Sedimentary environmental change induced from late Quaternary sea-level change in the Bonaparte Gulf, northwestern Australia

Abstract

Low-latitude continental shelves, mixed siliciclastic–carbonate sedimentary systems, provide an understanding of sedimentary environments driven by paleoclimatological processes. The Bonaparte Gulf, northwestern Australian continental shelf, is among the widest in the world, ranging to 500 km, with shallow carbonate terraces and platforms that were exposed during periods of lower sea level. The dominant sediments type switches between carbonate and siliciclastic over a sea-level cycle. However, the mechanism of sedimentary environmental change in the Bonaparte Gulf is not clearly understood. Here, we present a record of sedimentary environmental change from ca. 24 to 35 ka that is related to sea-level variability and exposure of carbonate terraces and platforms. Multi-proxy data from a marine sediment core show a sea-level change induced switch in sedimentary environment from siliciclastic to carbonate-dominated sedimentation during the last glaciation. Radiocarbon ages constrain the timing of this switch to ca. 26 ka, associated with a local sea-level fall of −90 m.