Shoreline Progradation Rates at Beachmere, Australia, Over 1,700 Years

1,700 years of shoreline change is recorded in seven beach ridges at Beachmere, southeastern Queensland, Australia. Optical dating of pebbly sand beds provides ages and accretion rates, showing a period of higher relative sea level and varying progradation speeds. The dataset, hosted by the Australian Ocean Data Network, includes ages for ridges from approximately 1,700 to 140 years before present.

Use Cases

• Modeling past shoreline progradation rates based on dated beach ridge sequences.
• Investigating the impact of sediment supply changes, such as from European settlement, on coastal accretion.
• Calibrating relative sea-level reconstructions for southeastern Queensland over the last two millennia.
• Analyzing the transition from erosional to accretionary coastal regimes.

Strengths

• Provides optical ages for seven distinct beach ridges spanning approximately 1,700 years.
• Quantifies shoreline progradation rates, including a shift from ~0.16 m/yr to ~0.40 m/yr.
• Identifies a specific geomorphic change marked by a ~200 m wide intertidal flat.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

Australian Ocean Data Network

Collection Method

Optical dating of pebbly sand beds within beach ridges.

Time Range

Approximately 1,700 years before present to 140 years before present.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-06-27 20:08:29.462825; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Beachmere, southeastern Queensland, Australia.