Millennial/submillennial-scale sea-level fluctuations in western Mediterranean during the second highstand of MIS 5e

Eventually, progradation with gently falling sea level took place and foreshore deposits underwent successive vadose cementation and subaerial dissolution, owing to relatively prolonged exposure. Later recovery of sea level re-established the highstand with sea level at approximately the same elevation, and there began deposition of a new subunit. The minimum sea-level variation (fall and subsequent rise) required to generate the observed features is 4 m. The time span available for the whole succession of events, and comparison with the Holocene prograding beach ridge complex in the nearby Roquetas (Almería) were used to calculate the periodicity of events. A millennial-suborbital time scale is suggested for fluctuations separating subunits and a decadal scale for the minor oscillations inside each subunit.