Pleistocene Fan Deltas in Southeastern Iberian Peninsula: Sedimentary Controls and Sea-Level Changes

Abstract

Examples of Pleistocene fan-delta deposits occur in the Neogene Basin of Cope (southeast Spain). The interaction of active faulting, successive sea-level changes and a variable pattern of sedimentary environments and processes resulted in the deposition of prograding offlapping sequences of interlayered marine and terrestrial deposits. Careful studies of morphology, geometry of sedimentary bodies and clinoforms, sedimentary structures and sequences have been used to infer the precise contribution of the various controls of sedimentation. In particular, the breaker-zone facies has been used as a marker of palaeo sea-levels. Cycles of sea-level fluctuations were deduced plotting present-day topographic positions of coastal fan-delta deposits. Comparison of those results with known global, theoretical curves of sea-level change permitted identification of local cycles and deduction of the precise contribution of tectonic factors (fault movements) during and after Pleistocene times.