Pleistocene raised marine terraces of the Spanish Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts: records of coastal uplift, sea-level highstands and climate changes

Abstract

Detailed geological mapping, morphostratigraphic, palaeontological and geochronological (uranium-series) analyses were undertaken on the raised marine terraces and interbedded terrestrial deposits along the Spanish peninsular and insular Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Several sets of Pleistocene shallow-marine to coastal deposits exposed in a staircase arrangement are interpreted as being emplaced during sea-level highstands coeval with interglacials or interstadials correlating with marine Oxygen Isotopic Stages (OIS) 5a/5c, 5e, 7, 9/11 and older. Up to three highstands have been identified in deposits formed during OIS 5e. Close to the end of OIS 5e there is a record of sudden changes in sea-surface conditions and climate marked by the disappearance of a major proportion of the warm ‘Senegalese’ fauna, switches from oolitic to non-oolitic facies, and accumulation of boulder beaches. Dating of the coral Cladocora caespitosa, found in a layer that also contains Strombus bubonius, confirms the occurrence of warm fauna in the Mediterranean basin during OIS 7, as previously suggested by Hillaire-Marcel et al. (1986), Goy et al. (1986a,b), Zazo and Goy (1989). Also the occurrence of warm faunas in deposits corresponding to an older interglacial, probably OIS 9 or 11, in the Balearic Islands suggests similar oceanographic conditions (sea-surface temperature, assuming constant salinity) during the last interglacial and at least two interglacials of the Middle Pleistocene in the western Mediterranean.