La evolución Holocena de la Albufera de Valencia

Abstract

The �Albufera de Valencia� is one of the lagoons of bigger extension in the Iberian Peninsula. It is placed in a sedimentary basin that embraces part of the coastal plain of Valencia province and that expands several kilometers on the continental platform. This lagoon is a shallow paralic lake protected by a beach-barrier. The sedimentary and paleontological record of two cores (Palmar and Pujol), located in the internal part of the beach-barrier, has been studied. This sedimentary record is formed by Holocene sediments, discordantly on Pleistocene materials. The lower Holocene deposits show the existence of a coastal lagoon whose barrier was located eastwards to the present coast line. The modern beach complex extends after the maximum transgressive ca. 6250 years and it is composed by four units of prograding beaches formed during the recent high sea-level stand. The last beach unit might have been formed just after the year 1200 (AD) and has had a quick growth during the last 500 years.