Volume 49, Issue 14 pp. 4679-4693
RESEARCH ARTICLE

Geomorphological evolution in transitional environments on the eastern coast of Brazil

Vinícius Borges Moreira

Corresponding Author

Vinícius Borges Moreira

Institute of Geosciences and Exact Sciences, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Rio Claro, Brazil

Correspondence

Vinícius Borges Moreira, Institute of Geosciences and Exact Sciences, São Paulo State University (UNESP), Rio Claro, SP 13506-900, Brazil.

Email: [email protected]; [email protected]

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Luca Lämmle

Luca Lämmle

Institute of Geosciences, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil

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Bruno Araújo Torres

Bruno Araújo Torres

Institute of Geosciences, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil

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Carlo Donadio

Carlo Donadio

Department of Earth Sciences, Environment and Resources, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy

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Archimedes Perez Filho

Archimedes Perez Filho

Institute of Geosciences, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil

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First published: 13 September 2024
Citations: 3

Abstract

The morphology of the coastal landscape in transitional environments results from the gradual and complex dynamics of natural processes at different scalarity, capable of elaborating and remodeling the relief. Their arrangements and interactions are reflected in the configuration and evolution of the landscape and waterscape governed by allogenic factors (climate, tectonics and, more recently, anthropogenic) generating autogenic responses in environmental systems. In this sense, several studies have demonstrated the importance of sea level oscillations, sedimentary balance and river-coastline displacements associated with climate fluctuations during the Quaternary. However, there is still a relative lack of recent research that focuses on the last glacial maximum (LGM) and the Holocene for the eastern Brazilian coast. In this way, the intense morphodynamics between estuarine and deltaic systems could become interpretative keys in the general understanding of these environments worldwide because they are located in a particular context within the connectivity of these geomorphological systems. To investigate these processes between the Jequitinhonha, Pardo and Una Rivers, detailed mapping and geomorphic topographic profiles were carried out using pre-selected digital elevation models, and fieldworks were carried out on land and water to validate the mappings and to collect samples. Then, they were subjected to geochronological analysis using Optically Stimulated Luminescence and grain size distribution to recognize the depositional age and characterize the surficial cover. It was possible to identify five depositional landscape units: fluvial terraces, fluvial-marine terraces and three staggered levels of marine terraces. Based on these results, a paleogeographic reconstruction of the evolutionary phases of this eastern sector of Brazil's coast was carried out, chronologically covering the Pleistocene/Holocene transition up to the present. The aim is to understand littoral dynamics as a response to both fluvial adjustments and oscillations of the regional relative sea level.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST STATEMENT

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

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