El Holoceno en Canarias

Abstract

Fuerteventura (Canary Islands) hosts the most representative emergent Holocene marine deposits in the middle latitudes of the eastern Atlantic Ocean. The deposits consist of berms and beachrocks suggesting a cyclical cause as the orbital movement of the Earth. Radiocarbon ages place a group at around 4.2 kyr BP and another group at around 1.4 kyr BP. They have been recorded at 4 m and 3.5 m apmsl respectively. The present-day tidal amplitude is around 3 m. Assuming a similar value for the Holocene, the corresponding relative sea level rises were around 2.5 m and 2 m apmsl respectively. During these two periods, the sea surface temperatures at the southern tip of the Canary Current were colder than the present-day SST. Intercalated terrestrial deposits indicate a lowering of the sea-level at ca. 3 kyr BP.