Late Holocene differential subsidence and relative sea level rise in the Tabasco Delta, Mexico

Abstract

Coastal subsidence owing to compaction of Holocene strata and deeper-rooted components affects large delta plains such as the Tabasco delta in southern Mexico (Gulf coast). For this system, GNSS3-PPP ground-truthed LiDAR imagery of high-resolution dated beach-ridge series reveals considerable differential subsidence on either side of the present Usumacinta-Grijalva River mouth. Collected field-data allows for quantification of differential subsidence over several time windows and reconstruction of relative sea-level rise back to 5000 years ago. Observed differential subsidence of 1-1.5 m is regarded to be syn-sedimentary delta-subsurface compaction of buried strata in response to the accumulating overburden of the prograding beach-ridge complex.

Modeling the Role of Compaction in the Three‐Dimensional Evolution of Depositional Environments

“…The important role exerted on the evolution of depositional landforms by compaction of shallow (Holocene) soils due to their own weight, also termed autocompaction (Pizzuto & Schwendt, 1997) or syn‐sedimentary (Nooren et al., 2020) compaction, has been recognized by a number of authors since the mid 1900s (Kaye & Barghoorn, 1964).…”

“…It is also interesting to notice the effect exerted on the underlying units by the overload represented by the sand ridges. Strain at the lobe base increases to about 52% (point G), resulting in a lowering of the elevation of the interface between clay and silty layers (point C) by an additional 0.7 m. The effect of sand ridges in terms of local larger or prolonged land subsidence has been observed by Nooren et al (2020). They noted that differential subsidence of 1-1.5 m in the Tabasco Delta, southern Mexico, is caused by syn-sedimentary delta-subsurface compaction of buried strata in response to the accumulating overburden of a prograding beach-ridge complex.…”