develop as exemplified by the Itapicuru strandplain
where a much larger river is present when compared to the Almada river.
Notwithstanding, the shoreline has experienced almost no progradation
during the Holocene.
Much more important than the association with a river is the local phy-
siography. In the Caravelas region, the change in orientation of the original
shoreline and coral reef development ended up changing coastal hydrody-

namics, generating convergence of longshore transport. At the Lagoa En-
cantada bay, the close coupling incised valley/submarine canyon has
created an efficient sediment trap favoring infilling of the bay followed by
progradation of the shoreline. The absence of such a trap in the Itapicuru
strandplain, despite its association with an incised valley, may be the rea-
son why during the Holocene and even the Pleistocene there has been al-
most no progradation of the shoreline.
The available information on sediment distribution on the inner shelf
shows that most of the sediment covering the shelf today is bioclastic.
Where cores are available for the inner shelf, although few, they clearly
show that siliciclastic sediments are presently prograding over bioclastic
sands (Freire 2006). It thus seems an overstatement that the sea-level drop
during the last 5,600 cal yrs BP was the main source of sediment for shore-
line progradation as advocated by many authors. A drop in sea level could
certainly contribute to increased rates of shoreline progradation, however,
it cannot generate new sediment.
Sedimentation is incremental and the Pleistocene coastal prism certainly
did not extend much further seaward when compared to the Holocene one.
As a result of the fact that the shelf break is located at a depth of just 60 m,
the continental shelf of Bahia was completely exposed to subaerial condi-
tions for almost 70,000 years, before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM)
was reached. Therefore, the major important sources of siciliclastic sedi-
ments were diverted to the slope through incised valleys. After the LGM,
sea level rose extremely fast, and no siliciclastic sedimentation took place
on the continental shelf. After 7,500–7,000 cal yrs BP, with decreased rates
in sea-level rise, lagoons, estuaries and bays were rapidly filled, except for
the major ones (Camamu and Todos os Santos bays). Only after that, silicic-
lastic sediments were available for progradation of the shoreline.
The evolution of the Caravelas and the Jequitinhonha strandplains during
the Late Holocene also exemplifies the sensitivity of the shoreline beha-
vior to climate changes, as documented in the formidable sets of
beach/foredune ridges present in those plains. Some of these changes can
be very dramatic and can have significant repercussions for large stretches
of the coastal zone, as exemplified by the extended period of southward
directed transport, recorded at the Caravelas and the Jequitinhonha
strandplains, possibly related to intensification of NE-E waves.
Finally, the evolution of the Lagoa Encantada bay shows how an open
marine bay has evolved through time into a regressive barrier as a result of
rapid infilling. As the bay progressively filled up, the decrease in tidal
prism allowed the lateral extension of a sand spit blocking the entrance of
the bay. From that point on, extensive progradation of the shoreline took
place.
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Kjerfve B (ed) Coastal Lagoon processes. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, pp
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faibles énergies à l'embouchure d'un fleuve – Le cas du Rio Paraíba do Sul
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ternary evolution of the central part of the Brazilian coast – the role of relative
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cillations or not oscillations, that is the question: comment on Angulo RJ and
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Quat South Amer and Antarctic Pen 4:79–97
Chapter 9
The Mesotidal Barriers of Rio Grande do Norte
Helenice Vital
9.1 Introduction
The State of Rio Grande do Norte (RN) is situated in the northeastern part
of Brazil along the Atlantic Ocean and comprises two different sectors
(Fig. 9.1): (1) a northern N-S trending sector, extending from Paraíba
(PB)/ Rio Grande do Norte (RN) to Touros, and, (2) an eastern E-W trend-
ing sector, extending from Touros to the RN/Ceará (CE) border (Vital
2005a,b; Vital et al. 2006). From a morphodynamic point of view, the N-S
Sector is a wave-dominated coast with active sea cliffs carved into tablel-
ands alternating with reef-or dune-barrier sections, while the E-W Sector is
a mixed-energy complex of wave-dominated, and tide-dominated coast.
Dunes, ebb tidal deltas, beachrock, barrier islands and spits are present
along the northern coast.
9.2 Geological and Geomorphological Coastal Setting
The eastern part of the northeastern region of the South American Plat-
form, where the State is located, is referred to as Borborema Province.
Almeida et al. (1977) defined the Borborema Province as a “complex mo-
saic-like folded region” where there were important tectonic, thermal, and
magmatic events of Neoproterozoic age assigned to the Brasiliano Cycle.
2
The area covered by this province exceeds 450,000 km . It consists of suc-
cessive Cenozoic pediplains, developed at progressively higher elevations
from the coastal regions inland, reaching elevations of 1,100 m.
The northern coast is located in the Potiguar Basin, while the eastern
coast is located within the Perbambuco-Paraíba Basin, which developed
during the opening of the Atlantic ocean in the Upper Cretaceous post
rift phase, and are separated by the Touros high (Fig. 9.2). Covering the
290 H. Vital
Cretaceous sedimentary units of these basins one finds the sandy-clayey

sediments of the Barreiras Formation, deposited by fluvial systems, and fi-
nally the Quaternary deposits related to Pleistocene and Holocene river
and marine terraces, mangrove swamps and alluvial plains.
Fig. 9.1 Location of the study area with the Northern and Eastern sectors
The age of the Barreiras Formation has long been a source of debate
with different dates indicating ages from Miocene to Pliocene (Salim et al.
1975; Lima et al. 1990; Suguio et al. 1986). Most recently, Lima (2005)
dating weathering profiles from this formation found ages between 12 and
7 Ma.
According to Mello (1989) the interaction of sea-level fluctuations with
subsidence had a definitive effect on the development of stratigraphic fea-
tures near the coast (shallow water environments).
Dune fields, barrier island-spits, tidal channels with small tidal deltas,
beachrock and lagoonal /tidal sediments are the most important Quaternary
coastal deposits occurring along the coast of Rio Grande do Norte. The
eastern coast has a length of 166 km (41% of the Rio Grande do Norte lit-
toral), of which 101 km is constituted by sandy beaches, and 65 km by ac-
tive cliffs of the Barreiras Formation. Parabolic dunes predominate on the
eastern coast. The northern coast has a length of 244 km length, of which
194 km is sandy beaches, 10 km muddy beaches (linked to the Açu and
9 The Mesotidal Barriers of Rio Grande do Norte 291
Apodi river mouths and 40 km of active cliffs. Barchans and barchanoid

sandy dunes are predominant (Vital 2005a; Vital et al. 2006).
There is a relationship between the drainage system and the network of
faults and fractures. It is believed that these structures play an important
role in controlling the degree of erosion and degradation of the geomorphic
forms.
Fig. 9.2 Tectonic framework of the Borborema Province with the locations of the
Potiguar and Pernambuco-Paraíba Basin (modified from Jardim de Sá 1994)
292 H. Vital
9.2.1 Potiguar Basin
The Potiguar Basin is located in the easternmost part of the Brazilian equa-
torial margin, occupying some regions of the states of Ceará and Rio
Grande do Norte (Fig. 9.2). It underwent a complex evolution, merging
elements from both the Equatorial and the Southern Atlantic tectonic
2
zones. It includes an offshore segment with an area of about 27,000 km
2
and an onshore segment that covers 22,000 km . This region is one of the
most seismically active regions of Brazil (Milani and Thomaz Filho 2000).
The later phases of tectonism have occurred in the Potiguar Basin from
Oligocene to recent times, with EW compression released along pre-
existing faults trending NE-SW. According to Matos (1992), the geometry
of the Equatorial basins including the Potiguar basin was strongly con-
trolled by Proterozoic shear zones. In the author’s view NW-SE-oriented
stretching was responsible for the NE-oriented normal faults and NW-
trending transform faults.
This basin has an economic regional importance because of the daily
3
production of 80 thousand barrels of oil and 3 million m of gas (May,
2003 data), and it is the most productive oil basin onshore in Brazil, and
the second most productive offshore (Soares et al. 2003). The NE-SW
oriented rift valley which forms the basin consists of four half grabens
(Matos 1992) separated by basement highs. Two important fault systems,
the Carnaubais and the Afonso Bezerra systems, promotes the compart-
mentalization of this sector (Fonseca 1996), with the presence of barrier-
spits and barrier islands confined between these two fault systems (Vital
et al. 2003a).
The stratigraphic column of the Potiguar basin consists of both conti-
nental rift and marine post-rifted sediments. Deposition was controlled by
NE-trending structures during the rift phase in the Middle and Late Creta-
ceous, producing its present geometry. Two main formations outcrop in
this region: the Açu Formation, which is a clastic unit formed by an Al-
bian-Turonian mega-cycle; and the Jandaíra Formation, which represents a
shallow carbonate shelf overlying the former unit. Neogene sedimentary
rock sequences of the offshore portion are composed of three lithostrati-
graphic units known as the Tibau Formation (sandstones and conglome-
rates), the Guamaré Formation (limestone), and the Ubarana Formation
(marine shale). These units build up the upper part of a large regressive
cycle, starting at the Late Campanian through to Holocene. They form a
seaward thickening coastal-shelf-slope-basin system (Pessoa Neto 2003).
9.2.2 Pernambuco-Paraíba Basin
Considered to be the last Brazilian marginal basin formed and affected by

the drift of the South American Platform, the Pernambuco-Paraíba Basin is
located on the coast of the states of Pernambuco, Paraíba, and eastern coast
2
of Rio Grande do Norte (Fig. 9.2). It has a total area of about 30,000 km ,
2
with 8,000 km of it occurring onshore (Souza-Lima et al. 2003).
This basin is characterized by a sequence of clastic and carbonate sedi-
ments whose layers present a low dip towards the east, as a homoclinal
structure. The basal sequence is composed of clastic sediment of the Bebe-
ribe Formation, characterized by an association of coarse- to fine-sandy
clasts, which gradually trend at the top into carbonate sandstones, especial-
ly towards the coast. The carbonate sequence is represented by limestones
comprising the Gramame and Maria Farinha Formations, whose strati-
graphic subdivision is more related to fossil content, rather than to lithic
differences (Kellner and Campos 1999). An unusual aspect of the geology
of the Pernambuco-Paraíba Basin is the existence of good exposures of the
K/T boundary, not found elsewhere along the continental margin of Brazil
(Milani and Thomaz Filho 2000).
9.3 Climate
The climate of Rio Grande do Norte State varies from tropical dry semi-
arid of Köppen type Bs on the northern coast, to the tropical humid of
Köppen type Af on the eastern coast (Nimmer 1989), and it is subjected to
the conditions of the intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). The isohyets
(lines of constant precipitation) are generally parallel to the coast, with the
annual precipitation decreasing rapidly toward the interior and to the west.
Maximum precipitation (average 600 mm/year on the northern coast and
1660 mm/year on the eastern coast) occurs during the austral spring and is
strongly linked to the maximum zonal intensity of the trade winds (Arz
et al. 1999). Higher precipitations and reduced wind speeds are associated
with the ITCZ.
The dry period of 7 to 8 months lasts from June to January, while the
rainy period of 3 to 4 months lasts from February to May. The mean air
o o
temperature is approximately 26.8 C, with minimum temperatures of 25 C
o
occurring at the end of winter (July) and maximum of 28.6 C in February
during the summer.
Though El Ninos are popularly believed to be associated with droughts
in NE Brazil (Kane 2001), about 40% are likely to be ineffective. This is
mainly because conditions in the Atlantic may be favorable for droughts in
294 H. Vital
NE Brazil in some years, or excess rains in some other years. In the latter
case, the excess rain effects due to Atlantic conditions may reduce or even
obliterate the drought effects of El Ninos, and the El Nino become ineffec-
tive (Kane 2001).
9.4 Coastal Processes
The region experiences high-energy, coastal and shelf parallel currents

driven by combined flows due to oceanic, tidal and wave processes. Since
strong winds are present almost all the time, water masses are well mixed
without any characteristic stratification. Reworked sediments are account-
able for the recent formation of different bedforms.
9.4.1 Winds
The northeast Region of Brazil is located within the trade wind belt. The
trade winds that reach the Rio Grande do Norte coast originate from E-SE
directions (sensu stricto trades) on the east coast, and from the NE direc-
tion (return trades) on the north coast. According to Dominguez et al.
(1992) the wind directions on the Brazilian northeast coast are also con-
trolled by seasonal movements of the Intertropical Convergence Zone.
Wind velocity measurements at the Natal Climatologic Station (east
coast) show a minimum of 3.8 m/s in March and a maximum of 5 m/s be-
tween August and October, while on the north coast the winds velocities
measured directly at the coast reach a maximum of 9 m/s between August
and October and a minimum of 4 m/s in April (Chaves 2005).
9.4.2 Waves
On the northern sector, waves measured during the summer period, near
the coast around Guamaré city, have an average height of the 56 cm with a
maximum height of 123 cm, and a minimum height of 27 cm (Frazão
2005). In the breaker zone the wave height has generally a maximum of 80
cm and a minimum of 22 cm (Tabosa et al. 2001; Silveira 2002; Lima
2004; Chaves 2005). The calculated medium wave period for the area was
7.5 s. In the eastern sector waves measured during the summer period, on
the shelf near the Potengi mouth river, have an average height of 91 cm
with a maximum height of 122 cm, and a minimum height of 50 cm
(Frazão 2005). In the breaker zone the wave height has a maximum of 90
cm and a minimum of 30 cm (Chaves 2000; Souza 2004; Frazão 2003).

Plunging breakers are commonly recognized on both sectors.
9.4.3 Currents
The North Brazil Current flows relatively parallel to the coast over the nar-
–1
row shelf. Current velocities reach 30–40 cms , overlain by tidal and wave
components (Knoppers et al. 1999).
Longshore currents in Rio Grande do Norte flow mainly to the north and
–1
to the west (20–105 cms ), respectively on the eastern and northern sec-
tors. However, they change direction according to the tides: In the eastern
Sector the longshore currents flow towards the northeast (oblique to the
–1
coast) with a maximum of 105 cms during rising tides, and towards the
east-northeast (perpendicular to oblique to the coast) with a maximum of
–1
60 cms during falling tides. On the northern sector the longshore currents
flow towards the west-northwest (oblique to the coast) with a maximum of
–1
97 cms during rising tides, and towards the north (perpendicular to obli-
–1
que to the coast) with a maximum of 50 cms during falling tides.
They are by far the dominant contributor to the net sediment transport
along the coast of Rio Grande do Norte. Because of the obliquity of the
strongest winds, alongshore wind-driven currents do increase sediment
transport rates, whereas tides have a small transport capacity because of
–1
the relatively small tidal currents (~5–60 cms ).
This is well observed on the northern coast where extensive spits occur
parallel to the coast (e.g Silveira 2002; Lima 2004; Souto 2004) generated
by the longshore currents, as well as small ones perpendicular to the coast
(Silva et al. 2003), generated by the tide currents. The nearshore current
measurements show minor differences between wet (June) and dry (No-
vember) seasons (Vital et al. 2008).
9.4.4 Tides
Rio Grande do Norte has a mesotidal, semi-diurnal regime. The east coast
has a maximum spring-tide height of 2.7 m and maximum neap-tide height
of 2.0 m. Tidal measurements in the harbor of Natal show that the average
ranges of spring and neap tide are 2.2 m and 1.3 m, respectively (Brazilian
Navy 2004). The Relative Tide Range – RTR (mean spring tide range –
MSR / wave height – Hb) for this sector is 3 < RTR < 9, and so classified
in the mixed wave-tide group (after Masselink and Turner 1999).
296 H. Vital
Sea-level changes measured on the north coast shown a maximum tidal

height of 3.3 m and 2.5 m respectively during spring and neap tides (Arau-
jo et al. 2004). The RTR for this sector is 4 < RTR < 15, and so classified
in the mixed wave-tide group (after Masselink and Turner, 1999). The
general situation in this area is one of very energetic tidal conditions caus-
ing nearly continuous sediment mobility along the bottom close to the
coast. The presence of small ebb-tidal deltas along the barrier island-spit
system and rivers mouth, as well spits perpendicular to the coast indicate
the strong tidal.
9.5 Sediment Characteristics
The Rio Grande do Norte coast is located within the sediment starved
coast of northeastern Brazil (Dominguez 2006). The rivers of the study
area are small and do not contribute a significant amount of sediments to
the coast. Moreover, rivers with the highest discharge (e.g. Piranhas-Açu
and Apodi-Mossoró rivers) are dammed, and reservoirs prevent the sedi-
ments from reaching the ocean. Because of this, river waters discharging
into the sea do not form large sediment plumes. Loss of sediments towards
the land by dunefield and spit-barrier island formation, tectonic setting and
longshore sediment removal and transport also contribute to this negative
sedimentary budget (Vital 2005a; Vital et al. 2006).
Siliciclastic sands are predominant on the beaches, with muddy sedi-
ments restricted to river mouths. On the shelf, a belt of siliciclastic sands is
found in the nearshore down to 10 m water depth. A complex of mixed
carbonate-siliciclastic medium grained sands occur between 10 and 20 m
depth, while bioclastic gravels are found mostly below 20 m depth. Fine-
grained sediments are also found on the slope, at water depths greater than
70–100 m (Vital et al. 2002, 2005, 2008).
The biogenic content is mainly represented by coralline algae (Melo-
besya and Halimeda) and benthonic foraminifera, ostracods, gastropods
and bivalves occur in minor amounts (Testa and Bosence 1998, 1999; Vi-
tal et al. 2002). Quartz is the principal component in the siliciclastic sedi-
ments with heavy minerals as accessory components.
These modern siliciclastic and carbonate sediments are deposited on
continental shelves that have very lower gradients: average of 0.2º and 0.5º
at the north and eastern sectors respectively.
9.6 Sea Level Changes
The relative sea-level curves documented for the Northeastern Brazilian

coast (Fig. 9.3), for the last 7,000 years (Martin et al. 2003; Bezerra et al.
2003; Peltier 1998; Caldas 2002; Caldas et al. 2006a) indicate that the sea
level was some meters higher than the present, with a tendency to drop
during the last 5,000 years. As in South Brazil, there are two curves, one
indicating an oscillating sea level fall (Fig. 9.3a, b), and one a smooth fall
(Fig. 9.3c, d).
Fig. 9.3 Sea-level curves proposed for the Northeastern Brazilian coast: (A) Suguio
et al. 2005; (B) Bezerra et al. 2003; (C) Peltier 1998; (D) Caldas 2002; Caldas et al.
2006a
According to Caldas et al. (2006a) the Postglacial Marine Transgression

(PMT) was at –3 m at 7,000 cal yrs BP, and passed the modern sea level
6,500 cal yrs ago. The Holocene highstand reached 1.3 m above modern
sea level at 5,900 cal yrs BP. After the highstand, sea level dropped to its
298 H. Vital
present position. The new numerical experiments of Mitrovica and Milne

(2002) suggest an actual sea-level drop between 0.2 and 0.3 mm/y for the
NE Brazilian coast. Beachrock positions with their error bars are all within
the tidal range envelope. Therefore, no secondary oscillations during the
sea level fall can be confirmed. A linear sea level fall of this magnitude
can be explained by the mechanism of equatorial ocean siphoning follow-
ing Caldas et al. (2006a).
9.7 Barriers of Rio Grande do Norte
There is a number of different barrier types along the Rio Grande do Norte
coast ranging from cemented barriers (reefs), attached barriers, barrier
spits, barrier islands and regressive barriers.
Notable examples of cemented barriers appear as reefs and beachrock in
the littoral zone. Because of the higher ocean temperatures, beachrock can
form in a few decades, cementing the intertidal beach sands. This cementa-
tion may lead to substantial modification of Holocene coastal processes
and subsequent Holocene beach and barrier formation. The reefs are better
observed on the east coast because of its continuity (e.g. Cunhau, Barreta,
Natal, Graçandu), but are also present on the northern coast (e.g. São Ben-
to, Galinhos, Ponta do Mel). Submerged beachrocks are also reported
along this littoral at different depths (Vianna et al. 1991; Testa and Bo-
sence 1998, 1999; Vital 2005a, b; Vital et al. 2008, Santos et al. 2007).
The most continuous structure is situated along the 20–25 m depth iso-
baths, but small ones can also be found along the 10 and 40 m depth iso-
baths. Elevations reach 2.5 to 5 m above the sea-floor, and the width varies
between 500–1000 m.
Attached barriers as defined by Hesp and Short (1999) are common
along the Rio Grande do Norte State coast. Along the coastal plain, several
faults form the boundary between the graben and horst that are responsible
for the coastal structural framework. The Barreiras Formation has been
dissected in the uplifted blocks and capped by alluvial terraces, sand
dunes, or both along the downfaulted blocks (Lima et al 1990; Bezerra
et al. 2001). The Barreiras Formation forms cliffs up to 15 m high which
rise abruptly from the foreshore zone where the horst meets the ocean.
While the cliffs are mainly composed of rocks of the Barreiras Formation,
rocks of the Tertiary Tibau Formation and Pleistocene sequences, lithified
during low sea level events and uplifted to various degrees, are present as
well (e.g. Ponta dos Três Irmãos, Ponta de Touros; Caldas 2002; Barreto
et al. 2002). In many cases, beaches and dunes have been, or are being
formed at the base of, and over such cliffs.
Spit-barrier island systems on the Rio Grande do Norte coast can range
from barrier spits (e.g. Galinhos, Diogo Lopes), to barrier islands (e.g.
Ponta do Tubarão, Amaro). Composed of sandy sediments, the barrier-spit
systems are often capped by dunes. Evolution of these barrier systems has
been cyclic (Xavier Neto et al. 2001; Lima et al. 2001, 2002; Silveira
2002; Souto, 2002) indicating an ancient system of barrier islands develop-
ing into the current spits, and spits which were recently detached to form
barrier islands. Studies of modern coastal environments and sediments in
this area (Vital et al. 2003a) show that barrier spits and barrier islands oc-
cur only on the EW North coast, and that they are confined between two
important fault systems: The Carnaubais and The Afonso Bezerra systems
(Fig. 9.1). But in the past barrier islands were abundant at least on the en-
tire northern coast.
Regressive barriers are found adjacent to São Bento and Caiçara do
Norte, on the north coast (Caldas 1996; Caldas et al. 2006b). Falling sea
level typically results in the stranding of the barrier and nearshore deposits
(Hesp and Short 1999). Relative sea level fall also occurs as a function of
tectonic movements and hydro-isostatic adjustments. Both are occurring
on the north coast of the State of Rio Grande do Norte (RN).
9.8 Rio Grande do Norte Barrier Examples
Five large Holocene barriers are presented here as examples of the types of
barriers which occur along the Rio Grande do Norte coast. In the eastern
Sector, these are the Natal reef-barrier and Natal barrier dune system (at-
tached barrier), and in the northern sector the São Bento-Caiçara do Norte
progradational barrier, the Galinhos barrier spit, and the Açu river mouth
(spit-barrier islands system).
9.8.1 Natal Reef Barrier (Beachrocks)
The Natal reef barrier is parallel to the littoral zone and is composed by
two lines of beachrocks (Fig. 9.4). It was first described by Branner
(1904), but only dated and better studied after 1990 (e.g. Oliveira et al.
1990; Bezerra et al. 1998; Pereira 1999; Vieira 2005). The outer reef is
more continuous extending for a length of about 4.5 km on the Praia do
Meio and Praia do Forte beaches and a width between 20–75 m, while the
inner reef is visible only on Praia do Meio beach. As compared with the
main reef, this one is rather narrow (9–35 m wide). The beachrock bodies
300 H. Vital
o
are sub horizontally oriented, dipping gently seaward (<10 ). Their surfaces
when seen from a distance appear almost flat but in detail the surfaces are
irregular, and often an organic encrusting of algae and marine organisms is
present (e.g barnacles, sea urchins).
14
Oliveira et al. (1990) dated these two lines of beachrock by C and ob-
tained different ages. The most continuous outer reef (BR1 on Fig. 9.4b) is
about 4,700 yrs BP and the inner one is about 6,250 yrs BP (BR2 on
Fig. 9.4b). Later Bezerra et al. (1998, 2003) and Vieira (2005) dated more
samples and stated that the beach deposits were preferentially formed be-
tween ~7,460 – 4,240 cal yrs BP, during a rapid sea-level rise and high
sea-level stillstand. No matter in which stage of the final sea-level curve
their constituents were deposited, beachrocks owe their exposure and gen-
eration of erosional features to the present low sea level (Vieira 2005).
The Natal beachrocks have a gray color and the grain sizes vary from
fine to coarse sand forming moderately to poorly sorted sediment. The
grain morphology varies from subangular to subrounded with grain con-
tacts being mostly floating to punctual. The beachrocks are composed bas-
ically of siliciclastic (70–75%) and bioclastic components (30–25%).
Quartz is the main mineral (up to 68%) followed by feldspar and heavy
minerals. The bioclastic constituents can reach up to 30% and are mainly
red algae and bivalves. Beachrock compositions are almost always very
similar to modern sands of the adjacent beaches (Oliveira et al. 1990; Pe-
reira 1999).
Fig. 9.4c shows a photo of Natal beachrocks mainly characterized of
swash-cross stratification in the foreshore zone (top) and trough-cross stra-
tification in the shoreface zone (base). Bezerra (1998) and Bezerra et al.
(1998) identified two beachrock facies mainly on the basis of sedimentary
features and comparison with modern beaches. They used the sedimentary
structures preserved in the beachrock to identify their position in the beach
profile: The differences between shoreface and foreshore deposits are basi-
cally marked by the grain sizes and sedimentary structures. The shoreface
deposits are characterized by coarse to conglomeratic quartz sand often
with bioclastics. The most common sedimentary structure is trough-cross
stratification that is a result of migration of sinuous crested bedforms dur-
ing transportation. The foreshore sands are slightly finer than those of the
shoreface, varying from coarse to medium sand. Tabular beds and sheets
with thickness of 0.1 to 0.4 m compose the seaward dipping swash-cross
stratification that is the main sedimentary structure. Observations show
that the palaeocurrents were directed in a NNE direction (Pereira 1999).
Fig. 9.4 Natal beachrocks. (A) Aerial view at high tide (10/2002); (B) aerial view
of the two beachrock lines at low tide (11/2001); (C) Detail of sedimentary struc-
tures observed in the main reef. Photos: H.Vital
9.8.2 Natal Barrier Dune System – Attached Barrier
Extensive coastal dune deposits are present along the Natal coast, just
landward of the beach, and were termed the Barrier Dune System by Melo
(1995). This barrier dune system is very important to Natal City because it
is part of the aquifer which supplies water to this city. It regulates the
groundwater distribution and supply water to the coastal lakes (Medeiros
et al. 2001).
The dunes extend a few kilometers inland from the coast, and are 80–
120 m high. Blowouts and vegetated parabolic dunes are the most common
dune types (Fig. 9.5).
On the Natal barrier dune system the aeolian sediments overlie the Bar-
reiras Formation. Fracasso (2005) studied two areas on this dune system
(Barreira do Inferno and Parque das Dunas) based on the geophysical in-
terpretations of data obtained with Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) and
plani-altimetric acquisitions of the topographical surface of the land. The
Barreira do Inferno area (Fig. 9.6) could be classified as an attached barrier
type and headland bypass dunefield following Hesp and Short (1999).
302 H. Vital
Fig. 9.5 Landsat 7 ETM+ image of the Natal Barrier Dune field
The GPR lines were acquired on blowouts at the Barreira do Inferno and
Parque das Dunas. These data allowed the identification of boundary sur-
faces of first, second and third orders. The first order boundary surface is
related to the contact of the rocks of the Barreiras Formation with the aeo-
lian deposits (Fig. 9.7). Deterministic and digital elevation models
(DEM’s) were developed by Fracasso (2005) from the integration and in-
terpretation of the GPR 2D data with the GOCAD® program. In the de-
terministic model it is possible to see first and second order boundary sur-
faces (Fig. 9.7).
These deposits are divided into two groups (Group 1 and Group 2)
which are related with the geometry of the strata and the dip of associated
stratifications. Group 1 presents strata with sigmoidal and irregular geome-
tries and involves bodies where the reflectors indicate dips from 22 to 29
degrees in the Barreiras do Inferno area, and from 20 to 28 degrees at Par-
que das Dunas. Usually, it is constrained within the base of the first order
surface and the top of the second order surface. Group 2 presents strata of
trough, wedge or lens geometries, with its base at the second order surface,
where the corresponding deposits show more smooth reflectors or with
dips of low angle. Corridor or trough-shaped blowouts are observed in the
digital elevation models. The author characterizes the Barreira do Inferno
area as a palimpsest dune system, and the Parque das Dunas area as a relict
one.
Fig. 9.6 Barreira do Inferno attached barrier. (A) General aerial view; (B) Barreira
Fm. (C) looking from the dominant wind direction ; D) Morro do Careca Dune.
Photos: H.Vital
Yee et al. (2000) used TL dating of these inactive dunes to better under-
stand the geological evolutionary history of this area. The ages obtained by
these authors indicate the time of burial of the sediments. According to
their data, aeolian activities were intensified between 190–390 ka and 64–
14.9 ka; both intervals belong to the Upper Pleistocene. Yee et al. (2000)
suggested that probably the intervals are attributed to glacial stages, when
the sea-levels dropped, and the sands accumulated during the previous
high sea-level episodes were intensely reworked by winds. However, sea
level was generally falling very slowly during these periods, and vegeta-
tion would rapidly colonize the abandoned backshore so sediments are not
necessarily available for aeolian action.
304 H. Vital
After the Middle Holocene aeolian activity again became important,

possibly due to a renewed sea-level fall, that occurred after the Holocene
sea-level culmination stage about 5–6 ka ago (Suguio et al. 2005; Caldas
et al. 2006b). Yee et al. (2000) argued that several generations of dune
sands, in this area, cannot be distinguished only by the difference in color
as proposed by Costa and Perrim (1981). This is probably because the col-
ors of the dune sands are not related only to the burial time, but are also re-
lated to the nature of the source area, the climate during and after the se-
dimentation, and type and content of clay minerals.
Fig. 9.7 (A) Deterministic model showing the first and second order boundary sur-
faces. The gray surface represents the contact between the Barreiras Formation
and aeolian deposits; (B) GPR line and interpretation showing second and third
order boundary surfaces; (C) Photo indicating third order surface (Fracasso 2005)
9.8.3 São Bento-Caiçara do Norte (Prograded or Regressive)

Barrier
An analysis of the aerial photography, vibracore (up to 2.9 m long) and

water-well (up to 5.5 m long) data of a coastal barrier located at São Bento
and Caiçara do Norte, in the northern region of Rio Grande do Norte, NE
Brazil (Fig. 9.8), allowed Caldas (2002) to identify three main kinds of de-
posits: sand dunes, beach ridges and paleo-tidal flat. The lithologic de-
scription of the water-well cores allowed Caldas (2002) to identify three
sedimentary facies: (1) medium to very fine white sands related to the sand
dune deposits; (2) gravel with very coarse sand and shell fragments bellow
the upper sand dune unit, related to beach deposits of the sand ridges; and,
(3) grayish muddy sediments beneath the upper sand dune deposits or be-
low the gravel-sand layer, related to the paleo-tidal flat. The vibracores
were taken in the paleo-tidal flat and allowed the identification of two
main facies (A and B) based on grain size variation, composition, and se-
dimentary structures. Facies A is composed of greenish-black mud with
organic layers, halite and gypsum crystals, root and shell fragments and
leaves (probably from mangrove trees). It is related to the tidal flat depo-
sits. Shells in living position form banks on the paleo-tidal surface. Facies
B is composed of moderately sorted medium to coarse gray sands. It
presents plane parallel lamination dipping 5o to 7o landwards and is related
to washover deposits. Facies B usually occurs in the base of facies A, or
interfingering with it. The contact between Facies A and B is abrupt and
defined by an increase of grain size and color change from greenish-black
(5G2/1) to medium gray (N5). AMS 14C radiocarbon dating for the tidal
flat deposits (Facies A) provides ages between 3,580 and 7,430 cal yrs BP
(Caldas 2002).
Caldas et al. (2006b) interpreted aeolian, foreshore, washover and tidal
flat deposits based on GPR data obtained over the inner most part of the
barrier (Fig. 9.9). By integrating GPR and lithologic subsurface data, the
author proposes the following evolutionary model for the São Bento-
Caiçara do Norte barrier: During the maximum PMT, the transgressive
barrier was deposited above lagoonal sediments. The presence of typical
transgressive deposits (marine sands – washover deposits) intercalated
with lagoonal mud suggests such a transgression. At this time, the land-
ward lagoon experienced its largest extension. During the following sea
level fall, the deposition of the first aeolian deposits took place. Different
climatic conditions could also aid in the initiation and formation of aeolian
deposits, since aeolian activities became important along all the Rio
Grande do Norte coast after the Holocene sea-level culmination stage
about 5–6 ka ago (e.g. see Natal barrier dune system section). These
306 H. Vital
sediments were transported to the newly formed embayment, providing a

surplus of sediment for the construction of the regressive barrier. The pro-
gradational sequence is clearly represented by the foredune ridges. During
the regressive phase, the tidal channels were closed and the lagoon became
separated from the open sea, promoting precipitation of evaporitic sedi-
ments, and filling the lagoon. Both the geometry of the regressive barrier
and the transgressive one, as well as the stratigraphic relations between all
deposits, suggests that the maximum PMT in this area was not higher than
1.4 m (Fig. 9.9).
Fig. 9.8 Aerial view from Caiçara do Norte City. The city is located over dune se-
diments backed by regressive sands and lagoonal sediments (Photo: H. Vital
05/2003)
9.8.4 Galinhos Spit-Barrier Island System
The Galinhos spit is located westwards from São Bento and Caiçara do
Norte on the northern coast of the State of Rio Grande do Norte, and in the
easternmost part of the Brazilian equatorial margin (Fig. 9.1). The Galin-
hos sand spit has an E-W direction and is approximately 10 km long and
550 m in width. It is composed of medium to fine grained sand derived
from the adjacent shallow shelf. Galinhos represents a complex coastal
Fig. 9.9 (A) Part of a profile collected in a SE-NW direction with a GPR antenna
of 200 MHz; (B) Interpretation of this section shows: S1-the upper limit of the pa-
leo-tidal flat, S2- erosional surface separating different bodies of washover depo-
sits, S3- depositional surface that indicates different events of coastal progradation
seaward, and S4- contact between aeolian deposits and beach sediments; (C)
Schematic stratigraphic cross-section normal to the Holocene barrier. Elevation in
relation to mean sea-level (modified from Caldas 2002; Oliveira Jr. 2006 and Cal-
das et al. 2006b)
system, developed under a semidiurnal, mesotidal regime that includes dif-

ferent sedimentary depositional environments, such as beach, reefs, inlet,
estuaries, swamps, lagoons and dunes (Lima et al. 2002). The behavior of
these environments is influenced by the sea level changes that occurred
during the middle and late Holocene, and by coastal processes related to
waves (up 0.62 m high), tides (tidal range up to 3.3 m), longshore currents
(up to 1.05 m/s) and winds (from E and NE). The magnitude and impacts
of storms and hurricanes have not been described or examined along this
coast.
Acquisition of subsurface stratigraphic information of the Galinhos spit
with GPR systems has allowed the identification of washover, paleochan-
nel, shoreface and lagoon deposits (Xavier et al. 2001). GPR was used by
Lima et al. (2002), Andrade (2003) and Lima (2004) in the development of
308 H. Vital
the hypotheses of evolution of the actual spit (Fig. 9.10). Andrade (2003)
recognized in the GPR profiles the radar facies associated with spit evolu-
tion. This author defined five radar facies (Fig. 9.10b) based on the models
proposed in the literature for barrier island depositional systems (e.g.
Davis 1994; Galloway and Hobday 1996): (1) Shoreface; (2) Tidal inlet;
(3) Foreshore; (4) Washover fans, and 5) dunes, and confirmed the hypo-
theses proposed by Lima et al. (2001) of the existence of a paleochannel
representing inlets.
Rotzoll (2001); Vital et al. (2002) and Caldas (2002) tested the same
hypotheses using high resolution seismic on the Galinhos Lagoon. Boomer
profiles taken along the main tidal channel parallel to the Galinhos’ Spit
(Fig. 9.10c) show internal sedimentary structures and deposit geometries
that can be correlated to those of filled paleo-channels. The occurrence of
such paleo-channels in the spit of Galinhos demonstrates that this spit has
not prograded and grown continually from east to west as its shape sug-
gests.
According to Caldas (2002), the paleo-channels originated during the
maximum of the last transgression when the mean sea level was 1.2 m
above its present position. At this time the presence of transgressive bar-
riers had induced the occurrence of larger lagoonal areas and water vo-
lumes from Ponta dos Três Irmãos to Galinhos. The tidal channels land-
ward of the barrier-island were wider due to the larger water volumes
during this sea-level highstand.
The tidal channel system and its associated tidal flats with mangrove
trees were protected from the open sea by the sandy spit built by longshore
currents from the east. No beach-ridge system developed on the landward
side.
Vibracores were taken on the lagoon margin to gain information about
the vertical sediment sequence and to identify the indicated layers on the
boomer records (Rotzoll 2001; Caldas 2002). Three main facies could be
identified by Caldas (2002) from core description and sedimentary analy-
sis: (1) tidal flat, tidal channel point bar and tidal channel deposits. The
tidal flat deposits are dominantly composed of dark greenish gray (5GY
6/1) mud with olive black (5Y 2/1) organic layers. Greenish gray (5GY
6/1) very fine sands occur as intercalations in the mud. Shells in living po-
sition as well as mud clasts and shell fragments were found in this facies.
Tidal channel point bars produce lateral accretion deposits accompanying
the channel migration toward the outer bank. It is represented as laminated
mud and sand distinguished by an abrupt contrast in grain size. The base of
this unit is usually composed of greenish gray (5GY 6/1) medium to coarse
sand that changes gradually to dark greenish gray (5GY 4/1) or olive black
(5Y 2/1) mud. Mud clasts occur within sand and mud beds. Cross bedding
is common in the coarsest layers. Tidal channel deposits are composed of

poorly sorted, medium to coarse sand showing a slight tendency to fining
upwards. The color varies from yellowish-gray (5Y 7/2) to moderately yel-
o o
low (5Y 7/6). Cross bedding dipping between 15 to 30 is marked by bioc-
lasts. Peat material was found at the base of one of the vibracores about 3.5
m depth. Caldas (2002) obtained ages between 2,100 to 2,800 cal yrs BP
for these sediments. According to this author, the younger ages found in
the upper 4 m and the higher sedimentation rate in the lagoon of Galinhos
when compared with São Bento show that the Galinhos’ lagoonal system
has been active since the last sea level highstand.
It is not possible to affirm exactly when the Galinhos tidal inlets were
closed, however, Caldas (2002) suggested that the tidal inlet closure
should have occurred sometime before the cementation of the beachrock
located in this area, as they lie across the paleo tidal inlets. As the ages of
the beachrock located on Galinhos spit range from 1,780 cal yrs BP to
3,330 cal yrs BP, the closure of the first tidal inlets should have occurred
shortly before 3,300 cal yrs BP (Caldas 2002).
9.8.5 Açu River Mouth
The Açu River, located on the north coast, westwards of Galinhos, is the
most important river in Rio Grande do Norte State. According to Silva
2
(1991) the Açu delta, with an approximate surface area of 500 km , was
being deposited in a very shallow estuary (< 5 m depth) formed by the lat-
eral migration of coastal barrier spits produced by westward longshore
drift. Silva (1991) elaborates a sedimentary model for the modern Açu
River delta based mainly on sedimentological, micropaleontological, and
petrographic information obtained from vibracores and auger-drilling (re-
covery up to 27 m). In addition, lithologic information from wells drilled
by PETROBRAS in the area was also incorporated into the model. The
correlation and integration of all data permitted Silva (1991) to construct a
series of cross-sections that illustrate the Holocene stratigraphy of this area
(Fig. 9.11).
The generalized Holocene stratigraphy of the Açu River mouth shows a
transgressive sequence of restricted lagoon, lagoon and shoreface sedi-
ments, followed by a regressive sequence of lagoon, tidal flats and fluvial
sediments behind a barrier spit (Fig. 9.12). The transgressive sequence oc
curs at depths greater than 10 m. Alluvial sediments of the Barreiras Group
(Early Pleistocene and older) were reached at 9 m depth in the landward
most core, but the shoreface sediments are absent at this depth (Fig. 9.12).
310 H. Vital
Fig. 9.10 Galinhos spit. (A) Landsat ETM+ image – RGB 432 from 2000; (B)
GPR profile on the spit (Andrade 2003), and, (C) Boomer profile on the lagoon
side showing paleo-channel (Rotzoll 2001); (D) interpretation of an old barrier
system at Galinhos. TWT = two way time; ms = miliseconds
A characteristic change in the environmental conditions towards more

“open marine” environments is observed from bottom to top within this
transgressive sequence. The basal, restricted lagoonal unit shows very re-
stricted microfauna, or the absence of microfossils. An intermediate lagoon
unit shows a more open microfauna. Finally, the shoreface unit of the
14
transgressive sequence presents normal marine microfauna. C radiocar-
bon dating of shells from the base of the shoreface give an age of 6,060 ±
80 ysr BP and in the transgressive lagoon unit an age of 7,020 ± 100 yrs
BP (Silva 1991), suggesting an approximate age between 7 – 6 ka for the
final stages of the PMT.
The upper regressive sequence presents a greater variety of environ-
ments which characterize the prograding nature of this coastal plain. La-
goon, tidal flat and fluvial sediments are deposited behind a barrier spit,
while tidal inlet, tidal flat and small secondary spit sediments are deposited
seaward of the barrier spit. A restricted microfaunal assemblage is ob-
served behind the barrier spit, while an open marine fauna is present in
front of the spit. The environments observed seawards of the barrier spit
represent the tidal inlet sub-facies of the ebb-tidal delta facies preserved in
Fig. 9.11 Location of the stratigraphic cross-sections in the Açu River delta (Silva
1991)
the subsurface, as the ebb-tidal delta complexes are attached to the main-
land promoting shoreline progradation. The contact between tidal inlet se-
diments and lagoon sediments is gradual, characterized by a change in the
microfaunal association.
312 H. Vital
Fig. 9.12 Transgressive/regressive sedimentary sequences are indicated on cross-

section A-A’. For location see Fig. 9.11 (Silva 1991)
Supratidal and intertidal flats and tidal inlet deposits occur landward of
barrier spits, and interfinger with shoreface sediments in the shoreward di-
rection. The supratidal flats in this region are mainly composed of calca-
reous, pelletal muddy sand, reflecting the lower input of fluvial sediments
(Silva 1991).
The importance of recent tectonic movements, and of the Pleistocene
and older paleo-topography in the evolution of this region is indicated in
cross-section D-D’ (Fig. 9.13), where a basement high formed by basalts
of the Macau Formation (Eocene-Miocene) capped by Pleistocene marine
deposits (30,190 ± 370 yrs BP) served as a barrier limiting estuarine and
open marine sediments (Silva 1991).
Seaward of the topographic high, shoreface, tidal inlet and barrier
spit/beach deposits occur, while restricted lagoon, intertidal flats, estuarine
point bar, and channel bars are present landward of the topographic high.
A vertical displacement of 40 m at the top of the Macau Formation basalts
is observed between wells CM-1 and ALAGAMAR, which is interpreted
by Silva (1991) to be a result of normal faulting. Also, the great thickness
(17 m) of restricted lagoon deposits (S-9) is interpreted to be a result of
syntectonic deposition. The Pleistocene and older basement occurs at a
shallower depth (3–7 m) in the tidal flats to the east of Macau City (Fig. 9.11).
Fig. 9.13 Cross-section D-D’. For location see Fig. 9.11 (Silva 1991)
In this area the main tidal channels are not connected to any important
fluvial channel.
A three-dimensional view of the lateral and vertical distribution of the
environments of sedimentation and of the main subfacies proposed by Sil-
va (1991) is presented schematically in Fig. 9.14.
The littoral environments of sedimentation are influenced by tidal,
waves and wave-generated (longshore) currents, and by less intense fluvial
currents. Aeolian deposits are also observed to migrate from the shoreline
landward over tidal flat and lagoon sediments. A composite vertical sedi-
mentary sequence in this region is composed of barrier spit/beach and aeo-
lian dune sediments, over tidal inlet and shoreface units. The entire se-
quence has a thickness from 5 to 20 m.
Extensive ebb-tidal deltas in the mouths of the main estuarine channels
are the site of important sand accumulations. These ebb-tidal delta deposits
are composed of swash platform and tidal inlet sedimentary units (Fig.
9.14). Swash platform units are lobate, concave-upwards sand deposits,
laterally continuous over the entire ebb-tidal delta surface, usually having a
thickness from 1 to 3 m.
Tidal inlet units are composed of sand/mud interbeds that occur in the
bottom of the tidal inlets, as well as in the entire subsurface of the ebb-tidal
deltas and in the subsurface of the coastal plain. Because of its greater
thickness (3–10 m), and its deposition below wave base, the units are more
likely to be preserved. The pattern of sand distribution in the littoral area is
lobate, with elongate depocenters both parallel and perpendicular to the
shoreline representing deposition in the barrier spits/ebb-tidal deltas and in
314 H. Vital
Fig. 9.14 Block-diagram showing the distribution of the main sedimentary envi-
ronments of the Açu River mouth. No scale is implied (modified from Silva 1991)
the tidal inlets respectively. The resulting sand body geometry is both con-
cave- or convex-upwards. Shore perpendicular, concave-upwards tidal in-
let-units are more likely to be preserved (Silva 1991).
This model served as a modern analog for comparison to the environ-
ments of deposition of the Mid-Cretaceous Açu Formation of the Potiguar
Basin.
9.9 Evolution of the RN Holocene Coastal Barrier
The N-S trending east coast is characterized mainly by attached barriers or

cliffed coast, while coastal barrier islands-spit systems are present on the
E-W trending north coast. Vegetated and non-vegetated sand dunes as well
as beachrock lines parallel to the coast are present on both sectors. La-
goons, tidal flats or palaeo-tidal flats lie behind these features.
TL dates (Barreto et al. 2004) indicate that aeolian deposits were formed
in six main phases: 390,000–326,000, 270,000–240,000, 210,000–150,000,
63,000–24,000, 11,000–9,000, 6,500 years – untill present. These dates al-
so indicate that aeolian deposits formed during both interglacial and glacial
stages related to relative sea-level highstands and relative sea-level falls,
respectively. Studies along the cliffed coast developed using ground pene-
trating radar (GPR), indicate the well marked contact between the Barrei-
ras Formation (at the base), and different phases of aeolian sedimentation.
A minimum of six beachrock lines are found on the RN coast both on
the shoreline and on the inner shelf. On the shoreline, dating indicates
three main groups 120,000 yrs BP, 6,500 to 5,900 yrs BP and 4,000 to
2,200 yrs BP (Bezerra et al. 1998; Bezerra et al. 2003; Caldas 2002; Oli-
veira et al. 1990; Stattegger et al. 2006). Unfortunately, no dating is avail-
able on the submerged beachrocks observed on the 10, 20–25 and 40 m
depth isobaths. These beachrock-lines are possibly indicating past shore-
line positions during the post-glacial sea-level rise.
Nowadays, barrier islands systems are found only on the north coast from
Rio Grande do Norte State, between two important fault systems. Two
models of Holocene coastal evolution were proposed for this coast, one by
Silva (1991) for the Açu river mouth, and one by Caldas (2002) for a li-
mited stretch of about 30 km including the Galinhos spit and São Ben-
to/Caiçara do Norte areas.
The Silva (1991) model can be summarized as follows: A relative trans-
gression of the sea level was occurring between 7 – 6 ka, and the open ma-
rine conditions were already established at 6 ka in a medial position on the
Açu river deltaic plain. In more interior (proximal) positions, open marine
conditions were never established. The maximum of the transgression was
attained around 5 ka, when open marine sedimentation changed back to la-
goon sedimentation, as suggested by the age of beachrock samples and by
extrapolation of sedimentation rates. Successive paleo-spits promoted the
progradation of the shoreline during the regressive phase. These spits show
radiocarbon ages ranging from 3,800 yrs BP to the present. Paleo-spits of
probable Pleistocene age (30,190 ± 370 yrs BP) are preserved above struc-
tural highs in the subsurface of the deltaic plain.
According to Caldas (2002) the lagoons behind the Caiçara/Sao Bento
do Norte cities had sporadic oceanic incursion controlled mainly by the
advance of active dunes that eventually closed such connections between
316 H. Vital
the lagoon and the open sea. Radiocarbon dating from São Bento do Norte
/ Caiçara do Norte paleo-lagoonal sediments indicates that the last marine
incursion in this area occurred 3,580 cal yrs BP (Caldas 2002; Stattegger
et al. 2006). The lagoonal system of Galinhos and Galos has remained ac-
tive since the sea level reached the current position for the first time short-
ly after 7,000 cal yrs BP. During the Holocene transgressive phase, trans-
gressive barriers along the coast formed barrier-islands that induced typical
lagoon sedimentation landward. The actual shape of the Galinhos’ spit was
formed during the sea-level fall when the transport of sediments along the
coast closed the old channels that linked the sea to the lagoon. The closing
of the channels began a little before 3,330 cal yrs BP, when the first beach-
rock parallel to the beach and perpendicular to the old channels were
formed, and westward aeolian transport by moving dunes was intensified.
Today there is only one tidal channel at the western end of the spit linking
the already much reduced lagoon and the open sea (Fig. 9.15).
These models could be extended for the north coast since the presence
of paleo-lagoons behind the dunes can be observed all along the coast. In
addition, if one considers the tectonic elevation to the west of the Afonso
Bezerra fault system, and to east of the Carnaubais fault system (Fig. 9.1),
these must be an additional cause to limit or restrict the marine incursion
and cause the rivers to disappear as well (Fig. 9.16).
Despite the sea-level fall to its present position after the Holocene
highstand at 5,900 cal yrs BP, with an actual sea-level drop between 0.2
and 0.3 mm/y for the NE Brazilian coast (Caldas et al. 2006; see Sect. 9.6),
much of this littoral coast is now eroding mainly because of the negative
sediment budget (Dominguez 2006), and tectonic setting (Vital 2005a, b;
Vital et al. 2003b, 2006).
318 H. Vital
Fig. 9.15 Four main stages characterizing the evolutionary model of the coastal
barriers at Northern Rio Grande do Norte Coast between Ponta dos Três Irmãos
and Galinhos according to Caldas (2002): (A) shoreline around 120,000 yrs BP,
(B) shoreline around 5,900 yrs BP, (C) shoreline around 3,600 yrs BP, (D) present
shoreline
Fig. 9.16 Three main stages characterizing the evolutionary model of the coastal
barriers at Northern Rio Grande do Norte Coast (A) shoreline around 5,900 yrs
BP, (B) shoreline around 3,600 yrs BP) present shoreline (based on Silva
1991;Fonseca 1996 and Caldas 2002)
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Chapter 10
The Holocene Barriers of Maranhão, Piauí
and Ceará States, Northeastern Brazil
Patrick A. Hesp, Luiz P. Maia and Vanda Claudino-Sales
10.1 Introduction
This chapter describes the coastal geomorphology and barrier types of

three states, Maranhão, Piauí and Ceará. These states lie in the tropics, and
extend from approximately 1° to 5°S. With a few exceptions, the barriers
and coastal dunes have not yet been studied in terms of their sedimentolo-
gy, stratigraphy, geomorphology and dynamics, and thus, this chapter at-
tempts to provide a first brief overview of the coastal systems.
10.2 Geology
The coastal deposits of the three States have developed on the fringe of
Pre-Cambrian deposits overlain by the Tertiary to Quaternary sandstones,
mudstones and conglomerates (notably the Miocene to Pliocene Barreiras
Formation) (Governo do Estado do Ceará 1997; Bezerra et al. 2001; Barre-
to et al. 2002). This formation has often been considered terrestrial in ori-
gin (e.g. Bigarella 1975), but portions of it at least have more recently been
interpreted as marine (e.g. Rossetti 2001). The latter is typically a tabular
surface ranging from 20 to 40 m high, and extending up to 50 km inland.
The Holocene and Pleistocene barrier and coastal dune complexes are
most extensive in Maranhão, and relatively less extensive in Piauí and
Ceará, but still significantly large compared to many coasts in the world
(Fig. 10.1).
The continental platform may be divided into two main sectors. The first
one, with a general SE-NW orientation, extends from Rio Grande do Norte
state border to Acaraú city (40º W); it has a steeper relative slope and a
flat, smooth relief, due to the absence of palaeochannels and irregular

morphologies. The sector extending from Acaraú to the border of Ma-
ranhão State (west) has a general E-W orientation and a lower relative
slope, and displays structural forms and palaeochannels.
The Holocene sea level record has not been examined in these States,
but in nearby Rio Grande do Norte State, one record indicates that sea lev-
el attained the present level around 6,700 cal yrs BP, reached +1.3 m
above modern sea level at 5,900 cal yrs BP and thereafter fell to the
present level (Caldas et al. 2006). Angulo et al. (2006) provide an excellent
review of sea level data in Brazil.
10.3 Climate
The climate is controlled by the proximity to the equator, of the South At-
lantic anticyclone and by the Intertropical Convergence Zone – ITCZ (e.g.
Nimer 1979). This situation drives an important seasonal and interannual
variation in the precipitation regime. The South Atlantic anticyclone oper-
ates almost uninterrupted throughout the year. Centered around 22° S, this
high-pressure zone generates drought conditions for the northeast of Bra-
zil, as well as the SE and E trade winds permanently established on the
north flank of the anticyclone. For this reason, there is a relative absence of
storms and frontal disturbances in these three States.
The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) is the confluence area of
the NE and SE trade winds, and its influence is mostly associated with its
seasonal displacements in relation to the equator. It shifts to the south dur-
ing the summer and autumn of the southern hemisphere and to the north
during the austral winter, and exerts a significant control on the rainfall
and aeolian regimes (Nimer 1979; McGregor and Nieuwolt 1998).
The annual average temperatures are high, of the order of 28–26.9°C
(Bezerra 1998; Rossetti et al. 2007), with weak seasonal variations. The
daily thermal variation is, however, considerable with average values of
7°C. This variation generates coastal sea breeze systems.
The convective activity associated with the ITCZ is responsible for ab-
undant precipitation during the austral summer and autumn (Bezerra 1998;
Wang et al. 2004) when virtually all the rainfall occurs (Fig. 10.2). The
annual pluviometric totals vary from 2500–3000 mm yr-1 around the Ma-
ranhão border region (Rossetti et al. 2007), 2400 mm (Lençóis Maran-
henses (Maranhão), 1716 mm (Acaraú (north coast, Ceará) 1386 mm (For-
taleza, central coast, Ceará), 850 mm (Icapuí, east coast, Ceará) and 644
mm (Monsenhor Tabosa lower east coast, Ceará) (Bezerra 1998; Governo
10 The Holocene Barriers 327
do Estado do Ceará 1997). However, semi-arid conditions also occur and

water deficits are considerable in the months of August to December when
very little to virtually no rainfall occurs due to the displacements of the
ITCZ and the strong interannual pluviometric variability (Maia et al. 1999)
(Fig. 10.2). The months of water deficit also correspond to the months of
greater wind speed.
The strong interannual variability is associated with the El Nino pheno-
menon. The presence of El Nino (positive ENSO) is thought to result in an
earlier displacement of the ITCZ to the north, and droughts and higher
wind speeds then occur in NE Brazil (Trenberth and Hoar 1997; Maia
et al. 2005). The aeolian regimen is marked by the action of trade winds.
The SE trade winds dominate especially during the second half of the year,
and have an average speed of 8 ms–1 in Ceará (Claudino-Sales 1993; Maia
1998). The NE trade winds display lower velocities of the order of 3.5 ms–1,
and act in the first half of the year. Throughout the year, the penetration of
trade winds from the East also occurs.
10.4 Littoral Dynamics
The wave climate is strongly seasonal, and directly associated with the be-
havior of the dominant winds. In general, from December to April, the NE
trade winds generate swell waves with directions varying between 0º and
60º. During the rest of the year, the SE trade winds generate sea waves
with directions between 60º and 120º (Maia 1998).
Annual average significant wave height in the Fortaleza region is 1 m,
with a mean period of 5 s, and a dominance of easterly waves (Jimenez
et al. 1999; Magalhães and Maia 2003). The largest wave heights occur
during the second half of the year, with 85% of the distribution occurring
in the interval 1.0–1.7 m. The peak period varies between 4 and 24 s, with
approximately 60% varying between 5 and 10 s, 27% between 10 to 16 s
and 1% between 17 and 19 s (Maia 1998). The interannual analysis shows
that although this wave climate is common, certain anomalies exist, as, for
example, the occasional occurrence of swell in August–October, asso-
ciated with storms and hurricanes generated in the Caribbean region.
There is a net littoral drift from east to west and northwest. Due to the
prevailing action of sea waves in all sectors (75%), the sediment transport
in Ceará is intense (maximum of the order of 900,000 m3 yr–1). This phe-
nomenon is constant throughout the year. The SE-NW (east) coast expe-
riences the greatest erosion during the second half of the year when sea
waves act, due to the strong angle (~45º) between the direction of inci-
dence of the waves and the shoreline, generating as a consequence, a larger
Fig. 10.1 Coastal geomorphology and landform classification of Maranhão, Piauí

and Ceará
Fig. 10.2 Rainfall map of Ceará

sediment transport rate. On the northern facing coast, this behavior is lo-
cally interrupted in places by the presence of promontories, which allows
the formation of attached barriers. Down drift of these natural structures,
the occurrence of zetaform bays is common, and these are susceptible to
erosion by swell waves.
The tide regime in the region ranges from mesotidal to macrotidal, with
a semi-diurnal regularity. The neap and spring tide ranges at Itaqui Har-
bour in Maranhão State are 2.9 m and 6.5 m respectively. Neaps and
springs are 1.1 m and 3.3 m respectively at Luis Correia Harbour in Piauí
State. The average amplitudes registered at Pecém port and Mucuripe port,
in the Fortaleza area (Ceará), for example, have oscillations between –0.2
and 3.2 m in relation to M.S.L.
10.5 Coastal Gemorphology and Barriers

of Maranhão State
The western border of Maranhão lies at approximately 1° S, 46° W. In this

chapter the coastal geomorphological mapping (Fig. 10.1) begins at ~2°
30’S, 43° 50’ W due to space restrictions.
The system of highly irregular, digitate capes, islands and bays domi-
nated by mangrove and funnel-shaped macrotidal estuaries and channel
systems typical of the easternmost seaward portion of Pará State continues
into Maranhão State. Sandy beaches, spits, foredunes, beach ridge plains
(and cheniers or foredune plains?), and some active transgressive dune-
fields occur along this coast. Many of the islands display pseudo-anvil or
‘trilobite’ shapes with the beach and dune systems forming a convex form
wrapped around the larger seaward margin of the islands (e.g. Ilha da
Trauira, Raposa; Fig. 10.3; see Souza-Filho et al., Chap. 11, this volume).
Most of these barriers are apparently prograded barriers with many dis-
playing multiple phases of prograded ridges, spits and dunes interspersed
with mangrove and channel deposits.
Further to the east, there are significant beaches and barriers extending
along the Anil to Raposa NW coast of Ilha de São Luís (Fig. 10.3). The
largest barriers on Ilha de São Luís are prograded barriers comprising both
active and vegetated transgressive dunefields. The former range from a
few hundred metres to nearly 2 km in width (measured along the NE to
SW dune migration direction), while the vegetated dunefields are a maxi-
mum of 2 km wide. The prograded barrier active transgressive dunefields
comprise up to four separate, discrete, active phases separated by narrow
to moderately wide (~0.4 km) deflation plains dominated by multiple low,
wavy, parallel gegenwalle ridges, and occasional NE-SW oriented trans-

verse dune trailing ridges (Fig. 10.3). Gegenwalle ridges, (also termed ve-
getation marks by Maia et al. 2005), are formed on the upwind margin of
individual and barchanoidal transverse dunes by vegetation growing along
the dune base, and sometimes colonizing the lowermost dune slopes (Mar-
tinho et al. 2006). Transverse dune trailing ridges are formed by vegetation
trapping the marginal sands along the sides of dunes and forming long,
narrow, low ridges along the dune migration path (Hesp and Martinez
2008). The dunefields are migrating across both vegetated dunefields and
into extensive mangrove and estuarine channel systems.
Fig. 10.3 Multiple phases of transgressive dunefields and mangrove systems on a

prograding barrier at Raposa, Maranhão
Spits are very well developed along the northern coast of this state, par-
ticularly where the sediment supply is apparently high. Both moderate and
large, single and complex, multiple spits occur as e.g. on Ilha de Santana,
on the coast north of Primeira Cruz, near Ponta do Mangue, Paulino
Neves, and immediately west of the Rio Parnaiba in Maranhão State.
Narrow beaches, spits, and small active transgressive dunefields occur
on many of the islands to the east in the Baia de Tubarão region. The
vegetated transgressive dunefields predominantly comprise relict deflation

plains dominated by gegenwalle ridges, trailing ridges, elongate dune lobes
(former precipitation ridges?) and some hummocky to chaotic dune terrain.
The largest dunefield in Brazil, and one of the largest in the world, oc-
curs at Lençóis Maranhenses National Park (Figs. 10.4 and 10.5). At its
widest, the active portion is 31 km wide (measured in the dune migration
direction), and the total dunefield including the vegetated portion is ap-
proximately 120+km wide. This massive prograded barrier extends 76 km
alongshore and is dominated by transverse, barchanoidal transverse and
barchan dunes (Fig. 10.5) migrating landwards along a NE-SW line. The
latest active phase is just one of many Holocene and Pleistocene phases,
and is migrating into and over mangrove and channel systems and older
dune phases. The dunes are flooded during the wet season and interdunes
may have water levels several metres deep on occasion. The older phases
variably comprise vegetated transverse dunefields, deflation plains domi-
nated by gegenwalle ridges and trailing ridges, or a combination of these
two types.
To the east of Lençóis Maranhenses, there are a series of prograded bar-
riers dominated by active transgressive dunefields which become relatively
smaller from west to east (12–0.5 km wide), again principally comprising
barchans, transverse dunes and deflation plains (Fig. 10.6a, b, c). Total Ho-
locene barrier widths are considerably larger. For example, in the Delta do
Parnaiba area immediately east of Tutóia, east of Canárias, and west of
Luis Correia, there are extensive preserved deflation plains situated in the
middle of mangrove dominated, large islands and deltaic plains (Fig. 10.7).
10.6 Coastal Geomorphology and Barriers of Piauí State
The coastal barrier systems of Piauí are very similar to those of eastern
Maranhão. However, bedrock outcrops form reefs and headlands in the
western half of the State and the barriers have formed in headland-bay
beaches, displaying more NE-SW orientations (Parnaiba River mouth to
just west of Ponto do Anel). The transgressive dunefields are wide (10–12
km in the Cutia and Pedra do Sal bays) and comprise extensive deflation
plains, barchan fields, transverse dunefields, sand sheets, and occasional
parabolic dunes. While parts of these barriers may be prograded barriers,
some, or parts of them are attached barriers. From Barra Grande to the
border with Ceará, the coastline trends more WNW-ESE, there is consi-
derably less sediment in the system and the barriers and dune systems are
much smaller.
Fig. 10.4 Lençóis Maranhenses transgressive dunefield. The active phase is just
one of several phases extending ~120 km inland
10.7 Coastal Geomorphology and Barriers

in the State of Ceará
The State of Ceará, located between the latitudes 2°S and 7° S and longi-
tudes 37° W and 41°W, has a coastline that extends for 573 km (Fig. 10.1),
with a variety of morphologies. In general, the east coast is characterized
by a rockier coast and attached barriers due to the presence of cliffs and
palaeocliffs, while the north coast is characterized by the presence of pro-
graded barriers, spits, headland bypass dunefields, dunefields and man-
grove systems (Figs. 10.1 and 10.8). Longshore sediment transport rates
are very large and up to 700,000 m3/yr (Maia et al. 2005).
10.7.1 Attached Barriers
While alongshore-progradational barrier spits occur across the river-

estuary mouths along the northern coast, and also where the coastline
orientation changes to a more E-W trend, attached barriers dominate the
coast of Ceará State, and are particularly common to the west and south-
east of Jericoacoara (Fig. 10.1). Transgressive dunefields also dominate
the surficial landforms of these barriers. Attached barriers are barriers
which are “attached” in some manner to older terrain, whether Pleistocene
barriers or country rock, or straddling headlands and covering cliff tops
(Hesp and Short 1999).
Jericoacoara is situated on a large headland which trends NW-SE on the
eastern side, with a coastline orientation which faces directly into the do-
minant winds. The extensive modern coastal dunefield is a headland by-
pass transgressive dunefield, and attached barrier. The Holocene system is
underlain by older (Pleistocene) dunes and the Barreiras formation, which
is eroding along the eastern margin (Fig. 10.9).
Fig. 10.5 Barchanoidal transverse dunes at Lençóis Maranhenses. Note the inter-
dunes are flooded during the wet season
Fig. 10.6 Tutóia dunefield. (a) general view of the barrier system, with older du-
nefield phases to the southwest and south. (b) deflation plain dominated by ge-
genwalle ridges indicating the tracks of former dunes, and a single large barchans
migrating into the tidal channel. (c) field of dunes with a chain of large discrete
barchans and their trailing ridges
The active dunefields comprise sand sheets and stringers near the east-
ern coast, extensive deflation plains, large barchans, barchanoids, and bar-
chanoidal transverse dunes which shed trailing ridges and gegenwalle
ridges, and some parabolic dunes. In this region wind velocities are high
-1
(mean – 7.8 ms ), and rainfall is near zero in the dry season which extends
from August to December, so dune migration rates can be high. Barchans
60 m high and 500 m long have average migration rates of ~17 m/yr, while
sand sheets display rates of 10 m/yr (Jimenez et al. 1999; Maia et al.
2005). Older vegetated dunefields extend downwind of the active dunes
and comprise similar types to the active ones. The dunes migrate across the
Jericoacoara headland and into the sea and alongshore on the west and
north facing coastlines of the promontory. These feed downdrift spits and
fill estuaries, lagoons and mangrove swamps (Claudino-Sales and Peulvast
2002).
Along the east coast, promontories and zeta-form bays or headland-bay
systems are common, and are again primarily dominated by attached bar-
riers comprising transgressive dunefields, and, in a few cases, parabolic
dunefields. Figures. 10.10 and 10.11 illustrate some examples.
Figure 10.10 illustrates the barrier near Paracuru. The sinuous shoreline
is a response to the many reefs in the nearshore, which are common all
along this coast. The barrier comprises a narrow new phase of active sand
sheets and small dunes immediately downwind of the beach, a largely ve-
getated, deflation plain-parabolic and barchan dunefield (with multiple ge-
genwalle ridges), and a downwind active transverse and barchan (13–25 m
high) dunefield.
To the south of Fortaleza, the attached barriers are generally much nar-
rower (with the exceptions of Aracati, Beberibe and Aquiraz), presumably
because the coastline orientation is more N-S, waves approach the coas-
tline at high obliquity and the coast roughly parallels the littoral drift and
there is less sediment supply. Many barriers are complex barriers compris-
ing a landward attached barrier portion where transgressive dunes override
Fig. 10.7 30 km NW of Luis Correia, Maranhão, illustrating a modern prograding

spit system with active dunefield, mangrove system and older barrier deflation
plain dominated by gegenwalle and trailing ridges
Fig. 10.8 Geology of Ceará State (modified from Governo do Estado do Ceará
1997)
Fig. 10.9 Jericoacoara headland bypass dunefield – an attached barrier
a palaeocliff, and a seaward transgressive dunefield or parabolic dunefield

portion which in some cases may be progradational, and in other cases is
also attached onto an erosional platform. Figure 10.11 illustrates an exam-
ple at Ponta Grossa, a headland formed of the Barreiras Formation. The at-
tached barrier comprises a transgressive dunefield with a few parabolic
dunes at the southern end. The coast is erosional, and dunes are forming
from erosion of the Barreiras sediments with possibly an additional long-
shore supply. On the western side of the headland, progradational spits are
formed.
10.7.2 Barrier Spits
Barrier spits are well developed at Bitupita, Camocim, to the immediate

west of Jericoacoara, from just east of Jericoacoara to Patos, near Maceio,
near Ponta Grossa, and at Icapui in Ceará State (Fig. 10.12).
In the vicinity of the estuary of the Acaraú River, the spits are a result of
local fluvial supply. Cores drilled through one of these spits (Morgado
beach and spit; Fig. 10.12) indicates a stratigraphy characterized by the
presence, between depths of 0 m and 3.5–5 m, of fine and medium gray
sands, little compacted, poor in silt, sometimes micaceous, with fragments
of shells and gravels. From these depths to 15 m, the deposit grades to fin-
er materials (clay, silt) with the presence of gravels, sometimes with coars-
er beds, often with yellow and red colors. In the base of the deposit, sedi-
ments of the Barreiras Formation are present, and these underlie the entire
area.
Fig. 10.10 The Paracuru attached barrier
Fig. 10.11 Ponta Grossa bypass dunefield attached barrier and downdrift pro-
graded barrier spit system
Fig. 10.12 The Morgado spit (Acaraú estuary area), which displayed an extension
of ~480 m and a retreat of 6.5 m/y between 2001 and 2004 (Quickbird image,
04/09/2004)
Morphological analyses based on satellite images of 2001 and 2004 also

show a westerly migration of 483 m of the Morgado spit, resulting in ero-
sion of the adjacent shoreline. During the same period the spit retreated
28.5 m (6.45 m/y) towards the mainland beach. High levels of erosion
have also been detected in another spit of the Acaraú estuary area (Volta
do Rio spit). This spit migrated 950 m between 2001 and 2004, resulting in
the erosion of 124 m (31 m/y) of the adjacent shoreline. Transgressive du-
nefields are common on most spits, as in this case, and sands from the spits
feed mainland dunefields as the spits attach (Fig. 10.12). Downdrift ero-
sion also leads to destabilization of the coast and creates further dune mi-
gration.
Systems of spits reappear in profusion in the area between Mangue Seco
and Camocim (north coast), and downdrift of Jericoacoara headland, and
are in these cases nourished by transgressive dunefields that bypass the
headland, in association with sediments supplied via littoral drift. They
isolate small lagoons that are colonized by mangroves.
Double and multiple spits are common along some sections of the coast,
as, for example, at the Pirangi River, between the mouths of the Choró and
Malcozinhado rivers, the Malcozinhado River, the Pacoti River, the Curú
River, the Mundaú River, between Icaraí de Amontada and Almofala, near
the Aracatiaçu and Aracatimirim Rivers, and in Barroquinha.
In the region around Itarema, successive and multiple spits occur, some-
times stretching 13 km, with widths of some hundreds of meters (e.g. 400,
700 m) (Fig. 10.13a and b). It is likely that the sand supply necessary to
build the spits comes primarily from littoral drift, as the spits extend
down drift from erosional coastal segments. The spits are dominated by
transgressive dunefields variously comprising sand sheets, transverse

dunes, barchans and parabolic dunes. Multiple spits have formed over the
Holocene, and the shallow back barrier bays have become mangal systems.
In places the spits have been welded to the mainland beach by the down-
wind migration of transgressive dunes, which have filled the lagoons with
sand (Fig. 10.13).
10.7.3 Foredune Plain Prograded Barriers
In the Gamboa–Icapuí–Melancias region, on the lower eastern coast (Fig.

10.14), the coastline orientation changes from NNW-SSE, where the angle
of wave incidence is near 45º, to NW-SE. The angle of wave approach
changes markedly, beaches are less steep than in the southern area, and a
reduction in littoral sediment transport takes place, resulting in the devel-
opment of a complex foredune plain-transgressive dunefield barrier (Fig.
10.14).
Near Melancias the barrier is approximately 1 km wide and comprises
vegetated transgressive dunes. By Ibicuitaba the barrier has widened to
around 2 km and displays a suite of foredune ridges. A Pleistocene (?) cliff
forms the landward margin and is covered by climbing and clifftop dunes.
To the north, towards Icapui and extending past the Icapui inlet, the barrier
widens to a maximum of ~2.5 km and comprises suites of foredunes, the
only foredune plain in the entire three states.
10.8 Discussion: Dunes in the Tropics
It is clear from the discussion above, that large-scale transgressive dune-

fields are very common virtually right up to the equator in Brazil. Jennings
(1964) noted that aeolian sand dunes were either very poorly developed, or
largely absent in the “humid tropics” and sparked a debate focusing on
why this should be so. While he was specific about only referring to the
humid tropics, an impression developed over time that, in general, the
tropics displayed limited dune development, except in a few cases (e.g. the
parabolic dunefields of the Cape Flattery region; Bird, (1965). Various
theories were postulated for the apparent lack of dune development in the
tropics including beach moisture (Jennings 1964), low sand supply (Bird
1965), lower wind velocities (Jennings 1965; Trenhaile 1997), and tall ve-
getation reducing wind velocities (Swan 1979).
Fig. 10.13 The Itarema multiple spit system (a), and an oblique aerial picture of
the spit (b) (Photograph Jean-Pierre Peulvast)
The northern Brazil coast experiences a pronounced dry season, and, in

fact, the dry season in Ceará leads to significant aridity. As Swan (1979)
noted in the case of Sri Lanka, a pronounced dry season will result in a
much higher potential for dune development. This factor, in combination
with a high littoral drift and coastal erosion leading to a significant sand
supply, are probably the principle reasons why the coasts of these three
states are dominated by barrier systems with small to large-scale transgres-
sive dunefields extending to the very equator.
10.9 Conclusions
The barriers in the three states of Maranhão, Piauí and Ceará are principal-
ly prograded barriers, barrier spits or attached barriers. Prograded barriers
predominantly occur on the Maranhão, Piauí and northern coast of Ceará,
while attached barriers and headland bypass dunefields are characteristic
of the NE and eastern coast of Ceará. There is only one prograded barrier
with a foredune plain; all others comprise sand sheets, parabolic or trans-
gressive dunefields with the majority falling in the latter type. Little re-
search has been carried out on the Holocene or Pleistocene barriers of
these States, and the opportunities to examine the dynamics and evolution
of these dunefield-dominated barrier types are limitless.
Fig. 10.14 A prograded barrier comprising a foredune plain and some transgress-
sive dunefields at Ibicuitaba
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Bezerra FHR (1998) Neotectonics in Northeastern Brazil. PhD thesis, University
of London
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control of sedimentation and coastal plain morphology in NE Brazil. J South
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Instituto de Planejamento do Ceará
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(NE Brasil): Implicaciones Pará una gestion adecuada de la zona litoral. PhD
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Maia LP, Jimenez JA, Freire GSS, Morais JO (1999) Dune migration and Aeolian
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Chapter 11
The Subsiding Macrotidal Barrier Estuarine
System of the Eastern Amazon Coast, Northern
Brazil
Pedro W. M. Souza-Filho, Guilherme C. Lessa, Marcelo C. L. Cohen,

Francisco R. Costa and Ruben J. Lara
11.1 Introduction
The northern Brazilian coast is 1,200 km long and encompasses two geo-
morphologic world records: the largest mangrove system (Souza Filho
2005) and the gorge of the largest river in length, water and sediment dis-
charge, the Amazon. Dominguez (Chap. 2, this volume) classifies the
northern Brazilian coast in two sectors: i) the tide-muddy dominated coast
of Amapá-Guianas in the west, and ii) the tide-dominated mangrove coast
of Pará-Maranhão in the east (Fig. 11.1). The tide-dominated eastern sector
2
is 480 km long with 7,600 km of continuous mangrove forests (Souza Fil-
ho 2005), almost twice as large as the Sunderbands in India-Bangladesh
(Kjerfve et al. 2002). The coastline is extremely irregular and jagged, har-
boring 23 estuaries and 30 catchment areas that drain an area of 330 mil
2
km (Martins et al. 2007). The Quaternary coastal history of this region has
been controlled by the structural-sedimentary evolution of Pará-Maranhão,
Bragança-Viseu and São Luís Equatorial coastal basins (Souza Filho
2000). The geological control coupled with Quaternary sea-level changes,
large fluvial sediment supply and the reworking of relict sediments on the
continental shelf have controlled the Amazon coastal evolution.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide an overall characterization of
the coastal geomorphology of the tide-dominated mangrove coast of the
northeastern Pará State, on the Amazon mangrove coast (Fig. 11.1), with
special attention to the barrier-estuarine system of Caeté (Fig. 11.2), that
will be used as a proxy for the morpho-sedimentary evolution of this
coastal sector.
348 P.W.M. Souza-Filho et al.
Fig. 11.1 The northern macrotidal Brazilian coast and location of the study area in
the northeast of the State of Pará (black rectangle) with the distribution of coastal
plateaus (light gray tones) and wetlands (dark grayish tones). Five different coast-
al sectors are identified (see text). The image is a digital elevation model
processed from SRTM data
11.2.1 Structural Setting
The northern Brazilian continental margin is part of a transform margin

established in the Early Cretaceous (Campos et al. 1974), with its tectonic
setting associated with the NW-SE Romanche fracture zone characterized
by horst and graben structures (Gorini and Bryan 1976). In the study area,
two grabens lying inland from the shoreline form the São Luís and Bra-
gança-Viseu basins, delimited in the south by the Ferrer-Urbano Santos
arch (Aranha et al. 1990) (Fig. 11.3).
11 The Subsiding Macrotidal Barrier Estuarine System 349
Fig. 11.2 (A) Landsat TM images (Band 3) showing the spatial distribution of
sand flats (light gray tones) and mangroves and marshes (dark gray tones). The
meteorological station is positioned on the left margin of Caeté estuary and num-
bers 1 and 2 indicate the position of oceanographic stations. (B) Map of the coast-
al environments in the area (Souza Filho and Paradella 2005). (C) Topographic
map with coring sites (Cohen et al. 2005)
Souza Filho (2005) divided the area in five sectors (Fig. 11.1) based on
its geomorphological characteristics. In Sector 1, the coastal plateaus reach
the shoreline and the coastal plain is narrow. In sectors 2, 3 and 4, corres-
ponding to the study area, the coastal plain widens as the coastal plateaus
recede southward. Sector 2 extends between the Pirabas and Gurupi bays
and abuts a small coastal horst delimiting the northern side of Bragança-
Viseu basin (Fig. 11.3). The costal plain widens eastward, following an in-
active cliff 1 m to 3 m in height. Results from ground penetrating radar
(GPR) profiles across the paleo-cliff revealed downward displaced faulted
blocks (Fig. 11.4) bordering the northern side of the horst (Rossetti 2003).
Continuous subsidence has created space to accommodate sediments since
the Middle Miocene (Rossetti 2003). Sector 3, extending from Gurupi to
Turiaçu Bay, is set over the Gurupi horst, a stratigraphic window where
Proterozoic rocks outcrop near the coast (Gorayeb et al. 1999; Klein et al.
2002). Here the coastal plain, limited by the paleo-cliff in the south, reach-
es its maximum width (40 km), forming a much more jagged coast. Sector
4, between the Turiaçu and Cumã bays, harbors the narrowest coastal
plains, that reach a maximum width of 26 km. Akin to Sector 2, Sector 4
abuts a coastal horst (Aranha et al. 1990; Ferreira Jr. et al. 1996) delimiting
the São Luís basin to the north (Fig. 11.4). In the eastern side of this sector,
Costa et al. (2002) and Ferreira Jr. et al. (1996) presented sets of E-W,
ENE-WSW strike-slip faults linked to NW-SE and NNW-SSE normal
faults (Fig. 11.4b).
The paleo-cliff that limits the coastal plain along Sectors 2, 3 and 4 is
apparently a normal active fault associated with a downward movement of
the coastal plain (Souza Filho and El-Robrini 2000). Activation of this
fault line appears to be related to a NW-SE extensional stress and flexural
bending of the lithosphere caused by sediment loading on the Amazon
continental shelf and erosion in the adjacent coastal plain (Driskoll and
Karner 1994).
11.2.2 Continental Shelf Morphology and Sedimentology
The shelf off the Amazon River is more than 300 km wide and gently in-
clined, with an overall gradient of 1:2,240 until the shelf break at 100 m
deep (Milliman 1979) (Fig. 11.5). The outer shelf is dominated by carbo-
nate sedimentation (Fig. 11.4a), both in the form of sand and reefs that
have been dated at 17,000 years BP (Milliman and Barreto 1975). The
inner shelf initiates approximately at the 20 m isobath (15 km away from
the coast along the northeast of Pará State), where transgressive siliciclas-
tic marine sands start to occur (Fig. 11.4a). The majority of the sand is
composed of well sorted clear quartz (Zembruscki et al. 1971) and sug-
gests a marine origin. Relict sedimentation associated with riverine sands

occurs in a few patches.
Fig. 11.3 Physiographic and structural framework map of the northern Brazilian
coast (modified from Gorini and Bryan 1976). BVB refers to Bragança-Viseu
Basin and SLB refers to São Luiz Basin
The inner shelf is topographically characterized by elongated platforms

up to 70 km long and 7 km wide, oriented normal to the coast and asso-
ciated with paleo-drainage channels that today have a topographic relief
between 8 m to 20 m deep (Zembruscki et al. 1971). These valleys lend a
jigsaw character to the contour lines, and are more prominent in the east
(Fig. 11.5) near the coast of Maranhão, where larger estuaries (associated
with larger tidal prisms) exist. Superimposed over the elongated platforms
well-developed dunes occur, 3 to 4 m high, symmetrical in the nearshore
and asymmetrical (oriented to the west) on the middle shelf (Zembruscki
et al. 1971). West of Marajó Bay, the whole shelf is covered with a mud
wedge (Fig. 11.4a) more than 20 m thick that downlaps the transgressive
siliciclastic sands down to approximately the 65 m isobath (Milliman

1979).
11.2.3 Climate
The climate in the Amazon coast is governed by seasonal changes in the

position of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and instability
o
lines. Climatologically, the latitudinal position of the ITCZ is around 14 N
o
in August and September, and around 2 S in March and April. Mean an-
nual rainfall along the studied coast increases westward, from 2250 mm to
2650 mm at Salinas (Fig. 11.6). A thirty year record of the Traquateua me-
teorological station, 15 km west from Bragança (see location in Fig. 11.1),
indicates that the annual mean precipitation ranges from 2300 mm to 2800
mm (Moraes et al. 2005). The wet season is well defined between January
and April, when 73% of the annual precipitation occurs. The dry season
occurs between September and November with near-to-zero mean precipi-
tation.
River discharges vary accordingly to the catchment size, which range
2 2
from 508 km to 35,200 km within the study area (Fig. 11.7). The
monthly-mean discharge for three characteristic catchment sizes (Gurupi =
2 2 2
35,200 km , Turiaçu = 13,032 km and Caeté = 1,546 km ) is given in
3
Fig. 11.8. Highest discharges occur in April, reaching 1277 m /s at Gurupi
3
River and 47 m /s at Caeté. Maximum river discharges have been calcu-
3 3 3
lated at 2478 m /s, 1393 m /s m and 257 m /s for the Gurupi, Turiaçu and
Caeté rivers, respectively.
Based on wind data (January 2003 to May 2005) from a meteorological
station located on the Caeté peninsula (see location in Fig. 11.2), the eas-
terly trade winds blow throughout the year, with average velocities be-
tween 2 m/s and 4 m/s (Fig. 11.9a). Seasonal variations, however, occur
due to the proximity of the ICTZ between January and April. Whereas eas-
terly winds account for almost 70% of the record in the dry season, with
average velocities between 4 m/s and 6 m/s (Fig. 11.9b). Strongest winds
occur in September, with a maximum speed of about 10 m/s.
11.2.4 Oceanography
The tides in the region are semidiurnal, with mean spring tide ranges
(2(M2+S2)) around 3.3 m on the inner shelf (Brazilian Hydrographic
Authority Data Bank), but apparently undergo amplification inside the
Fig. 11.4 (A) Geologic map of the study area (CPRM 2001) with stratigraphy
(B) and GPR (C) evidence of recent tectonic movements. The picture (B) is an
outcrop showing rotational slips (direction NW-SE) (Ferreira Jr. et al. 1996),
whereas the GPR profile (Rossetti 2003) shows Miocene (below white line)
deposits disrupted by faults (inclined black lines)
Fig. 11.5 A bathymetric model with the isobaths on the continental shelf. Notice
the jigsaw character of the inner shelf, with valleys that are more prominent on the
eastern side
estuaries. A one year long (June 2003–June 2004) tidal record at Bacuri-
teua, 20 km upstream from the mouth of Caeté estuary (location in Fig.
11.2), shows that tide range varies from a minimum of 1.76 m to a maxi-
mum of 5.37 m. Seasonal sea-level variations can be more than 20 cm in
Bacuriteua, with higher sea levels in April (period of highest fluvial dis-
charges) and September (time of the strongest E-NE winds). Mean tidal
range at Ajuruteua Beach measures around 4 m in a semi-diurnal cycle, al-
though this range during the spring tides is locally as high as 5 m (Souza
Filho et al. 2003). Thus, during the spring tides, large areas of the low land
are inundated by water as a result of both high rainfall-runoff rates and tid-
al processes. The tide wave is asymmetrical (shorter rising tides), but dis-
plays a sharp decrease of rising rates about 2 hours before high spring
tides, when extensive intertidal areas (vegetated or not) become inundated.
In similarity to other macrotidal estuaries, this pattern of tidal asymme-
try is morphodynamic in character and can drive stronger ebb flows (Lessa
2000). Close to Bacuriteua, faster ebb-flows reach a velocity maximum of
-1
1.5 ms at the surface. Flood flows, on the other hand, tend to be faster at
-1
the mouth (maximum surface values also about 1.5 ms ) where the man-
grove area is limited (Susane Rabelo, personal communication).
According to data collected by the Brazilian Navy (DHN 1962), the av-
erage current velocity at the rising tide on the inner-shelf (NE-SW to E-W
flows) is 0.97 m/s (maximum of 1.43 m/s in June-July), whereas the falling
tide velocities (W-E to SW-NE flows) vary from 1.07 to 1.11 m/s. Caval-
cante et al. (2005) monitored the velocity of the water column (with an
ADCP) at two stations (see Fig. 11.2 for location) on the inner-shelf in
March and April 2003. The stations were located 5 km and 25 km from the
coastline, at water depths of 20 m and 35 m respectively. Measurements
were undertaken for 25 hours both on neap and spring tides. Maximum
current magnitudes (at about 5 m of depth in the two stations) reached 0.87
m/s at station #1 and 1.0 m/s at station #2, whereas the vertical mean mag-
nitudes were around 0.50 m/s in both stations. Current directions were pa-
rallel to the coastline at station #2, but normal to the coastline at station #1,
aligned with the estuary mouth. In the latter, as a consequence of large
fluvial discharges, the water column in the inner shelf can be partially
mixed in the winter. Cavalcante et al. (2005) report the existence of a well
defined halocline in both stations, situated on average at 3 m and 6 m
depth in the closest and farthest stations respectively (Fig. 11.10). At the
shoreline NE waves can reach 2 m in height (CPTEC/INPE 2004). Maxi-
mum flood-current velocities (0.87 m/s directed to the estuary) were
stronger than ebb (0.70 m/s), and point to potential sediment transport to-
wards the estuary.
11.3 Data Sources
Figure 11.2c shows the location of fifteen sediment cores obtained from
the study area, all of them approximately aligned with a cross-normal tran-
sect to the coastline. Out of the fifteen cores, there are nine 6 m long vibra-
cores (BVC) taken from the intertidal area (see position in Fig. 11.2c),
whose analysis were published by Souza Filho and El-Robrini (1998) (ex-
ception made to BVC-09). Three other cores were collected with a percus-
sion-core (PC) and their results published by Behling et al. (2001).
More recently we have obtained three cores (RKS-1, RKS-2 and RKS-
3) with a Ramm Kern Sonde set with a soil recovery probe. Coring was
executed close to the boundary between the coastal plateau and the man-
grove area (RKS-1), on a chenier ridge (RKS-2) and on a marsh surface
Fig. 11.6 GOES satelite image showing the position of the ITCZ over South
American on March 03, 2004 (A) and August 25, 2004 (B) (Source:
CPTEC/INPE). (C) - Distribution of the monthly-mean precipitation at Traquateua
Station (Source: INMET)
(RKS-3), reaching 19.10, 17.60, and 17.80 m in depth, respectively. Souza

Filho et al. (2006) have used this dataset, but with no description of the
cores. Radiocarbon dates have been performed on 11 samples obtained
from 6 cores (Koch et al. 2003; Behling et al. 2001). Ages range from
Modern to 5,916 cal yrs BP. Results of pollen analyses presented by Behl-
ing et al. (2001) were also used to help with the recognition and interpreta-
tion of sedimentary facies.
On the basis of morphology, lithology, sedimentary structures, texture,
color, pollen content, elevation and contact, 10 sedimentary facies overlay-
ing the Miocene substrate were identified in the barrier and the estuarine
intertidal zone. Figure 11.11 presents the lithology and sedimentary struc-
tures described in the BVC vibracores and PC percussion-cores, while
Figs. 11.12, 11.13 and 11.14 illustrate the RKS #1, RKS #3, and RKS #2,
respectively.
The substrates for the Quaternary sedimentation include the Miocene si-
liciclastic sands and muds of Barreiras Formation (Rossetti 2001) at the
bottom (17 m in depth) of core RKS #1 (Fig. 11.12), and the Miocene
carbonates of the Pirabas Formation (Rossetti 2001) at the base (10.5 m
in depth) of the RKS #3 (Fig. 11.13). From the oldest to the youngest, the
facies are:
Fig. 11.7 Contours of the catchment areas (in light gray) and isohyets (mm/year -
white lines) within the study area
Fig. 11.8 Monthly-mean discharges for the Gurupi, Turiaçu and Caeté rivers (see
Fig. 11.2 for location), associated with a large, medium and small catchment area.
The discharge time series extended from 1964 to 1971 in both stations in the Caeté
River and from 1972 to 1999 in the Gurupi and Turiaçu rivers
Fig. 11.9 Average wind velocity distribution for the rainy (left) and dry (right)
seasons in Traquateua (see location in Fig. 11.2)
Fig. 11.10 Variation of the salinity field along two tidal cycles on the inner shelf
fronting the Caeté estuary. Stations #1 and #2 are 5 and 25 km off the coastline,
respectively (see Fig. 11.2 for location) (after Cavalcante et al. 2005)
Fig. 11.11 Lithology and sedimentary structures described in the vibracores

(BVC) and percussion-cores (PC) along the Bragança Peninsula. See location in
Fig. 11.2C. 0 m = MSL
(1) Pre-Holocene fluvial channel: composed of poorly-sorted, very

coarse quartz sand to gravel and light gray in color. This facies was only
found in RKS #1 with a thickness of 1.5 m, at a depth of 15.6 m, and ap-
pears to fill in an incised paleo-valley. The environment of deposition
(fluvial channel landward of the bayline) was suggested based on the li-
thological similarity between this facies and the present fluvial deposits.
(Fig. 11.12).
(2) Transgressive-mud facies: composition of this facies is characterized
by more than 70 % of fine sediments (<0.062 mm), with a small percen-
tage of very fine quartz sand and shell fragments. The transgressive-mud
facies was identified in cores RKS #2 and RKS #3 resting on the substrate
(Figs. 11.14 and 11.13, respectively) and overlaid by the subtidal sand-flat
and aeolian sand facies. This facies shallows landwards, from ~ -15.8 m in
RKS #2 to ~ -10 m in RKS #3.
(3) Tidal meanders facies: is composed of laminations of white, fine
quartz sand and gray-greenish mud, mostly bioturbated and with root
fragments. It was found in core RKS #1 between –10 to –15 m (Fig. 11.11)
overlying the Pre-Holocene fluvial channel facies, in abrupt contact, and
underlying the aeolian sand facies.
(4) Aeolian sand facies: this facies is composed predominantly of light-
gray, fine-quartz sand beds, mostly bioturbed and intercalated with fine-
mud beds that were radiocarbon dated at 37,110 ± 310 yrs BP (Fig. 11.
12). Parallel sand laminations (highlighted by organic matter) are the most
frequent sedimentary structures. The contact between the dune and inter-
dune subfacies and the underlying tidal meandering facies is abrupt and
marked by a discordance, while the contact with the overlying intertidal
shoal facies is likely to be erosive, defined by gravelly coarse sands. Ac-
cording to Koch et al. (2003), analyses of organic compounds in the sedi-
ments suggest fluvial deposition, while biomarker distributions reveal the
presence of herbal species. However, based on stratigraphic analysis this
deposit can be associated to fresh water lakes in the interdune zones. The
dune subfacies represents vegetated foredunes, composed by well-sorted
very fine quartz sands with few shell fragments, with oxidation features
and massive and tabular cross-bed sets bioturbated by roots and worm
tubes. This facies overlies the tidal meander facies (RKS#1, Fig. 11.12)
and transgressive mud facies (RKS#3, Fig. 11.13), with thicknesses vary-
ing between 3 to 5.5 m.
(5) Subtidal sand-flat facies: is composed of rounded and well-sorted fine
quartz sands with shell fragments. The sediments are light-gray in color
with a greenish hue due to different degrees of mud content. Characteristic
sedimentary structures are cross-bedding, flaser and bioturbation, which
lends a mottled structure to the deposit. The contact between this facies
and the underlying transgressive mud facies is abrupt, whereas the contact
with the overlying barrier-island facies is marked by an erosion surface
where medium to coarse sand, rich in shell fragments, accumulates (Fig.
11.13). The presence of marine organisms associated with sedimentary
structures is an indication that the deposition of this facies, although driven
by tidal processes inside the estuary, was also influenced by marine condi-
tions.
(6) Intertidal sand shoal facies: is comprised of a very fine, well-sorted,
rounded, white to very light-gray quartz sands, with sparse concentration
of shell fragments and pieces of mangrove wood. The main sedimentary
structures are bioturbated flaser bedding and small scale cross-
stratification associated to ripple marks. This facies can be subdivided into
an upper and lower section based on the sedimentary structures (Fig. 11.4).
While the lower section is mostly characterized by a profusion of flaser
beddings and cross-stratification, a more significant amount of shells and
shell fragments are common in the upper section. The lower and upper
contacts of this facies are commonly gradational, overlying upper-flow re-
gime sand flats, transgressive muds and subtidal sand-bar facies, and un-
derlying old beach-ridges and mudflats as well as recent mangroves. This
facies is the thickest sedimentary unit, forming a wedge that thickens from
6 m at RKS #1 (landward side, Fig. 11.13) to 10 m at RKS #2 (seaward
side, Fig. 11.14).
(7) Barrier-island facies: is composed of a fine, well-sorted, rounded,
white and brownish (iron stained) quartz sands with sparse shell fragments.
It is generally made of three subfacies, which are beach, dune and washov-
er facies. Three generations of barrier-islands were recognized in the plain,
as follows:
Fig. 11.12 Sedimentary core RKS #1 showing the vertical succession of facies,
grain size and pollen occurrence. 0 m = MSL
Fig. 11.13 Sedimentary core RKS # 3 showing the vertical succession of facies,
-First barrier island: represents the oldest barrier that outcrops along the
Bragança-Ajuruteua road, 12 km landward from the present shoreline. Its
beach subfacies was recognized from parallel lamination and bioturbation,
while an aeolian dune subfacies was indicated by climbing laminations and
preserved surface morphology. This barrier was cored by RKS #2 (from ~
+1.4 to –1.5 m; Fig. 11.14) and BVC #9 (from +1.4 to -0,5 m in elevation;
Fig. 11.11). It overlies the intertidal shoal facies and underlies mangrove
mud facies. The contact between the barrier and mangrove facies was ra-
diocarbon dated (UtC-8737) at 5,913 cal yrs BP.
-Second barrier island: This barrier crops out 2.5 km landward of the
present shoreline, and was cored by RKS #2 (from surface to 1.2 m in ele-
vation; Fig. 11.14) and BVC #18 (Fig. 11.11). It overlies mangrove mud
facies radiocarbon dated at 2,800 cal yrs BP. Its lower contact is abrupt,
truncating animal burrows filled with fine sands. This facies can be subdi-
vided in three sub-facies: i) dune facies, composed of very fine, white sand
with large tabular cross-stratification, with the original morphology still
preserved; (ii) beach facies, composed of iron-stained fine sands with mas-
sive and mottled structures ascribed to bioturbation; and (iii) washover fa-
cies, distinguished by cross-stratification with foresets dipping 23º land-
ward.
Fig. 11.14 Sedimentary core RKS # 2 showing the vertical succession of facies,
-Third barrier island: given its pristine condition, it was possible to dif-
ferentiate five sub-facies: (i) vegetated and mobile coastal dunes with
climbing and tabular cross-stratification; (ii) high intertidal zone with in-
clined plane-parallel lamina defined by an intercalation of quartz and
heavy minerals; (iii) mid-intertidal zone with plane-parallel sedimentary
structures; (iv) low intertidal zone with low angle cross-stratification sug-
gesting shallow alongshore channels with, and (v) subtidal zone composed
of mixed sand-mud sediments densely bioturbed by burrows of Callichirus

sp. and other crustaceans (Souza Filho et al. 2003).
Characteristic elevations for the third barrier island are +7 m (on the
dunes), +2.8 m (on the beach scarp) and –1 m (in the bottom of BVC #11,
Fig. 11.11). Mangrove mud facies underlie this island and is presently on-
lapping dune deposits in its rear. The lower contact is abrupt, and is inter-
preted as a wave-ravinement surface (BVC #11; Fig. 11.11). Figure 11.15
shows the present morphology of the third barrier-island.
(8) Mudflat facies: is composed of a soft, dark gray and organic-rich
mud, with mean grain size commonly about 4.005 φ. Lenticular beddings
are common. This unit is restricted to RKS #1 from 0.45 to 3.0 m in eleva-
tion (Fig. 11.12), where mangrove pollens were not found. This unit is in-
terpreted as a progradational mudflat that overlies the intertidal sand shoal
facies with the contact characterized by an abrupt textural change, from
very fine sand to mud.
(9) Mangrove mud facies: a soft, dark gray, highly organic mud, found
at the top of most of the cores (Fig. 11.11). The maximum elevation of this
facies is about +2.4 m above the mean sea-level, and the minimum eleva-
tion is around -4.5 m. Its thickness increases seaward, from 1.7 m (RKS
#3, Fig. 11.13) to 5-6 m (PC #01, Fig. 11.11). The mangrove mud overlies
st
the mudflat, intertidal sand shoal and 1 transgressive barrier island facies,
and is interpreted as a progradational unit, with radiocarbon ages younger
than 2,119-1,994 cal yrs BP.
(10) Marsh mud facies: composed of hard, dark gray and organic mud.
The top of this facies is marked by mud cracks and salt accumulation dur-
ing the dry season, defining a sub-aerial exposure surface. The contact be-
tween marsh mud facies and the underlying mangrove mud facies is de-
fined by a significant decrease in Rhizophora, Avicennia and Laguncularia
pollens and an increase of Poaceae, Cyperaceae, Acanthaceae, Amaran-
thaceae-chenopodiaceae, Alternanthera, Asteraceae-Asterioideae, Astera-
ceae-Cichorioideae, Borreria and Spermacoceae pollens towards the top.
This contact was radiocarbon dated (UtC-8724) at 483-434 cal yrs BP.
(Behling et al. 2001). The unit is distributed over the highest areas of the
plain (+2.6 m above mean sea-level) densely covered by grassland. Based
on the pollen record, this is 0.5 m in thick in RKS #3 (Fig. 11.13).
Fig. 11.15 Morphologic details of the third transgressive barrier-island in the Aju-
ruteua macrotidal sandy beach (Souza Filho et al. 2003). 0 m = MSL
11.4 Evolution of the Barrier-Estuarine System
Figure 11.16 shows the cross-normal morphostratigraphic profile between

the coastal plateau and the third barrier-island. The basement depth below
the Quaternary deposits was reached at around 17, 10.5 and 17.3 m, in
RKS-1, RKS-3, and RKS-2, respectively (Figs. 11.12, 11.13 and 11.14).
Based on the RKS vibracores, the basement surface shows a steep paleo-
cliff carved in the Barreiras formation in direct contact with Quaternary
deposits (Fig. 11.16). At the base of the paleo-cliff a wide undulated Ter-
tiary surface occurs, composed of carbonaceous deposits of the Pirabas
Formation (RKS-3) and siliciclastic sediments of the Barreiras Formation
(RKS-1).
The base of the Quaternary sedimentation is represented by the Pre-
Holocene fluvial sand and gravel facies deposited in a fluvial channel sec-
tion carved into the Tertiary deposits (Fig. 11.16). The incised valley
would be older than the fluvial deposits, which may rest on a sequence
limit and harbor an initial inundation surface. This initial inundation sur-
face may also be represented by the contact between the transgressive mud
facies and the Miocene substrate (Facies 2, RKS #2 and RKS #3). The de-
position of this facies followed the inundation of the lowlands with fring-
ing marsh and mangrove muds, and suggests the presence of a barrier
Fig. 11.16 Cross-normal morphostratigraphic profile along the Bragança coastal

plain, between the coastal plateau and the shoreline. See location in Fig. 11.2C.
AMS radiocarbon dates are in calendar years
further seaward. Similar deposits would apparently be the over-

consolidated mud identified by Torres (1997) in the Amazon River mouth,
in the bottom of a 17 m deep channel. The transgressive mud facies thins
landward as it onlaps the Miocene substrate. Its absence on the inner half
of the barrier-estuarine system could be related to non-deposition or ero-
sion caused by a more intense tidal ravinement in a narrower incised val-
ley, with stronger tidal current velocities and possibly a thinner deposit due
to smaller accommodation space. This process was mentioned by Lessa
et al. (1998) to explain the absence of transgressive mud facies in the
landward half of Paranaguá Bay, Southern Brazil (Angulo et al., Chap. 5
this volume).
Erosion of the transgressive mud facies closer to the coastal cliffs might
be ascribed to the establishment of tidal meanders, which laid down the
tidal meandering facies over the fluvial sand and gravel facies. The contact
between these facies may also represent the tidal ravinement surface. The
presence of subtidal sand-flat and intertidal sand shoals deposited over
transgressive mud facies (Fig. 11.16) indicates that an initially transgres-
sive shallow intertidal sand sheet has continuously aggraded as the sea lev-
el rose. These facies (5 and 6) comprised the upper portion of the estuarine
transgressive/aggradational deposit (Souza Filho et al. 2006). The presence
of flaser bedding and wood fragments indicates that mangroves or muddy
tidal flat existed close by. According to Masselink and Lessa (1995), bed
aggradation allows for a gradual transition from subtidal sandbar into inter-
tidal shoal. A similar process is also inferred by Angulo et al. (Chap. 5 this
volume) when describing the evolution of a beach-ridge plain over sub-
tidal/intertidal sand bars in Baía de Paranaguá.
According to Dalrymple et al. (1992), estuaries in a mixed energy (tide
plus wave) coast may be associated with short barrier islands. Besides the
present barrier island, two older ones were identified on the coastal plain
overlying intertidal shoals and underlying old mangrove mud. The first in-
nermost barrier-island is associated with the Post-glacial sea level maxi-
mum, dated at 5,913 cal yrs BP, when the coastline was situated some
12 km landward from the present one (Figs. 11.17a and 11.18a). The first
barrier island emerged 10 km seaward of the active coastal cliffs (Fig.
11.17a), providing shelter for the growth of mangroves at its rear.
In accordance with Behling (2002), there is a general decrease of the
pollen content in the mangrove deposits of the State of Pará between 5,600
and 3,600 cal yrs BP, suggesting a fall of sea level and a decrease of the
forested area. This may also be the reason for the apparent existence of
mangrove deposits only around the barrier island at 5,913 cal yrs BP and
from 3,736 cal yrs BP onwards (Figs. 11.17b and 11.18b).
In the last 2000 years there has been a swift mangrove progradation in-
ternal to the estuary, from the paleo-cliffs all the way to the 2nd barrier isl-
and (Figs. 11.17c and 11.18c). It is initially suggested that such prograda-
tion may have occurred in a more sheltered environment that came about
with the development of a larger barrier island(s). According to Cohen
et al. (2005), a fall of relative sea level up to 1 m below modern sea level
has apparently occurred between 1,800 and 1,400 cal yrs BP. It was then
followed by a gradual rise until 1,000 cal yrs BP, when sea level was rees-
tablished to the present level. Figure 11.16 shows mangrove sediments
progressively younger seaward, indicating that mudflat progradation was
responsible for the restriction of the estuarine flow inside the present day
channels.
The last sea-level rise episode has apparently started around 1,550 cal
yrs BP, and is likely associated with the retrogradation of the 3rd genera-
tion of barrier island, that is burying back-barrier mangrove deposits (Figs.
11.17d and 11.18d). Transgression is apparently an ongoing process, as in-
dicated by washover fans and especially drowned (within the intertidal
level) aeolian sand dunes at the rear of the barrier. Cohen et al. (2005),
based on pollen analysis, also suggest that a recent sea level rise is pushing
the mangrove forest to higher elevation zones.
11.5 The Amazon Mangrove Coast in Perspective
The northern coast of Brazil is characterized by macrotidal conditions,

with average inner shelf spring-tidal ranges between 4 to 5 m. Macrotidal
ranges (up to 6.3 m) are attained inside the estuaries too, and must have
become a more recent phenomenon. This is because the estuaries were ap-
parently short and very open close to the post-glacial sea level maximum,
acquiring a geometry conducive to tidal amplification (long, well defined
funnel shaped channels bordered by mangroves) only in the last 2,500 cal
yrs BP.
Nevertheless, the coastal scenario is controlled by macrotidal processes,
with wide estuary mouths and short and narrow barriers. For instance, sim-
ilar barrier dimensions are observed in macrotidal settings in NW and NE
Australia (Masselink and Lessa 1995; Lessa and Masselink 2006) and in
SW Korea (Yang et al. 2006), where mean spring tide ranges vary from 5 to
7.3 m. Such strong tidal control on the coastal geomorphology of Northern
Brazil is related to large estuarine volumes (large tidal prisms), ascribed
more to the inherited coastal morphology, and coastal progradation, than to
the tidal range. Numerous fluvial channels, whose topographic signature
extends to the middle shelf, control the existence of large estuarine chan-
nels.
The presence of these channels landward of the paleocliff provided
enough discharge (tidal and fluvial) to keep the estuaries opened at the end
of the post-glacial marine transgression, when back-barrier embayments
were at a minimum with the farthest coastal retrogradation. This is differ-
ent to what is reported in other coastal settings regardless of the tidal
range. In places such as Virginia-US (Filkenstein and Ferland 1987) and
Korea (Yang et al. 2006), coastal recession and smaller estuarine volumes
at the end of the Postglacial Marine Transgression closed off several estuaries.
A positive sediment budget must have been established at the end of the
Postglacial Marine Transgression, and counteracted subsequent smaller
rates of submergence of this coastal sector. Sand surplus allowed for dif-
ferent events of barrier growth and coastal progradation possibly asso-
ciated with two transgressive pulses that followed small scale events of sea
level fall. The geomorphology and morphostratigraphic information sug-
gest that bar emergence, lateral spit growth and barrier roll over might
have taken place at the same time all over the area. Given the highly dy-
namic innershelf, short spaced valleys and (apparently) large littoral drift
rates, barriers might have been eroded at the same time others were being
formed.
Fig. 11.17 Schematic evolution of the Caeté barrier estuary system based on re-
mote sensing and field observations
Fig. 11.18 Schematic model for the evolution of the shoreline in the Caeté barrier
estuary system
The general aspect of the northern Pará coast is strikingly similar to that
of the Sunderbans (India-Bangladesh), which is related to an abandoned
part of the Ganges-Bramaputra river delta. In similarity to the Pará coast,
numerous abandoned channel scars dominate the surface morphology of
the abandoned delta plain (Coleman and Huh, 2007). The site is, however,
erosional, and possibly retrogradational, with fluvial streams now saline

and tidally dominated (Coleman and Huh, 2007).
11.6 Conclusions
Contrary to the generally accepted idea that macrotidal settings (tidal range
> 4 m) are not conducive to barrier formation (Davis and Hayes 1984),
estuaries in this macrotidal coast are barred by sand bars and barriers.
The Caeté barrier estuary system evolved from a riverine environment
into an intertidal muddy area accompanying the last eustatic sea-level rise.
Deposition of the marine/estuarine facies has occurred in association with
three generations of barrier islands, the last two generations apparently re-
lated to at least two small subsidence episodes in the last 3,000 years. The
absence of mangrove deposits with ages between 5,913 and 2,800 cal yrs
BP, as well as a general decrease of mangrove pollen in the whole region,
suggests that a drop in sea level preceded the development of the second
barrier-island. In the last 2,000 years, a relatively more stable sea level has
apparently been conducive to the most significant progradation phase,
when mangrove swamps prograded more than 20 km. Similar sedimentary
processes might have occurred throughout the Eastern Pará coast, where
mangrove plains and small barriers exist despite the varying size of the
numerous estuaries and catchment areas.
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Subject Index
barrier-lagoon systems, 53, 87

A bay barriers, 2, 122
bay head delta, 273, 280, 281
accommodation space, 66, 108, 142, bay head deltas, 259
201, 216, 217, 367 beach ridge plains, 93, 102, 115,
aggradational barrier, 5, 106 228, 232, 240, 330
angle of wave attack, 8, 61, 81 beach ridges, 5, 10, 12, 63, 66, 106,
Anomalocardia brasilensis, 80 113, 144, 146, 164, 165, 197,
Anomalocardia brasiliana, 138, 198, 214, 225, 226, 227, 230,
140, 144 232, 233, 234, 235, 244, 247,
antecedent geology, 18, 43, 45 248, 250, 252, 305
antecedent topography, 6, 9, 12, 40, beach rock, 281
89 beach rocks, 24, 31
attached barriers, 10, 26, 31, 103, beachrocks, 298, 299, 300, 301, 315,
115, 298, 314, 330, 332, 333, 321
336, 342 blowouts, 5, 110, 114, 117, 118,
147, 187, 190, 194, 198, 199,
B 201, 208, 217, 302
barchanoid chains, 114, 187, 190, Bulla striata, 80
195
barchanoidal dunes, 118 C
barchans, 5, 109, 117, 128, 332, Callichirus, 203, 206, 210, 365
335, 341 Callichirus major, 203
Barreiras Formation, 19, 24, 29, 30, Callichirus sp, 365
31, 40, 41, 254, 261, 263, 280, cemented barriers, 298
290, 298, 301, 302, 304, 325, chenier plains, 93, 105
338, 339, 357, 366 chenier ridges, 106, 107
barrier aggradation, 71 cheniers, 10, 106, 113, 130, 330
barrier bar, 2 coastal erosion, 12, 49, 78, 84, 91,
barrier island, 1, 2, 4, 8, 13, 14, 15, 115, 150, 342
91, 122, 133, 244, 259, 260, 263, coastal progradation, 164, 165, 169,
264, 290, 296, 299, 306, 308, 170, 172, 230, 307, 369
363, 364, 365, 368 coastline orientation, 30, 54, 128,
barrier progradation, 9, 60, 65, 67, 333, 334, 336, 341
71, 87, 165, 167, 169, 170, 172 complex barriers, 61, 108, 113, 336
barrier spit, 2, 13, 299, 309, 310, continental shelf, 7, 9, 10, 14, 18,
312, 313, 339 28, 40, 48, 53, 61, 87, 141, 170,
barrier substrate, 4, 63, 161, 172
378 Subject Index
175, 176, 179, 231, 232, 247, foredune/blowout complex, 117

254, 258, 261, 280, 284, 323, foredune-blowout complex, 103
347, 350, 354
Crassostrea rhizophorae, 281 G
cross stratification, 154, 155, 157,
158, 159, 160, 161, 203, 207, gegenwalle ridges, 38, 114, 118,
208, 210, 300 120, 331, 332, 335, 336
geological inheritance, 9
D glauconitic minerals, 85
gpr profiles, 137, 160, 164, 170,
deflation plain, 114, 117, 118, 120, 172, 308
123, 128, 335, 336 ground penetrating radar, 153, 186,
dissipative beach, 103 301, 315, 350, 374
Donax sp, 63
drowned river valleys, 180 H
dune ridges, 38, 120, 197, 199, 202,
203, 217 headland bypass dunefield, 3, 301,
dunefield migration, 126 338
heavy minerals, 68, 74, 77, 78, 80,
81, 82, 147, 192, 196, 206, 210,
E
211, 212, 213, 235, 296, 300, 364
ebb-tidal delta, 147, 168, 310, 313 Heliobia sp, 80
El Nino, 56, 275, 294, 327, 344, 345 Holocene sea levels, 43, 49, 90, 102,
Erodona mactroides, 68 287
estuaries, 25, 29, 31, 34, 36, 40, 43, hummocky cross stratification, 203,
44, 102, 133, 135, 138, 141, 143, 206
144, 161, 164, 165, 169, 170, hummocky sand sheets, 118
172, 254, 259, 272, 282, 284, hydraulic jetty effect, 191
307, 330, 336, 347, 351, 354,
368, 369, 372, 373 I
estuarine deposits, 164, 282
estuarine infilling, 103, 107 incised valleys, 30, 115, 216, 253,
estuarine sediments, 110, 161, 162 284
estuarine-lagoonal inlets, 180 inner shelf, 54, 56, 66, 113, 122,
128, 170, 179, 258, 259, 260,
284, 315, 350, 351, 352, 354,
F
355, 359, 369
flood-tidal delta, 71, 73, 144, 153, intertidal flats, 312
155, 172 intertropical convergence zone, 19,
foredune plain, 84, 103, 109, 115, 294, 326
126, 341, 342, 343
foredune ridge plains, 259, 260, 283 L
foredune ridges, 2, 59, 61, 84, 85,
86, 103, 109, 110, 113, 146, 147, La Nina, 56
149, 164, 190, 191, 198, 199, lagoonal inlets, 188, 193
201, 217, 219, 232, 262, 263, lagoonal system, 9, 68, 125, 177,
273, 282, 284, 306, 341 178, 181, 216, 264, 309, 316
foredune terraces, 188 lagoons, 54, 56, 57, 108, 115, 122,
125, 225, 227, 233, 238, 239,
Subject Index 379
240, 244, 247, 250, 282, 284, P

287, 307, 315, 316, 336, 340, 341
large scale teleconnections, 113 paleodune ridges, 197, 199, 201,
Last Transgression, 259, 262, 263, 217
265, 272, 282 palynological analysis, 70
Lençois Maranhenses, 41, 332 parabolic dunefields, 10, 93, 336,
341
lenticular laminae, 208
littoral drift, 54, 56, 82, 100, 114, parabolic dunes, 38, 98, 110, 114,
116, 141, 143, 144, 153, 164, 117, 118, 119, 147, 187, 190,
172, 234, 235, 240, 327, 336, 195, 210, 301, 332, 335, 338, 341
340, 342, 369 peat, 61, 79, 81, 82, 117, 268
longshore currents, 10, 56, 183, 184, Penultimate Transgression, 259, 276
191, 216, 263, 295, 307, 308 Petaloconchus varians, 230
longshore drift, 109, 168, 184, 203, Pittar sp, 80
211, 217, 242, 264, 266, 268, Pleistocene barrier, 60, 68, 71, 77,
271, 287, 309 78, 81, 108, 109, 114, 115, 117,
longshore transport, 8, 169, 192, 137, 146, 150, 161, 164, 166,
219, 258, 263, 266, 284 167, 169, 172, 175, 247, 325
Pleistocene paleo-lagoons, 115
Pleistocene substrate, 68, 70, 72, 74,
M
80, 82, 163, 164, 168, 171
Mactra sp, 63 pocket beaches, 93, 102, 103, 116,
mainland beach, 2, 60, 61, 104, 231, 180, 229
340, 341 postglacial marine transgression, 4,
mangrove, 42, 47, 50, 105, 207, 263, 7, 10, 57, 75, 81, 82, 83, 297
273, 280, 281, 290, 305, 308, precipitation ridges, 60, 63, 64, 67,
330, 331, 332, 333, 336, 347, 84, 117, 118, 120, 124, 332
355, 361, 363, 365, 367, 368, prevailing winds, 9, 109, 127, 128
369, 372, 373, 374 progradational spits, 338
mineralogical maturity, 192, 211, prograded barriers, 19, 26, 30, 31,
212, 219 38, 44, 115, 116, 145, 180, 330,
mud sedimentation, 106, 108 332, 333, 341, 342
prograded coastal barriers, 168
N
R
nebkha, 5, 114, 117, 118, 120, 124
Nucula semiornata, 68 reef barrier, 299
reflective beaches, 103
O regressive barriers, 5, 61, 87, 169,
253, 260, 280, 282, 283, 298, 299
offshore bar, 2, 14, 231 relict foredune plains, 102, 103, 108
Olivanicillaria sp, 85 restinga, 226, 251
Olivanicillaria urceus, 63 retrogradational barriers, 8, 61, 93
Olivella sp, 80 retrograded barriers, 31
Ophiomorpha, 157, 159, 203
orographic precipitation, 99, 182
S
overwash facies, 162
overwash sands, 162 salt-marshes, 143
380 Subject Index
sand ridges, 49, 50, 166, 231, 305 trailing ridges, 114, 118, 120, 331,
sediment budget, 4, 6, 7, 8, 56, 65, 332, 335, 336, 344
73, 77, 82, 87, 170, 316, 369 transgressive barriers, 5, 46, 61, 87,
sediment supply, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 17, 240, 242, 308, 316
43, 103, 104, 109, 113, 118, 127, transgressive dune phases, 113
230, 247, 253, 254, 258, 331, transgressive dunefields, 5, 10, 12,
336, 347 13, 42, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66,
shelf break, 40, 258, 284, 350 86, 87, 93, 98, 102, 108, 110,
shelf gradient, 127 114, 115, 116, 117, 122, 127,
shoreface, 4, 6, 12, 14, 24, 31, 46, 131, 132, 235, 330, 331, 332,
50, 63, 65, 68, 73, 78, 84, 85, 86, 336, 340, 341, 342
106, 108, 147, 148, 150, 152, transverse dunes, 5, 66, 109, 114,
153, 154, 155, 157, 158, 159, 116, 117, 118, 120, 124, 126,
160, 161, 165, 167, 169, 170, 128, 331, 332, 334, 335, 341
171, 172, 191, 250, 263, 283,
300, 307, 309, 312, 313 W
shoreline erosion, 30, 267, 273
shoreline orientation, 9, 84, 104, washover, 5, 68, 71, 73, 82, 124,
109, 263, 267 125, 305, 307, 362, 364, 368
spit progradation, 164, 231 washover fans, 73, 124
stationary barriers, 5, 103 wave breaking heights, 184
storm ridge, 106 wave climate, 9, 56, 84, 170, 273,
strandplain progradation, 107 327
strandplains, 2, 19, 26, 30, 37, 44, wave energy, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12, 61, 81,
45, 93, 103, 110, 135, 164, 171, 87, 89, 93, 104, 127, 234
253, 254, 260, 282, 283, 284, 286 wave height, 8, 54, 61, 62, 114, 141,
substrate gradient, 6 146, 168, 171, 232, 294, 295, 327
swash platform, 313 wave power, 54, 61, 65, 81, 82, 87
wave refraction-diffraction, 264
T wave-built terraces, 230
wave-dominated, 8, 29, 31, 34, 38,
Tagelus plebeios, 68 43, 44, 47, 87, 143, 176, 260,
Tagelus plebeus, 80 261, 276, 289, 373, 375
Tellina sp, 68 wave-dominated deltas, 29, 31, 34,
tidal channel, 144, 153, 172, 268, 43, 44, 47
308, 316, 335 wave-refraction, 258, 273
tidal flats, 15, 19, 29, 254, 308, 309, welded barriers, 9, 10, 102, 115, 122
312, 315
tidal prism, 8, 169, 276, 284 Z
tidal range, 5, 8, 10, 100, 182, 232,
298, 307, 354, 369, 372 zetaform bays, 330
trailing edge coasts, 1

Dillenburg &amp; Hesp (2009) - Geology and Geomorphology of Holocene Coastal Barriers of Brazil

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Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences 107

ISBN: 978-3-540-25008-1 e-ISBN: 978-3-540-44771-9

Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences ISSN: 0930-0317

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008935323

Cover design: deblik, Berlin

Printed on acid-free paper

Acknowledgements. We thank all our colleagues who struggled

Sérgio R. Dillenburg and Patrick A. Hesp

Angela B. Almeida, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de

Ana C. S. Andrade, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Departamento de

Rodolfo J. Angulo, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências

Nils E. Asp Neto, Universidade Federal do Pará, Campus Universitário

Mario L. Assine, Universidade Estadual Paulista, Instituto de

Ricardo N. Ayup-Zouain, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,

Eduardo G. Barboza, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,

Abílio C. S. P. Bittencourt, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de

Vanda Claudino-Sales, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Departamento

Luiz C. P. Clerot, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto

Marcelo C.L. Cohen, Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de

Francisco R. Costa, Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de

Maria Cristina de Souza, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de

Gilberto T. M. Dias, Universidade Federal Fluminense, Departamento

Sérgio R. Dillenburg, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,

Daniel R. do Nascimento Jr., Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de

José M. L. Dominguez, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de

Paulo C. F. Giannini, Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de

Carlos C. F. Guedes, Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de

Patrick A. Hesp, Louisiana State University, Department of Geography

Björn Kjerfve, Department of Oceanography and Department of Geo-

Ruben J. Lara, Center for Tropical Marine Ecology, Fahrenheitstrasse 6,

Guilherme C. Lessa, Universidade Federal da Bahia, Instituto de

Luiz P. Maia, Universidade Federal do Ceará, Instituto de Ciências do

C. Thaís Martinho, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,

Graziela Miot da Silva, Nicholls State University, Physical Sciences,

Pedro W. M. Souza-Filho Universidade Federal do Pará, Instituto de

Ana P. B. Tanaka, Universidade de São Paulo, Instituto de Geociências,

Luiz J. Tomazelli, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Instituto

Helenice Vital, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte,

List of Contributors ............................................................................... VII

1. Coastal Barriers – An Introduction .................................................... 1

2. The Coastal Zone of Brazil ................................................................ 17

2.6.4 The Sediment Starved Coast of Northeastern Brazil ........... 31

3. The Holocene Coastal Barriers of Rio Grande do Sul..................... 53

4. The Holocene Barrier Systems of the Santa Catarina Coast,

4.6.3 Province III ........................................................................ 108

5. The Holocene Barrier Systems of Paranaguá and Northern

6. Sedimentology and Morphological Evolution of the Ilha

8. The Holocene Barrier Strandplains of the State of Bahia............. 253

9. The Mesotidal Barriers of Rio Grande do Norte ........................... 289

9.4.3 Currents ............................................................................. 295

10. The Holocene Barriers of Maranhão, Piauí and Ceará States,

11. The Subsiding Macrotidal Barrier Estuarine System

11.5 The Amazon Mangrove Coast in Perspective............................ 369

Subject Index .......................................................................................... 377

Sérgio R. Dillenburg and Patrick A. Hesp

Coastal barriers are the most important depositional elements or geomor-

1.2 Origin of Coastal Barriers

1.3 Geologic, Oceanographic and Climatic Controls

Barriers can exhibit variable stratigraphies and morphologies, different

The most critical factors determining the characteristics of coastal barriers

1.3.1 Sea Level

1.3.2 Substrate Slope

1.3.4 Waves and Tides

Dillenburg & Hesp (2009) - Geology and Geomorphology of Holocene Coastal Barriers of Brazil

Dillenburg & Hesp (2009) - Geology and Geomorphology of Holocene Coastal Barriers of Brazil