Pleistocene raised marine terraces of the Spanish Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts: records of coastal uplift, sea-level highstands and climate changes

Abstract

Detailed geological mapping, morphostratigraphic, palaeontological and geochronological (uranium-series)
analyses were undertaken on the raised marine terraces and interbedded terrestrial deposits along the Spanish
peninsular and insular Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. Several sets of Pleistocene shallow-marine to coastal
deposits exposed in a staircase arrangement are interpreted as being emplaced during sea-level highstands coeval with
interglacials or interstadials correlating with marine Oxygen Isotopic Stages (OIS) 5a/5c, 5e, 7, 9/11 and older. Up to
three highstands have been identified in deposits formed during OIS 5e. Close to the end of OIS 5e there is a record of
sudden changes in sea-surface conditions and climate marked by the disappearance of a major proportion of the
warm ‘Senegalese’ fauna, switches from oolitic to non-oolitic facies, and accumulation of boulder beaches. Dating of
the coral Cladocora caespitosa, found in a layer that also contains Strombus bubonius, confirms the occurrence of
warm fauna in the Mediterranean basin during OIS 7, as previously suggested by Hillaire-Marcel et al. (1986), Goy et
al. (1986a,b), Zazo and Goy (1989). Also the occurrence of warm faunas in deposits corresponding to an older
interglacial, probably OIS 9 or 11, in the Balearic Islands suggests similar oceanographic conditions (sea-surface
temperature, assuming constant salinity) during the last interglacial and at least two interglacials of the Middle
Pleistocene in the western Mediterranean.