Beaches, Dunes, and Blowouts- Using GPR to Relate Coastal Features and Climates, Young Husband Peninsula and Coorong Lagoon, Southern Australia
Abbey Warner
MS Candidate
Advisor: Dr. Allen Gontz
Friday May 10th, 2019
CSL 422 8:45 am
watch Abbey’s defense
Abstract
Ground penetrating radar (GPR) can be used to elucidate the spatial and temporal relationships of paleoshorelines and past dunefields, and aid in understanding the past in order to help the future. GPR was utilized on the coast of Southern Australia at the southern tip of the 90-mile long Coorong Lagoon, at a location known as 42 Mile Crossing. The barrier is home to the longest beach in Australia and hosts transgressive Holocene dunes that rest on paleobeaches. The site also contains many active, modern and inferred past blowouts. This study aimed to image buried blowouts, analyze the subsurface strata of the area, and relate these findings to the past climate and architecture. The study was able to characterize the buried blowouts shape, size, dominant wind direction and the site’s stratigraphic evolution.