The estuary of Marapanim River is developed on tertiary-quaternary sediments of Barreiras and Pós-Barreiras Formation. It is inserted on "Littoral of Rias" of Pará northeast, which from High Pleistocene was submitted to marine transgression that drowned coastal paleolines and, in the maximum of Holocene Transgression, reached the coastal plateau. This portion of coast is strongly influenced by dynamic macrotides (5,3m) and salt wedge with mear salinity of 8%0 (high tide — Marudazinho) and 3%0 (low tide — Marapanim). So that, on outer funnel (Marudá) the salinity is 35°/00, representing no influente of mouth river discharge. Geomorphology of the area is subdivided in three morphologic domains: (1) Coastal Plain, constituted by strand plain, paleodune, coastal dune, salt marsh, tidal flat (sand flat and mangrove swamp), recurved spit, lake and palco tidal creek; (2) Estuarine Plain, constituted by estuarine channel (subdivided in estuarine funnel segment, sinuous meandering segment, cuspidate meandering segment and upstream channel), tidal creek and floodplain (salt marsh and fresh water marsh) and; (3) Alluvial Plain constituted by meandering channel (chute cutoff), channel deposits (channel lag deposits), overbank deposits (natural levee, crevasse-splay deposits and floodplain) and channel-fill deposits. Fourteen morphostratigraphic units was identified: floodplain, levee, chute cutoff, fresh water marsh, mudflat, channel bar, point bar, strand plain, paleodune, coastal dune, recurved spit, sand flat and salt marsh. Six stratigraphic facies are also present: point bar sand and mud, marine sands, estuarine sand and mud, estuarine muds, fluvial sands and motled sand. Stratigraphical analysis permitted recognize stratigraphic sequences: Basal Marine Transgressive (Si) with fluvial, salt marsh and shoreface environments; Marine Regressive (S2) with fluvial, fresh water marsh, tidal flat, salt marsh and strand plain environments and; Recent Marine Transgressive (S3) with estuarine (channel bar and point bar) and littoral environments (recurved spit, strand plain and coastal dune). Geological evolution of the estuary of Marapanim River is associated with sea levei oscillations that occurred during progradation and regressive cycles on Later Holocene, which in the maximum of the Holocenic Transgression eroded the highland (coastal plateau). In stillstand sea levei conditions occurred marine regressive and mud flat progradation over marine sand deposits. In present time, sand sheets are deposited over mud ilat providing partia! filling in the mouth of estuary by sand bars.
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