Sedimentary facies and Holocene depositional evolution of the Maricá Lagoon, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Introduction
Lagoon systems are shallow bodies of water, usually parallel to the coastline, which may be connected to the ocean by one or more tidal channels that remain open, at least intermittently (Kjerfve, 1994). A barrier-lagoon system is one of the possibilities for their origin, the development of the barrier promotes the closure of inlets, enabling lagoon formation to its rear (Bird, 2008). This occurs preferably on passive continental margins, due to the low gradient, and under micro-tidal (0–2 m range) and meso-tidal (2–4 m range) conditions (McCubbin, 1982; Davis Jr. and Fitzgerald, 2008). Lagoon dimensions and shapes are directly related to the pre-existing coastal morphology, the way the barriers developed, and the performance of erosional and depositional processes during formation and evolution. Most Pleistocene lagoons drained and dried up during the last marine regression, leaving the basins exposed to erosion. Subsequently, during the last marine transgression, they were flooded again (Bird, 1994).
In general, lagoons are primarily highly productive; low inflow of fresh water; high salinity due to the predominance of evaporation over precipitation (main source of freshwater); local climate conditions; interaction with the marine environment (overwash process and tidal inlet); rapid sedimentary filling, on a geological time scale of thousands of years (Kjerfve, 1994); and low hydrodynamics (Davis Jr. and Fitzgerald, 2008). The silting up of a lagoon depends on its sediment retaining efficiency, the rate of sea level variations, and anthropogenic activities (damming rivers, water pumping, land use and occupation, etc.) (Kjerfve, 1994; Bird, 1994). The main sources of sediments are the coast, which provides sediments through tidal currents, wind, and overwash processes; fluvial discharge; and chemical (salt precipitation) and biological (organism growth) processes (Davidson-Arnott, 2010). The accumulation of sediments gradually changes the size, shape, and relief of the basins, also changing the location of the depocenter and patterns of current circulation and dispersion of sediments (McLane, 1995). Lagoon hydrodynamics are predominantly influenced by currents generated by winds and fluvial input, as the barrier minimizes the interaction of the lagoon with the marine environment (Davis Jr. and Fitzgerald, 2008). Tidal influence is limited to those locations close to channels connecting the lagoon with the sea (Davis Jr. and Fitzgerald, 2008).
The coast of Rio de Janeiro, more specifically the areas adjacent to the Maricá Lagoon (Fig. 1A and B), consists of several lagoons of variable dimensions that occupy different positions on the coastal plain. The internal lagoon systems are more developed and are located, almost always, on the back of the Pleistocene barriers (Turcq et al., 1999). These lagoons were formed through the closure of the old embayments in the Pleistocene, which were flooded again during the Holocene Transgression (Turcq et al., 1999). This transgressive event in the Holocene enabled the formation of a new barrier-lagoon system, confining a series of smaller lagoons in the depression between the barriers (Perrin, 1984; Ireland, 1987; Turcq et al., 1999; Pereira et al., 2003; Silva et al., 2014b, c).
This study aims to increase the knowledge on the depositional evolution in the Holocene of the Maricá Lagoon (municipality of Maricá, RJ - Fig. 1), through sedimentary, paleoenvironmental, and geochronological characterization. Although many studies have contributed to the understanding of Rio de Janeiro's lagoon environments, the Maricá Lagoon is still little known, despite its size and environmental importance. Paleoenvironmental surveys on coasts bring important information about past dynamics, sea level fluctuations, sediment input, and climate, among others, which can assist medium and long term environmental planning.
Section snippets
Study area
The Maricá Lagoon is located about 50 km east of the city of Rio de Janeiro, in the Coastal Plain region of the state of Rio de Janeiro (Fig. 1, Fig. 2). It is the largest and most internal of the lagoons that make up the Maricá-Guarapina lagoon system; it has an area of around 19 km2, with a length of 6.3 km (east-west) and 4.5 km (north-south) in the widest stretch. The lagoon has a bottom morphology in the form of a plate with a maximum depth of around 2 m (Barbiére, 1985). The Maricá Lagoon
Materials and methods
Four boreholes were made (B1, B2, B3, and B4) (Fig. 1C), from which 103 sediment samples were collected. The drillings were carried out with a manual auger on a 3 m-high platform, assembled on the lagoon margin and later moved to the drilling site. Borehole 1 (B1) was carried out in the southern portion of the Maricá Lagoon, about 150 m from the margin of the Pleistocene barrier (Fig. 1C). It reached a depth of 9 m from the bottom of the lagoon in a water depth of 1.2 m. Borehole 2 (B2) was
Borehole 1
Borehole 1 (B1) consists of a sandy deposit composed of sand (76%), followed by gravelly sand (19%), and sandy gravel (5%). The sand is largely coarse (between 33% and 57%) and very coarse (13% and 50%) (Fig. 3), from about 8 m deep up to the lagoon bottom. Gravelly sand appeared at about 8.5 m, 3 m, and between 1 and 0.5 m (Fig. 3). Sandy gravel was identified only at 9 m (Fig. 3). These sediments are composed of quartz (85% and 100%), some trace minerals (heavy minerals and feldspar), and
Sedimentary facies and processes in the lagoon environment
Four lagoon facies were identified based on boreholes 1, 2 and 4; borehole 3 was not considered for presenting characteristics of weathered basement. The sedimentary facies of the Maricá Lagoon are: (1) subrounded sand with a gravel subfacies, (2) silty sand, (3) sandy silt, and (4) silt/clayey silt; a fifth facies called (5) angular sand occurs only on the surface (Fig. 8).
The subrounded sand facies occurs throughout B1 (Fig. 8), and is characterized by the predominance of coarse sand with
Conclusions
This work allowed the improvement about the knowledge on the sedimentary deposit in the Maricá Lagoon in the last 8111 years cal. BP, making it possible to understand the sedimentary processes and dynamics during its evolution throughout the Holocene.
The characteristics of the sediments enabled definition of five lagoon facies resulting from the main processes acting in the different lagoon areas. The subrounded sand facies and their gravelly subfacies characterized marginal lagoon areas closer
Credit author statement
Carolina Pereira Silvestre: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data Curation, Writing – Original Draft, Writing – Review & Editing, Visualization. André Luiz Carvalho da Silva: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources, Writing – Review & Editing, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Maria Augusta Martins da Silva: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Resources,
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
Special thanks to CNPq (Project 455946/2014–0) and FAPERJ (E-26/110.138/2014) for financial support. CAPES for the doctoral scholarship to student Carolina P. Silvestre. To Professor Alberto Figueiredo (LAGEMAR, UFF) for the various equipment made available for this study. To professors Carlos Marclei (UFF), Rodrigo Abuchacra (UERJ) and Paula Abuchacra (UFF) for their support in the field work and laboratory analysis. To the students of the Laboratory of Nature Dynamics (FFP-UERJ) for their
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2023, Quaternary Science AdvancesPaleoenvironmental evolution during the Holocene of the coastal plain of Maricá, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, through silica biomineralizations
2023, Journal of South American Earth SciencesCitation Excerpt :The Holocene sequence is represented by sediments deposited during the Holocene transgression and retrogradation of the coast. Based on GPR data, the internal structure of the Holocene barrier shows strong reflectors dipping towards the continent, indicating a phase of barrier retrogradation; afterwards, a succession of very well-preserved beach paleoscarps, located south of the previous barrier, shows a phase of barrier progradation (Silvestre et al., 2021). Such evidence indicates that the barrier evolved according to the Holocene sea-level fluctuations recognized for the Brazilian coast.