Geological processes and sedimentation rates of wind-tidal flats, Laguna Madre, Texas

Coastal flats worldwide that are periodically exposed to arid climates and periodically flooded by marine waters are unique depositional environments because they receive sediments surficially and interstitially from both land and sea.  The wind-tidal flats bordering Laguna Madre, Texas, which fit this unique category, are modified by eolian processes when subaerially exposed, and by wave and current processes when submerged.  Floodwater is derived from the lagoon and driven onto the flats by strong and persistent winds during the passage of cold fronts and tropical cyclones.  Low surface gradients of the flats prevent rapid drainage and promote seawater evaporation.  The depositional products of these processes are interbedded and interlaminated sand, mud, marine shells, algal mats, and evaporites.  This assemblage of sediments is geologically diagnostic evidence for intertidal marine deposition and the same assemblage of sediments have been reported for modern marginal-marine flats in the Middle East.

The wind-tidal flat surface at Laguna Madre is constantly changing.  However, the net effect of natural changes during the past century is either negligible or the changes occur at such a slow rate that they are almost imperceptible.  Sediments are repeatedly added to and removed from the surface of the flats in minor increments and in different areas at different times.  Preservation potential is enhanced at a particular site by the development of thick mats of blue-green algae.

The ¹⁴C ages of buried algal mats yield average long-term (centuries to millennia) sedimentation rates for the wind-tidal flats that range from 0.13 to 0.96 mm/yr and average 0.57 mm/yr.  The ²¹⁰Pb profiles yield average short-term (150 yr) sedimentation rates that are an order of magnitude higher, ranging from 0.7 to 8.3 mm/yr and averaging 2.9 mm/yr.  The minimum present rate of relative sea-level rise in Laguna Madre (3.4 mm/yr) exceeds the historical sedimentation rates for most of the flats.  If future sea-level rise is faster than the rates of aggradation, then the wind-tidal flats will progressively become more frequently flooded and will eventually become permanently submerged.