Document Type

Conference Proceeding

Publication Date

2008

Publication Title

Proceedings of the 13th Symposium on the Geology of the Bahamas and Other Carbonate Regions

Abstract

Our review of the last interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage 5e) stratigraphic record from the Boiling Hole exposure in northern Eleuthera Island, Bahamas, revealed the occurrence of two vertically stacked shallowing-upward sequences of oolitic coastal deposits showing beach facies at about 3 and 6 m above mean sea level, respectively. These beach strata dip towards the bank interior and the upper one includes a paleosurface on top of an oolitic grainstone bed with a 2-m-long bird trackway. These fossil beaches correspond to two distinctive sea-level highstands during the last interglacial that could have possibly reached +5 and +8 m above modem datum, respectively, if estimates of regional subsidence are indeed correct. The bird footprints are the first reported occurrence of vertebrate trace fossils from the Bahama Archipelago. The track maker was probably an extant shorebird belonging to the Order Charadriiformes. Track preservation in an oolitic grainstone is remarkable and may be related to an early phase of halite cementation. Finally, the dip of the beach beds indicates that constituent grains were transported onto the island from the bank side by a westerly flux opposite to the modem sediment transport direction in the area.

First Page

169

Last Page

181

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Comments

Reprinted with permission from: Lisa E. Park & Deborah Freile (eds.), Proceedings of the 13th Symposium of the Geology of the Bahamas and Other Carbonate Regions:San Salvador, Gerace Research Centre

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