Author ORCID Identifier
Ilya V. Buynevich: 0000-0002-3840-0208
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-14-2025
Publication Title
Journal of Marine Science and Engineering
Abstract
Quaternary carbonate strandplains serve as archives of land–sea interaction, including the impacts of storms and tsunamis. Incipient lithification, especially of compound beach/dune ridges within the action zone of salt spray, presents challenges to geological research, which is often limited to exposures. This study combines aerial image analysis with geophysical datasets to assess the morphostratigraphy and internal structure of the Freedom Beach Strandplain along southern Eleuthera Island, The Bahamas. Color-intensity analysis of field photographs and satellite images revealed general patterns that can be used to distinguish between areas with different grayscale parameters (sand-covered surfaces, lithified ridges, vegetation, etc.). Cross-shore (dip-section) high-resolution (800 MHz) georadar images across ten ridges (A-J) documented the internal architecture of swash-aligned ridge–swale sets. Signatures attributed to storms include truncations in shore-normal radargrams, scour features in alongshore (strike-section) images, and an extensive accumulation of large mollusk shells along one of the oldest ridges (ridge J). Preliminary radiocarbon dating yielded ages of up to 600 years, suggesting intense storms with 50–60-year periodicity as a possible mechanism for ridge formation.
Keywords
limestone, ridge, swale, grayscale, GPR, storms
Volume
13
Issue
950
DOI
doi.org/10.3390/ jmse13050950
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
© 2025 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Recommended Citation
Buynevich, Ilya; Savarese, Michael; and Curran, H. Allen, "Visualization of Coastal Carbonate Lithosomes: Color-Intensity Patterns and Georadar Imaging of a Semi-Lithified Strandplain, Eleuthera Island, The Bahamas" (2025). Geosciences: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/geo_facpubs/222
Comments
Archived as published.