The record of a high-energy event in a mud entrapment on the inner shelf off the Guadiana river

Abstract

Recent environmental changes associated with high-energy events and human impacts were investigated in a mud entrapment confined in the paleo-Guadiana incised valley. Those changes were recorded in a gravity core during the last 2500 years. An erosional event seems to have occurred at ca. 500 cal yr BP but it is not clear how much sediment was removed. This event was followed by an increase in river discharges until ca. 465 cal yr BP while the benthic foraminiferal faunas were dominated by species associated with shallow-water sandy sediments. Upward, sedimentological and benthic foraminiferal variations indicated environmental changes, promoted by variable sediment supplies to the shelf.