Sedimentological characterization of the sublittoral tablelands in Ceará State

Abstract

During the year of 2005 the Ceará State’s Office for the Environment (SEMACE) in partnership with the Marine Science Institute-LABOMAR/UFC elaborated the Ecological-Economic Zoning of the Coastal Zone and Associated Ecosystems Associates of Ceará State (ZEE). In this study 70 shallow wells distributed over the Zone of Sublittoral Tablelands were digged, as molded in rocks of the Barreiras Formation, in paleodunes and dunes. The objective of this study was to delimit, to correlate and to define the existing features in this region through grain size analyses, calcium carbonate text and morphoscopy of the grain of sediments that constitute the Zone of Sublittoral Tablelands. From the analyzed parameters it was found out that the coastal dune zone (paleodunes) does not limit itself to the great existing fields in all the area and with defined form, being found in places previously mapped as of the Barreiras Formation. In general paleodunes are found right underneath the more recent ones and have the same characteristics. With the derived data it was possible to distinguish better the distribution of those features in the from these features in the Zone of Sublittoral Tablelands.