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Geomorphology, Deformation, and Chronology of Marine Terraces along the Pacific Coast of Central Baja California, Mexico

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Alan J. Woods
Alan J. Woods*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82071
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Abstract

Three emergent marine terraces are prominent between Playa El Marron and Arroyo El Salinito and comprise the most extensive Pleistocene planation surfaces in central Baja California, Mexico. The deposits of the lowest terrace, the Tomatal, are 120,000 ± 20,000 yr old (Sangamonian?) while the absolute ages of the two higher and older terraces, the Andrés and Aeropuerto, are unknown. The Tomatal terrace is particularly well developed and comprises degraded sea cliffs, paleodunes, and lagoonal sequences. Shingle paleobeach ridges also occur locally and reflect shore progradation and tombolo formation. The Tomatal shoreline is nearly horizontal at 7 ± 1 m above present mean sea level, whereas the older Aeropuerto terrace has been tilted so that it decreases in elevation toward the southeast. Nonetheless, coastal tilting is not nearly as great as at many other localities in California and Baja California. This is despite the fact that the entire Baja California peninsula has been assumed to be tectonically unstable during the Pleistocene, primarily because of the forces generated by plate motion.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , May 1980 , pp. 346 - 364
Copyright
University of Washington

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