Holocene Evolution of the Western Louisiana–Texas Coast, USA: Response to Sea-Level Rise and Climate Change

• Main Authors: Anderson, John B., Wallace, Davin J., Rodriguez, Antonio B., Simms, Alexander R., Milliken, Kristy T.
• Format: Text
• Language: unknown
• Published: The Aquila Digital Community 2022
• Subjects: Baffin Bay; Sabine Lake
• Online Access: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/20012; https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/books/book/chapter-pdf/5626980/mwr221-01.pdf

An extensive grid of high-resolution seismic data, hundreds of sediment cores, and a robust radiocarbon-age data set acquired over nearly four decades allows detailed analysis of Holocene coastal evolution of western Louisiana and Texas, USA. Results from this study provide a framework for assessing the response of a myriad of coastal environments to climate change and variable sea-level rise. Climate varies across the region today, spanning four climate zones from humid to semi-arid, and has fluctuated during the Holocene. The most notable changes were alterations between cool/ wet and warm/dry conditions. Sea-level records for the northwestern Gulf of Mexico indicate an average rate of rise during the early Holocene of 4.2 mm/yr, punctuated by rates exceeding 10.0 mm/yr. After ca. 7.0 ka, the rate of rise slowed, and by ca. 4.0 ka, the average rate decreased from 0.6 mm/yr to 0.3 mm/yr. The current rate of sea-level rise in the region is 3.0 mm/yr, marking a return to early Holocene conditions. Despite its incomplete stratigraphic record of coastal evolution during the middle and early Holocene, it is still the most complete record for the Gulf Coast. Bay evolution, as recorded within the offshore Trinity and Sabine incised valleys, was characterized by periods of bayhead delta and tidal delta expansion, followed by episodes of dramatic landward shifts in these environments. The ancestral Brazos, Colorado, and Rio Grande river deltas and coastal barriers also experienced landward stepping during the early Holocene. The widespread nature of these flooding events and their impact on multiple coastal environments suggests that they were caused by episodes of rapid sea-level rise. Similar methods were used to study modern bays, including the acquisition of seismic lines and drill cores along the axes of the bays to examine the magnitudes and timing of transgressive events. Results from Lake Calcasieu, Sabine Lake, Galveston Bay, Matagorda Bay, Copano Bay, Corpus Christi Bay, and Baffin Bay reveal that landward ...