An investigation of changing wind energy on the evolution of Copano Bay, Texas

Scope and Method of Study. The aim of this study was to see if paleo-wind energy had an effect on the evolution and sedimentology of Copano Bay, Texas. To achieve this I acquired 6 sediment cores and over 123 km of 2-D seismic lines. I made paleo-geographic maps of the bay through time and conducted a detailed grain-size analysis of the cores. From the grain-size data I produced a proxy for wind strength and correlated my findings with other published paleo-climatic records for the area.;Findings and Conclusions. Five environmental changes were recognized within Copano Bay since the Last Glacial Maximum. Four of the environmental changes were back-stepping events and the fifth was the bay changing to its current configuration. The largest back-stepping event took place at 8.2 ka. At 8.2 ka sea-level rose about 1.2 m. The wind strength proxy suggests that the windiest conditions within Copano Bay occurred over the last 8.4 ky from 5.2 to 4.1 ka. This interpretation is based on the newly created wind strength proxy and other published climatic records. It appears that changes in wind energy alone did not cause parasequence boundaries or flooding events within Copano Bay.