Marta M. Pérez-Arlucea

• Dr en Geología; (PhD) Geology
• Head of Department at University of Vigo

The Eastern tropical Pacific holds extensive oxygen minimum zone (OMZ) areas where pelagic denitrification occurs. Sedimentary nitrogen isotopes are believed to record their denitrification history, which provides indirect evidence for the past extent of the upper ocean oxygen depletion. We present a new high-resolution sedimentary δ¹⁵N record of O...

A large percentage of the world’s population lives along the coastal zones, with more than half of the world’s population living in coastal areas. In such a manner, human beings depend on the coasts and oceans for their survival. In more than one way, the coastal areas remain an untapped and untamed resource; however, they are not uninfluenced byhu...

The modern Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) is a key oceanographic region for regulating the Earth's climate system, accounting for between 5–10% of global marine production whilst also representing a major source of carbon dioxide efflux to the atmosphere. Changes in ocean dynamics linked to the nutrient supply from the Southern Ocean have been su...

The Galicia Interior Basin (GIB; NW Iberian Peninsula) is located near a critical transition between the subtropical (temperate) and subpolar (cold) gyres of the North Atlantic. It therefore witnesses oceanographic changes driven by global climatic events. This study reports on the recent (latest Pleistocene) sedimentary, palaeoceanographic and pal...

This work presents a detailed study of CONTOURIBER and Integrated Ocean Drilling Program 339 sediment data targeting sand-rich contourites in the Eastern Gulf of Cadiz. All of the collected sediments are interpreted as contourites (deposited or reworked by bottom currents) on the basis of oceanographic setting, seismic and morphometric features and...

The 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climatic Change (AR5, IPCC, 2014) suggests that the increase of greenhouse gas emissions from anthropic sources, in the last decades (particularly since 1970), is responsible for the Climate Change. Climate Change has been producing adverse effects on the oceans and coastal areas, such as...

Barrier breaching and subsequent inlet formation represent critical processes that ensure the temporary or permanent connection and transference of water, nutrients, or living organisms between a lagoon and the open sea. Here, we investigate the conditions inducing natural barrier breaching through a 34 months monitoring program of water-level osci...

Proyecto basado en el análisis y contraste de ecosistemas diversos marcados por las diferentes condiciones biogeografías y ambientales como son los ecosistemas costeros y marinos Atlánticos y Mediterráneos a través de una metodología enmarcada en el aprendizaje activo.

The E.B. Campbell Dam on the Saskatchewan River, east-central Saskatchewan, was constructed in 1962, forming Tobin Lake (2.2 billion m3 capacity), which today impounds most fluvial sediment and disrupts normal outflow patterns. Thirty-five kilometers below the dam, the river diverts into a 500 km2 belt of alluvial sediment initiated by an avulsion...

The rocky and indented coast of NW Iberia is characterized by the presence of highly valuable and vulnerable, small and shallow barrier–lagoon systems structurally controlled. The case study was selected to analyse barrier–lagoon evolution based on detailed sedimentary architecture, chronology, geochemical and biological proxies. The main objective...

Non-destructive techniques of core analysis, especially of marine cores, are being broadly employed for sedimentary, paleoceanographic and paleoclimate research. In particular, Computed Tomography scanning (CT–scanning) allows acquisition of 3D and 2D images, according to desired planes, and thus the identification of sedimentary structures, large...

This manuscript presents a compilation of didactic experiences, which address the teaching of Earth Sciences through the knowledge of geological heritage. The aim of these proposals is to promote students’ comprehension of the Earth processes so that they may develop a positive attitude towards them. The six activities chosen offer a catalogue with...

Geological guide of the Atlantic Islands of Galicia National Park (Spain), in which the materials as well as the geological and geomorphological processes in the territory of the archipelagos covered by the National Park are described. The most representative geological itineraries of each island are also included. See preview in: https://www.igme....

Dunes in temperate latitudes have experienced a significant stabilization in recent times, essentially as a consequence of the expansion of dense vegetation cover. Yet, the causes for this gradual stabilization as well as the causes promoting antecedent aeolian mobilization remain poorly understood. The Traba coastal dune field, located in NW Spain...

An extensive terrace comprising sandy sheeted drifts characterises the proximal sector (close to the Straits of Gibraltar) of the Contourite Depositional System (CDS) of the Gulf of Cadiz and the western continental margin of Portugal. A novel morphosedimentary study over this terrace has been executed based on new multibeam echosounder data, seism...

a b s t r a c t The cycling of nutrients (silicate, nitrate, ammonium and phosphate) in a quasi-pristine barrierelagoon complex (Louro Lagoon, NW Iberian Peninsula) was studied both in a diel and temporal timescale covering different seasonal conditions. Hydrographical and meteorological conditions exert a major control on the nutrient cycling in t...

Compositional, mineralogical and grain size data from 13 superficial samples recovered between 490 and 1144 m water depth in three Contourite Depositional Systems (CDSs): the Gulf of Cadiz, Ortegal Spur and El Cachucho are presented. First surficial centimeter was analysed in different contourite features: depositional (drifts), erosive (moats) and...

Understanding water dynamics and the processes affecting water elevation in the lagoon is important in understanding how barrier-lagoon systems work and, in particular, how it affects sediment distribution and architecture. It is also important in resolving a number of environmental problems related to flooding and land management. Louro barrier-la...

The Rías Baixas are located in the western coast of Galicia (Spain). Seasonal phenomena of upwelling are responsible for the high primary productivity of the Galician rias. Based on this productivity, an important aquaculture activity consisting in cultivating bivalves in mussel rafts has been developed. Mussels generate a large amount of faeces an...

Several surveys have investigated the deposits located in the Galician rias, and those studies demonstrate an increase in the sedimentation rates upwards, which is attributed to the anthropic influence. This paper tries to correlate these results with demographic and social processes produced in Galicia in the last two centuries. Sedimentation rate...

The aim of this work is to present the results of GPR surveys from a large trough blowout and a saucer blowout associated to an energetic shoreline in a temperate-humid coastline (NW of Spain Traba sedimentary complex), cross-validated with core data and field exposures. Finally, to relate the sedimentological information obtained from the interpre...

The no-destructive techniques of core analyses are being more employed due to the quality and quantity of data that can be obtained without the re-quirement of the use of samples. These samples are then available to other kind of analyses. The Computerized Tomography (CT) is a technique few ex-tended in sedimentology. The CT is relevant because it...

Coastal sand barriers are of high environmental significance because they provide protection for highly productive landward environments. However, they are also highly susceptible environments as they can be affected by different factors such as sea-level changes, waves, tides, currents, sediment supply, seafloor slope and morphology, coastline dev...

“Vallazmorra-1” and “Vallazmorra-2” dinosaur bearing sites are located north of the vicinity of Santo Domingo de Silos between Hinojar de Cervera and Hortezuelos villages close to the road BU-911, in the communal terrains of Hortezuelos, in the southeastern Burgos province. Both sites are located in the western Cameros Basin at the northernmost par...

This contribution aims to illustrate the Ortegal Cape Contourite Depositional System (OCCDS), a new example of contourites located on the northern Galicia margin generated by the Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) influence. This work is based on several datasets collected during two multidisciplinary cruises, including: single echosounder and swath...

Coastal geomorphology results from the combined effects of contemporary dynamics, sea-level rise and the inherited geological framework, yet the relative importance of these driving mechanisms may change throughout the evolutionary history of coastal deposits. In this contribution, we analyse the depositional history of the Cíes Islands barrier-lag...

Natural levees control the exchange of water between an alluvial channel and its floodplain, but little is known about the spatial distribution and evolution of levee heights. The summer 2005 flood of the Saskatchewan River (Cumberland Marshes, east-central Saskatchewan) inundated large areas of floodplain for up to seven weeks, forming prominent n...

The south-to southwest-dipping North and South Saros normal faults occupy the southeastern margin of the Gerania Range, a major massif of Mesozoic limestone and o phi-o lite in the eastern Gulf of Corinth Rift, cen-tral Greece. The history of the Saros faults is constrained by adjacent basin-fi ll sediments and modern drainage patterns. Older basin...

Louro sedimentary complex is an example of a barrier lagoon system developed during the Holocene transgression in the Atlantic coast of Spain in an exposed area, located on a small bay in the external divide between Muros and Noia Rías (Galicia). The present study analyzes the architecture and evolution of the sedimentary complex in the last 6000 y...

This work is a contribution to the beach morphodynamic studies which are the essential key to improve the knowledge of the beach system evolution. This report wants to contribute with a study of the exposed Louro Beach (NW Iberian Peninsula). Several topographic surveys, grain size tracer trend experiments and wave and current numerical models (OLU...

In summer 2005, a controlled flood of the Saskatchewan River (east-central Saskatchewan, Canada) resulted in general floodplain inundation and extensive natural levee deposition along a 60-km reach extending from 40 km below the E.B. Campbell dam to Cumberland Lake. Levee crests along channel banks were inundated for up to 7 weeks in some areas of...

The aim of this paper is the study of the sedimentary architecture and evolution of Louro sedimentary complex, located in the Atlantic Galician margin. The sedimentary complex is located in the external area of Muros and Noia Ría, (northwest Galicia) and is highly affected by the high-energy local maritime climate and storm events. Sediment archite...

San Simón Bay is located in the inner part of a Galician ría. Three rivers enter the bay from the north, forming shallow estuaries. Tidal range is mesotidal (2 to 4 m with an average of 2.2 m). High productivity ecosystems develop due to upwelling processes, which are common in all the Galician rías. The aim of this paper is the study of fluvial an...

GONZÁLEZ-VILLANUEVA, R., COSTAS, S. ALEJO, I. and PÉREZ-ARLUCEA, M., 2007. Morphological changes forced by the tidal cycle in a low estuarine beach. The aim of this study is to analyse the morphological variations of a low energy estuarine beach during a tidal cycle. Following this purpose, two surveys were deployed under contrasted hydrodynamic co...

Ladeira Beach is a north-south, 1.3 km long and 88-120 m wide dune-beach complex, which protects a 0.88 km 2 intertidal area, which at high tide forms a lagoon. The beach is a low-tide terrace reflective beach. Three rivers enter the complex, merging and connecting the open sea by a narrow inlet at the north. An ebb tidal delta is developed at the...

This research focuses on the development of metal pollution in sediment cores from three estuaries in Northwest Spain: Viveiro, Ortigueira and Barqueiro. Pb, Cu, Co, Cr, Cd and Zn and total organic carbon were assessed using principal component analysis (PCA) in order to obtain background values, measure pollution levels and identify pollution sour...

(210)Pb and (137)Cs dating methods, accompanied by a high-resolution geochemical study, were applied to intertidal sediments containing both fine and coarse-grained particles and also, anthropogenic Pb in order to establish sedimentation rates and historical trends in heavy metal input. Sedimentation rates were established according to the "Constan...

The concentrations of both major and trace elements in San Simón Bay's subtidal sediments were determined for the purposes of (1) eval-uating the influence of anthropogenic activities on metal content (against pre-anthropogenic background values attained via the deepest core samples), (2) establishing the subtidal sediments' degrees of pollution in...

The history of the Rio Grande, the axial river of the southern Rio Grande rift, New Mexico, may be divided into an aggradational phase (∼ 5 to ∼ 0.8 Ma), during which time about 100 m of fluvial sediment was deposited in eight basins, and a degradational phase (∼ 0.8 Ma to present), when the river alternately incised and partially backfilled its ba...

A gamma spectrometer with HPGe detector of 50% relative efficiency and 1 cps total background has been dedicated to the measurement of an intertidal sediment core from a coastal environment at the Ría de Vigo (Spain). The area is affected by lead pollution and the source identification needs of a precise dating of the sediment core. Such a precise...

La invención titulada “Testificador encapsulador de sedimentos por succión” consiste en un cabezal con una parte principal constituida por tubo metálico de diámetro exterior constante (1), mecanizado interiormente en la mitad de su longitud para aumentar su diámetro, con una parte ajustable mediante ranuras longitudinales. El cabezal permite la int...

PÉREZ-ARLUCEA, M.; CARTER, A.; CLEMENTE, F.; GONZÁLEZ, D.; NOMBELA, M. 2005. Multi-approach long and short-term denudation rate calculations for the Galician coast (Ría de Vigo, Spain): AFTD, DEM analysis, river loads and sediment budgets. Journal of Coastal Research, SI 49 (Proceedings of the 2 nd Meeting in Marine Sciences, 9 – 14. Valencia -Spai...

Geophysical, structural, geochronological and geomorphological data indicate that the Psatha, East Alkyonides, Skinos and Pisia faults are Holocene-active structures whereas the status of the West Alkyonides, Strava, Perachora and Loutraki faults is less certain. We see no evidence for significant lateral surface fault growth. New data for late Ple...

The aim of this study is to provide a budget study with calculated erosion rates. Three methods have been used to calculate sediment yield and denudation rates in the Ria de Vigo: (1) measurements of sediment loads, (2) measurements of sediment accumulation rates at the coast, (3) theoretical calculations of potential denudation. Sediment loads and...

An avulsion of the lower Saskatchewan River in the 1870s inundated a large segment of peat-covered floodplain that subsequently has become aggraded with a broad (500 km 2) belt of alluvium deposited by the redirected flow. Routing of water and sediment discharge through the avulsion-affected area has been accomplished mainly by networks of sandy be...

Conventional coring can be an expensive and cumbersome technique in uncompacted, waterlogged sediments, especially when large numbers of samples are required rapidly and when vehicular access is restricted. The existing Van der Staay suction corer (Van de Meene et al. 1979) solves economic and other problems (chiefly logistical and environmental is...

The Lower Permian (Wolfcampian) Hueco Formation in the Dona Ana Mountains of south-central New Mexico contains a 30-m-thick, mixed siliciclastic-carbonate succession exposed for up to 1 km perpendicular to regional paleoslope. The succession was deposited in shallow-marine, wave- and tide-dominated estuarine, and fluvial environments, and is arrang...

Coastal deposits are not prominent in the Ria de Vigo, high cliffs dominate the coast line, but several well-preserved sedimentary areas are observed. Beach and aeolian sand dunes are preserved in protected bays along margins between low cliffs, as Playa America, Patos and Samil. Several rivers form prominent estuaries such as the Verdugo-Oitaven,...

The Lower Permian (Wolfcampian) Abo Formation of south-central New Mexico was deposited by a silt-dominated fluvial system along the western half of the Orogrande basin a few degrees north of the equator in western Pangaea. Fluvial channel deposits consist primarily of: (1) inclined siltstone stratasets up to 4.5 m thick and 25 m wide interpreted a...

ABSTRACT Sediment load concentrations have been measured in the Lagares and Miñor rivers at the south slope of Ría de Vigo during two periods: 97/98 and 00/01. Suspended and dissolved loads were about 2 to 3 times higher in the second period due to peak discharges accompanying an extremely anomalous pluviometric year. Minimum and maximum erosion ra...

Deposits of the ancestral Rio Grande (aRG) belonging to the Camp Rice Formation are preserved and exposed in the uplifted southern portion of the Robledo Mountains horst of the southern Rio Grande rift. The sediments are dated palaeomagnetically to the Gauss chron (upper Pliocene). The lower part of the succession lies in a newly discovered palaeoc...

El presente estudio se llevó a cabo durante un periodo de 14 meses para determinar la contribución de algunos de los ríos principales a la sedimentación y evolución morfológica de la ría de Vigo. El principal objetivo ha sido realizar una estimación de la variabilidad volumétrica de los aportes de partículas en suspensión y carga en disolución. Apa...

El presente estudio se llevó a cabo durante un periodo de 14 meses para determinar la contribución de algunos de los ríos principales a la sedimentación y evolución morfológica de la ría de Vigo. El principal objetivo ha sido realizar una estimación de la variabilidad volumétrica de los aportes de partículas en suspensión y carga en disolución. Apa...

The relative space distributions of single mineral constituents in mixed terrigenous-carbonated sediments of the Bayona Bay have been analysed. In order to determine the existence of different mixing mechanisms, a study comparing the general sedimentary trends resulting from the average patterns and the single mineral behaviour, reflected in the si...

The avulsion of the Saskatchewan River (Cumberland Marshes, east-central Saskatchewan, Canada) has resulted in new floodplain deposition over an area of more than 500 km2 since beginning in the 1870s. The avulsion deposits are predominantly fine grained and could be otherwise classifiable as ‘‘overbank’’ sediments in alluvial floodplains presumed t...

Several major avulsions of the Saskatchewan River have occurred in the Cumberland Marshes (east-central Saskatchewan) during the past few thousand years. The most recent avulsion occurred in about the 1870s, converting over 500 km2 of floodplain into a belt of anastomosing channels, splay complexes, and small lakes, a region that is still evolving...

The dynamic behaviour of sediment-laden underflows was examined in Peyto Lake, Alberta, Canada, which contains a midlake sill 7 m high. Sediment-laden underflows are driven by the downslope component of negative buoyant gravity multiplied by the current's thickness. Our measurements of wind, lake currents and water properties indicate that underflo...

Dynamics of a unique behavior of sediment-laden underflows was examined in Peyto Lake, Alberta, Canada. As the characteristic basin shape, this lake has a subaqueous, traverse hill 7m high in the middle. The sediment-laden underflows should be driven only by the downslope component of gravity. Our previous studies of sedimentation in Peyto Lake, ho...

Permian and Triassic Palynology in the Middle part of the lberian Peninsula ABSTRACT- Palinological data from the carbona tic and siliciclastic sediments in the Central System and westem Iberian Ranges has allowed us to make sorne age-dating for most of the sediments unconformably overlying the lower Paleozoic metamorphic basement. Twelve pal}nolo...

Palynological data from the carbonatic and siliciclastic sediments in the Central System and western Iberian Ranges has allowed us to make some age-dating for most of the sediments unconformably overlying the lower Paleozoic metamorphic basement. Twelve palynological assemblages have been identified. They range in age from early Permian (Autunian)...

In or about 1883, a northward avulsion of the meandering lower Saskatchewan River at the Cumberland Marshes initiated a broad belt of alluvial sedimentation...

During Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous rifting associated with the opening of the North Atlantic, the Cameros Basin formed on the northwest margin of the Iberian Trough...

During Middle Triassic time two major transgressions (Anisian and Ladinian in age) took place over the Tethys domain affecting the western border of the Iberian Plate. Classically three characteristic lithological units have been recognised in the Middle Triassic, traditionally named in Spain, Lower, Middle and Upper Muschelkalk. As a result of the...

The Iberian Peninsula is a good example of late Hercynian structures that influenced Mesozoic sedimentation. Complex graben systems, evolving along the fracture systems during late Hercynian movements were filled by hundreds of meters of red beds during the Permian and Triassic, the final stages of Hercynian movements were accompanied by several ma...

The sedimentological analysis of the Saxonian unit «Lutitas y Aremscas de Tormón» and the five Buntsandstein units of this area provides several examples of alluvial sedimentation. The unit «Lutitas y Areniscas de Tormón» reflects a flood-dominated, alluvial fan, complex system, which gradually evolved into the unit «Conglomerados de la Hoz del Gal...

The Buntsandstein sediments in central Spain (Permian and Triassic) are mainly continental redbeds that form the base of a sequence..

The main Permian and Triassic sequence in Molina de Aragón and South Albarracín is established. More than 45 sections have been studied, analysing the lateral changes and establishing 16 lithoestratigraphic Units. Part of these 1ithoestraigraphic Units were originally established by Ramos (1979) in the Molina de Aragon area, but this study prove th...