Coastal sand dunes are sediment archives which can be used to reconstruct periods of aridity and humidity, past wind strength and variations in the sediment supply related to sea‐level changes. In this manner, the sedimentary record of fossil coastal dunes in Sri Lanka provides evidence for environmental and climatic changes during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. As yet, these environmental shifts are poorly resolved because the sedimentary facies and their depositional architecture have not been studied and only very few age constraints are available. Facies analysis of a lithological section at the Point Kurdimalai sea cliff in the Wilpattu National Park (NW Sri Lanka) reveals a striking resemblance to the stratigraphic succession associated with the Teri Sands in southeastern India, which is better dated. The reason is that deposition occurred under the same geological, climatic and geomorphological conditions in the two regions. This special situation allows for litho‐ and climate stratigraphic correlations across the Gulf of Mannar and links the landscape evolution at Point Kudrimalai to late Quaternary climatic events and sea‐level changes. Our results show that the formation of red coastal dunes (Red Beds) in Sri Lanka was a multi‐phase process across the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary and hence the differentiation between an Older Group of Plio‐Pleistocene age (including the Red Beds) and a Younger Group of Holocene age in the Quaternary stratigraphic chart for Sri Lanka is not justified.

中文翻译：

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威尔帕图国家公园（斯里兰卡西北部）的沿海景观演变与更新世-全新世过渡期间沉积物供应和降雨的变化有关

沿海沙丘是沉积物档案，可用于重建干旱和湿度，过去的风强度以及与海平面变化有关的沉积物供应变化的时期。通过这种方式，斯里兰卡化石沿海沙丘的沉积记录为更新世和全新世晚期的环境和气候变化提供了证据。迄今为止，由于尚未研究沉积相及其沉积构造，而且仅有很少的年龄限制，这些环境变化的解决还很差。在Wilpattu国家公园（斯里兰卡西北部）的库尔迪玛莱角海崖上的岩性剖面的相貌分析表明，与印度东南部的Teri Sands有关的地层演替有着惊人的相似之处，但年代更久。原因是这两个地区在相同的地质，气候和地貌条件下发生了沉积。这种特殊情况允许整个马纳尔湾的岩石和气候地层相关性，并将库德里马莱角的地貌演变与第四纪后期的气候事件和海平面变化联系起来。我们的结果表明，斯里兰卡的红色海岸沙丘（红床）的形成是跨越更新世-全新世边界的一个多阶段过程，因此，上古更新世年龄组（包括红床）与斯里兰卡第四纪地层图中的全新世年龄的年轻群体是不合理的。这种特殊情况允许整个马纳尔湾的岩石和气候地层相关性，并将库德里马莱角的地貌演变与第四纪后期的气候事件和海平面变化联系起来。我们的结果表明，斯里兰卡红色海岸沙丘（红床）的形成是跨越更新世-全新世边界的一个多阶段过程，因此，上古更新世年龄组（包括红床）与斯里兰卡第四纪地层图中的全新世年龄的年轻群体是不合理的。这种特殊情况允许整个马纳尔湾的岩石和气候地层相关性，并将库德里马莱角的地貌演变与第四纪后期的气候事件和海平面变化联系起来。我们的结果表明，斯里兰卡红色海岸沙丘（红床）的形成是跨越更新世-全新世边界的一个多阶段过程，因此，上古更新世年龄组（包括红床）与斯里兰卡第四纪地层图中的全新世年龄的年轻群体是不合理的。