The flood of th Beagle Valley (11,000 YR B.P.), Tierra del Fuego

The Beagle Channel connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It is a deep basin (up to 200 m depth) separated from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by shallow sills (30 m depth). The Beagle Channel is located at the active seismotectonic setting of the Fuegian Andes (Scotia Plate Domain). It is a tec...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor: Bujalesky, Gustavo Gabriel
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/12795
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/12795
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Tierra del Fuego
Canal Beagle
Holocene
coastal evolution
sea level
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1.5
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/1
Descripción
Sumario:The Beagle Channel connects the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. It is a deep basin (up to 200 m depth) separated from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans by shallow sills (30 m depth). The Beagle Channel is located at the active seismotectonic setting of the Fuegian Andes (Scotia Plate Domain). It is a tectonic valley (5 km wide) that was completely covered by ice during the Last Glaciation. It has a microtidal range and an indented rocky shoreline, where pocket gravel beaches develop in the embayments. Holocene raised beaches can be recognized in many places along the channel and their elevations vary considerably, reaching maximum elevations of 10 m above the present counterpart at ages of 6,000 yr B.P. The estimated average tectonic uplift is 1.3 mm/yr for this period. After the Last Glaciation, glaciofluvial, glaciolacustrine and peat bog environments developed in the basin. The Beagle valley was rapidly flooded by the sea immediately after the Younger Dryas, 11,000 yr B.P. when the sea level transgressed the water divides and boundaries of the basin of Paso Mackinlay (eastward), Murray Channel (southward), Beagle Channel northwestern and southwestern branches. Nowadays, these topographic sills are approximately 30 m deep.