Where did Christopher Columbus start?: The estuarine scenario of a historical date

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Highlights

  • On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus departed from a cove in SW Spain.

  • Its sedimentary record includes the transit from a Miocene shelf to alluvial sediments.

  • Two geochemical peaks are related to the Flandrian transgression and Roman mining.

  • In 1492, the progressive filling hindered navigability in this cove.

Abstract

On August 3, 1492, Christopher Columbus departed from the port of Palos de la Frontera, located in a small cove in southwestern Spain, and returned to this same port on March 15, 1493. On the basis of sedimentology, geochemistry, paleontology and dating of a long core (18 m) collected in this cove, thirteen facies are distinguished in the Neogene-Holocene evolution of its sedimentary infilling, with a transition from Miocene marine environments to Late Holocene marshes, going through an intermediate period that includes fluvial gravels, alluvial sediments and shallow coastal deposits that characterize the maximum of the Fladrian transgression in this area (~6.5 cal kyr BP). These data and others contributed by historical sources allow an approximate reconstruction of this cove at the end of the 15th century.

Introduction

In the last decades, there has been an exponential increase in research on the Pleistocene-Holocene evolution of coastal areas around the world. Many of the results come from the multidisciplinary analysis and interpretation of trenches and continuous cores extracted in deltas (Wang et al., 2019; Zhao et al., 2019), estuaries (Gomes et al., 2017; Chen et al., 2019), lagoons (Bezzi et al., 2019; Sloss et al., 2019), marshes (Nanayama et al., 2007; Bacino et al., 2020) or dunes (Zhou et al., 2019). These studies usually include a vertical analysis of facies, their geochemical signals, the determination of their faunal and/or pollen record and the age models based on dating, with very interesting conclusions regarding sediment provenance, depositional processes, sea-level changes or climatic events, among others (Nikitina et al., 2015; Bulian et al., 2019; Takata et al., 2019).

An additional line of research relates human activity or outstanding historical events to the sedimentary record. Goals are as different as knowing the human-induced environmental changes (Chen et al., 2020), its impact even on migratory bird flyways (Kraft et al., 1992), the historical pollution derived from mining activities (Williams et al., 2015) or the influence of Holocene facies architecture on ground historical settlements (Sarti et al., 2012).

In Spain, some of the most important historical events were the departure of Christopher Columbus from the medieval port of Palos de la Frontera (Tinto-Odiel estuary, SW Spain) on August 3, 1492, his arrival in the archipelago of the Bahamas on October 12, 1492 and his return to this port on March 15, 1493. The main facilities of this port (warehouses, ceramic and brick ovens, tavern) have been discovered in recent years near this town and the historical data point to the presence of a cove from which the ships that crossed the Atlantic Ocean departed (Campos, 2014).

In this paper, an integrated geological study of a core obtained in this cove is carried out, using lithostratigraphic, geochemical and paleontological analyses, together with radiocarbon datings and historical mining data. The main objectives are: a) to reconstruct the main environmental changes that occurred in it during the Holocene; and b) to compare the results with the historical descriptions of this area.

Section snippets

Study area

The Tinto and Odiel rivers form a small estuary in southwestern Spain (Fig. 1, A–B). The inner areas of this estuary are made up of wide marshes and barrier islands that contain numerous cheniers and washover fans (e.g. Saltés Island). They are partially protected by two elongated sandy spits (Fig. 1, B: Punta Umbría, Punta Arenillas). All these geomorphological formations are arranged on a Neogene-Pleistocene substrate, composed of Miocene calcarenites (Niebla Calcarenite Formation; Civis et

Coring and sampling

Core A (18 m; 37°13′48′′N-6°53′24′′W) was extracted near the medieval port of Palos de la Frontera (Fig. 1, C) by usual rotary drilling techniques with an almost continuous recovery of sediment and a barrel diameter of 11.6 mm. Thirty-six samples have been collected for textural, geochemical, paleontological and dating analyses (Fig. 2). The selection of these samples was based on: a) the presence of different sedimentary facies; b) the definition of its limits; and c) the visual distribution

Facies: description and interpretation

Thirteen sedimentary facies have been distinguished within core A (Fig. 3):

F1 (massive silty sand)–F2 (massive clayey silt). The lower 1.7 m of core A consist of massive clayey silts (F2; silt~60%; clay~30%) with grayish to greenish colors (Munsell scale: 10Y 7/2 to 7/6). These fine sediments contain intercalations of silty sands (F1; 10Y 9/8) near the base of the core. Both facies are characterized by high percentages of Ca (Fig. 4: 6–8.3%) and Mg (>1.5%), as well as moderate contents of Cr (

Conclusions

A geological scenario for Neogene-late Holocene evolution of the cove of Palos de la Frontera (SW Spain) has been proposed, based on the multidisciplinary analysis (facies, texture, geochemistry, paleontology and dating) of sediments present in a long drill core. The overall study allows to delimitate six phases since the Miocene, with an evolution from Miocene silty-clayey marine sediments to Late Holocene alluvial and marsh deposits. The Upper Pleistocene-Middle Holocene interval is

Autor contributions

Marta Arroyo: MA. Francisco Ruiz: FR, Juan Manuel Campos: JMC, Javier Bermejo: JB, María Luz González-Regalado: MLGR, Joaquín Rodríguez Vidal: JRV, Luis Miguel Cáceres: LMC, Manuel Olías: MO, Manuel Abad: MAB, Tatiana Izquierdo: TI, Paula Gómez: PG, Antonio Toscano: AT, Verónica Romero: VR. Conceptualization: MA, FR, JMC, JRV; Data curation: MA, JB, MO, MA, TI; Formal analysis; MA, LMC, PG, AT, VO; Funding acquisition; FR, JMC, JB, JRV, MO, MAB; Investigation: all authors; Methodology: MA, FR,

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

This work has been carried out through the following projects: a) DGYCIT project CTM2006-06722/MAR; b) DGYCIT project CGL2006-01412; c) ′Roman cities of the Baetica. CORPVS VRBIVM BAETICARVM (I) (CUB)′ (Andalusian Government); d) ′From the Atlantic to the Tyrrhenian. The hispanic ports and their commercial relations with Ostia Antica. DEATLANTIR II - HAR2017-89154-P - (Plan Nacional de I+D+i); and e) FEDER 2014–2020 project UHU-126029. Other funds have come from Andalusian Government (groups

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