Sediment variations and littoral transport at La Victoria Beach, Cádiz, Spain

The evolution of La Victoria Beach, located in the province of Cádiz (Spain), was evaluated from February to October 2004 by comparing the lithology and slope of two beach sections: the northern or Final Victoria (FV) section and the southern or Hotel Victoria (HV) section. Textural parameters and CaCO3 content of 24 sediment samples were obtained, and littoral transport was determined by fluorescent tracers. Topographic profiles were measured every 15 days using a total station during low spring tides. The sediment samples were analyzed by the method of moments and their textural paramete (mean, asymmetry, sorting, and kurtosis) calculated. The textural analysis showed that the sediment in section FV during the study period was moderately well classified and extremely leptokurtic, whereas section HV had two sediment groups: fine sands near the breaker zone and very fine pebbles at the berm; however, the winter period was evident in both sections. The CaCO3 content varied between 3% and 9%, indicating beach instability. The direction of the littoral transport, in agreement with the region’s behavior, was NW–SE, and showed a displacement of 130 m at 0.29 m s–1.

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Geology of the Alarcon Rise, Southern Gulf of California

Meter-scale AUV bathymetric mapping and ROV sampling of the entire 47 km-long Alarcon Rise between the Pescadero and Tamayo transforms show that the shallowest inflated portion of the segment hosts all four active hydrothermal vent fields and the youngest, hottest, and highest effusion rate lava flows. This shallowest inflated part is located ∼1/3 of the way between the Tamayo and Pescadero transforms and is paved by a 16 km2 channelized flow that erupted from 9 km of en echelon fissures and is larger than historic flows on the East Pacific Rise or on the Gorda and Juan de Fuca Ridges. Starting ∼5 km south of the Pescadero transform, 6.5 km of the Alarcon Rise is characterized by faulted ridges and domes of fractionated lavas ranging from basaltic andesite to rhyolite with up to 77.3 wt % SiO2. These are the first known rhyolites from the submarine global mid-ocean ridge system. Silicic lavas range from >11.7 ka, to as young as 1.1 ka. A basalt-to-basaltic andesite sequence and an andesite-to-dacite-to-rhyolite sequence are consistent with crystal fractionation but some intermediate basaltic andesite and andesite formed by mixing basalt with dacite or rhyolite. Magmatism occurred along the bounding Tamayo and Pescadero transforms as extensive channelized flows. The flows erupted from ring faults surrounding uplifted sediment hills inferred to overlie sills. The transforms are transtensional to accommodate magma migration from the adjacent Alarcon Rise