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Dive into the research topics where Antonio P. Belperio is active.

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Featured researches published by Antonio P. Belperio.


Sedimentary Geology | 1988

The Holocene non-tropical coastal and shelf carbonate province of southern Australia

Victor A. Gostin; Antonio P. Belperio; John H. Cann

Abstract Carbonate-dominant sediments are currently forming and accumulating over the extensive marine shelf of the passive margin of southern Australia. A dearth of continental detritus results from both a very low relief and a predominantly arid climate. The wide continental shelf is bathed by cold upwelling ocean waters that support luxuriant growths of bryozoans and coralline algae, together with sponges, molluscs, asteroids, benthic and some planktonic foraminifera. The open ocean coast is battered by a persistent southwest swell, resulting in erosion of calcrete-encrusted Pleistocene eolianites. Much sediment is reworked and overall shelf sedimentation rates are low. High-energy microtidal beach/dune systems occur between headlands and along the very long ocean beach in the Coorong region. The northern, more arid coastal areas also contain saline lakes that precipitate gypsum from infiltrated sea water, and display marginal facies of aragonite boxwork to fenestral carbonate crusts, with stromatolites and tepee structures. In contrast, the southern, seasonally humid Coorong region, has a predominantly continental groundwater regime where sulphate is rare, and the high summer evaporation precipitates dolomite, magnesite and aragonite muds. Fenestral crusts, breccias, tepees and some stromatolites are also present. St. Vincent and Spencer gulfs both afford some protection from ocean swell, but tidal amplitude and currents increase, and a depth and inundation-related zonation of plants and animals is established. Muddy carbonate sand accumulates on the sea floor below 30 m, where filter-feeding bryozoans, bivalves and sponges dominate. In shallower regions, seagrass meadows contain a rich fauna that results in rapid accumulation of an unsorted muddy bioclastic sand. Mangrove woodlands backed by saline marsh with cyanobacterial mats are common, and accumulate mud-rich and gastropod-bearing sediment. As tidal amplitude and desiccation increase northward into both gulfs, a supratidal zone bare of vegetation (sabkha) becomes the site for deposition of gypsum-rich and fenestral calcitic mud.


Sedimentary Geology | 2002

Spatial and temporal variability in the Holocene sea-level record of the South Australian coastline

Antonio P. Belperio; Nick Harvey; R.P. Bourman

Abstract Studies of past sea levels based on radiocarbon-dated field samples suffer variously from compilation of information from disparate locations and the imprecise nature of the dated indicators. Geographic segregation and systematic elimination of poor samples from time–depth data sets leads to improved interpretation of Holocene sea-level history. An example is presented from Southern Australia, where this is achieved through selection of higher-resolution palaeoenvironmental indicators, separation of transgressive from regressive populations, and geographic regionalisation of data. In Southern Australia, fossil sea-level indicators preserved in prograding coastal plain settings include seagrass, sandflat, mangrove, samphire and chenier ridge organo–sedimentary remains. These provide sea-level time–depth data points with a variety of elevational and dating errors. Preserved organic remains at the transition from Posidonia seagrass to intertidal sandflat environment, and from sandflat to Avicennia mangrove environment provide the most precise local data for tracing sea-level change. Time–depth plots of 233 dated sea-level indicators from South Australia generate a broad sea-level envelope tracing the Southern Australian transgression from 10,000 to ca. 6000 radiocarbon years BP, followed by a more or less consistent level to the present. Finer details of sea-level behaviour are only apparent after systematic selection, separation and regionalisation of the data. The data indicate a very rapid sea-level rise in the early Holocene, at about 16 mm/year, reaching present levels at 6400 years BP. This was followed by regionally variable regression and emergence of the land of 1–3 m, a process that continues to the present. The systematic increase from 1 to 3 m in the elevation of the 6400-year BP highstand with distance away from the shelf margin is consistent with a hydro-isostatic origin for the emergence as predicted by geophysical models.


Quaternary Research | 1988

Sea-level history, 45,000 to 30,000 yr B.P., inferred from Benthic foraminifera, Gulf St. Vincent, South Australia

John H. Cann; Antonio P. Belperio; Victor A. Gostin; Colin V. Murray-Wallace

Abstract Surficial sediments of Gulf St. Vincent, South Australia, are predominantly bioclastic, cool-temperate carbonates. Benthic foraminifera are abundant and distribution of species is closely related to water depth. For example, Massilina milletti is most common at depths ca. 40 m, while Discorbis dimidiatus is characteristics of shallow, subtidal environments. Elphidium crispum, a shallow-water species, and E. macelliforme, favoring deeper water, provide a useful numerical ratio. Their logarithmic relative abundance, in the sediment size fraction 0.50–0.25 mm, correlates strongly with water depth. Vibrocores SV 4 and SV 5 recovered undisturbed sections of Quaternary strata from the deepest part (ca. 40 m) of Gulf St. Vincent. Amino acid racemization and radiocarbon age determinations show that late Pleistocene sections of the cores were deposited over the time ca. 45,000 to 30,000 yr B.P. Species of fossil foraminifera, recovered from these sections, are mostly extant in modern Gulf St. Vincent, thus allowing paleoecological inferences of late Pleistocene sea levels. These inferred sea-level maxima can be correlated with those determined from study of Huon Peninsula coral reef terraces. Initial estimates of tectonically corrected sea levels for transgressions in Gulf St. Vincent at 40,000 and 31,000 yr B.P. are −22.5 m and −22 m, respectively. The intervening regression lowered sea level to −28 m.


Marine Geology | 1984

The stratigraphy of coastal carbonate banks and Holocene sea levels of northern Spencer Gulf, South Australia

Antonio P. Belperio; J.R Hails; Victor A. Gostin; Henry Polach

Abstract Stratigraphic and chronologic studies of the coastal sediments of northern Spencer Gulf in the vicinity of Redcliff are described. Two Pleistocene marine units are recognised beneath an extensive Holocene peritidal sequence. The Holocene sequence is dominated by sediments of the Posidonia australis seagrass facies which form a distinctive carbonate bank fringing the coastline. Peritidal sedimentation commenced prior to 6600 radiocarbon yrs B.P. and a + 2.5 m higher relative sea level existed from about 6000 until around 1700 yrs B.P. The subsequent relative fall to present level probably resulted from local tectonic uplift. After the regression, mangrove and samphire colonization, and beach ridge progradation, occurred over the former seagrass bank.


Marine Geology | 1984

The sedimentary framework of northern Spencer Gulf, South Australia

Victor A. Gostin; J.R Hails; Antonio P. Belperio

Abstract Northern Spencer Gulf is the landward extremity of a shallow marine embayment which occupies a structural depression that overlies a major Precambrian lineament. Situated in a warm temperate climate, the low rainfall and high evaporation have created high salinities resulting in an hydrological inverse estuary. Modern sedimentation is dominantly biogenic carbonate to mixed terrigenous-carbonate. It is controlled by a mesotidal regime with occasional storm surges, minor wave activity, and a prolific growth of seagrass in shallow water. The skeletal detritus consists of bivalves, gastropods, forams, echinoids, coralline algae and bryozoa. The subtidal zone between 10–25 m is divided morphologically into two provinces. The wide southern part has a relatively smooth floor, but the northern part is narrower, and the seafloor is either scoured free of loose sediment, or covered with wide belts of megaripples. The subtidal zone between 0–10 m is everywhere dominated by seagrass meadows. The seagrasses are largely Posidonia australis and P. sinuosa and occupy broad depositional platforms, and discrete offshore banks. The seagrass meadows produce and trap mollusc/foram detritus, resulting in the accumulation of very poorly sorted, organically bound structureless carbonate muddy sand. Intertidal and supratidal zone sediments are very extensive. The intertidal zone includes bare sand flats or those covered by the seagrass Zostera . Dense mangroves ( Avicennia marina ) from mean sea level to spring high-tide level are followed progressively by a halophytic (samphire) association and an Atriplex (saltbush) association. Extensive algal mats occur with the halophytes and extend into the mangrove forests. The sediments are muddy and only moderately calcareous. The supratidal zone consists mainly of bare carbonate flats, some stranded beach ridges, and coastal dunes. The carbonate flats contain discoidal gypsum crystals in weakly layered, fenestral, calcitic mud. Coastal changes during historic time are limited, and the dominant sedimentary regime in northern Spencer Gulf is the vertical growth of seagrass areas to form intertidal sand flats.


Marine Geology | 1999

Facies architecture of a last interglacial barrier: a model for Quaternary barrier development from the Coorong to Mount Gambier Coastal Plain, southeastern Australia

Colin V. Murray-Wallace; Antonio P. Belperio; Robert P. Bourman; J. H. Cann; David M. Price

Abstract The last interglacial Woakwine Range, a linear, barrier shoreline complex of temperate bioclastic carbonate origin, in the southeast of South Australia, occurs essentially uninterrupted over a distance of 300 km and up to 10 km inland from the present coastline. Mapping of the internal facies architecture of the barrier as revealed in McCourts Cutting southeast of Robe, reveals the presence of transgressive and regressive facies associated with the last interglacial maximum (Oxygen Isotope Substage 5e), as well as an older aeolianite within the core of the barrier, correlated herein with Oxygen Isotope Stage 7. Amino acid racemisation and thermoluminescence dating indicate that volumetrically, the majority of the Woakwine Range is of last interglacial age. The bulk of the barrier structure comprises aeolian facies in the form of landward-migrating coastal dunes. The internal facies appear to record the culmination of the post-Stage 6 marine transgression at the onset of Substage 5e, and possibly the termination of Substage 5e based on the shallow seaward dip of the discontinuity between regressive littoral and sublittoral facies.


Journal of Foraminiferal Research | 2000

LATE QUATERNARY PALEOSEALEVELS AND PALEOENVIRONMENTS INFERRED FROM FORAMINIFERA, NORTHERN SPENCER GULF, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

J. H. Cann; Antonio P. Belperio; Colin V. Murray-Wallace

Spencer Gulf is an elongate marine embayment extending northwards ca. 300 km inland into southern continental Australia to the apex at Port Augusta, with a narrow estuarine extension northwards. Since the post-glacial sealevel maximum, prograding coastal sedimentation has been effective through the trapping and binding actions of seagrasses, mangroves and cyanobacterial mats, and a well-defined zonation of subtidal, intertidal and supratidal sedimentary facies is characteristic of the northern gulf. Mollusks and foraminifera are prolific, especially within seagrass meadows, and their abundant remains, entire and comminuted, form bioclastic carbonate sediments. Distinctive assemblages of foraminifera are associated with the various estuarine and marine environments. The hypersaline estuary north of Port Augusta is characterized by the textulariids Ammobaculites barwonensis and Trochammina inflata, the latter most common where mangroves are present. Two species of Triloculina, T. inflata and T. oblonga are the only common miliolids, while the rotaliids are represented by Ammonia beccarii, Elphidium articulatum and Nonion depressulus. South of Port Augusta, in euryhaline intertidal waters, Trochammina inflata, A. beccarii and E. articulatum are commonly associated. The shallow subtidal Posidonia seagrass meadows support an abundant fauna which is dominated by three species, Nubecularia lucifuga, Peneroplis planatus and Discorbis dimidiatus. These species continue into the deeper waters, ca. 20 m, where they are subordinate to Quinqueloculina lamarckiana, Massilina milletti, Elphidium crispum and E. macelliforme. A vibrocore from 20 m water depth in Northern Spencer Gulf recovered 4 m of late Quaternary fossiliferous sediment. Amino acid racemization (AAR) and radio-carbon ages derived from fossil mollusks revealed four chronostratigraphic packages of sediment: 400–360 cm, penultimate interglacial, oxygen isotope stage 7; 360–240 cm, last interglacial, oxygen isotope substage 5e; 240–180 cm, interstadial, oxygen isotope stage 3; and 180 cm to the top of the core, postglacial, oxygen isotope stage 1. Species of foraminifera within the core are mostly also living in the modern gulf, thus the preserved assemblages permit plausible interpretations of paleoenvironments and paleosealevels. Large numbers of Q. lamarckiana and M. milletti in the substage 5e interval indicate that the last interglacial sealevel in southern Australia was only slightly higher than that of today. N. lucifuga is abundant in the stage 3 sediment, thus paleowaterdepth at the core site was ca. ≤2 m. This evidence further supports interstadial paleosealevels above −30 m, as previously determined for Gulf St Vincent. Basal sediments of the postglacial interval preserve a monospecific assemblage of Miliolinella labiosa which signifies an estuarine setting having many of the characteristics of a saline lake. Maximum Holocene sealevel is signified by the acme of M. milletti at 90 cm. Subsequent local hydroisostatic relative fall of sealevel is shown by changes up-core from 90 cm in both the general foraminiferal record, for example by declining numbers of M. milletti, and also by reduced numbers of E. macelliforme compared with those of E. crispum.


Marine Geology | 1984

Chronological studies of the Quaternary marine sediments of northern Spencer Gulf, South Australia

Antonio P. Belperio; B.W Smith; Henry Polach; Charles A. Nittrouer; David J. DeMaster; J.R Prescott; J.R Hails; Victor A. Gostin

Abstract Four dating methods have been used to obtain chronological information about Holocene and Pleistocene coastal marine sediments in South Australia, and to check the stratigraphic reliability of each dating technique. Estimates of accumulation rates for Holocene seagrass bank deposits vary according to the time period over which they are averaged. The estimates vary from 2.0 to 2.7 mm yr −1 for measurements by the Pb-210 method (averaged over about 100 years) to 1.4-0.2 mm yr −1 for C-14 derived measurements (averaged over a period of 1000–7000 yrs). Radiocarbon age determinations on carbonate and organic fractions do not date the true sediment age. Shells, shell fragments and calcareous fines predate the sediment whereas organic and seagrass detritus postdate it. By dating sample pairs, their age can be adequately defined. Thermoluminescence age estimates correlate well with available C-14 ages where the sediment grains have experienced good exposure to sunlight prior to deposition. Amino acid racemization and thermoluminescence measurements indicate a late Pleistocene age of ca. 110,000 yrs for the Mambray Formation of Spencer Gulf. Amino acid racemization data also support a correlation with the late Pleistocene Glanville Formation of Adelaide.


Australian Journal of Earth Sciences | 1993

Contemporary benthic foraminifera in Gulf St Vincent, South Australia, and a refined Late Pleistocene sea‐level history

J. H. Cann; Antonio P. Belperio; Victor A. Gostin; R. L. Rice

Benthic foraminifera are abundant in surficial sediment of Gulf St Vincent and the distribution of many species is related to water depth. For example, Nubecularia lucifuga is most abundant in shallow northern waters while Ammobaculites reophaciformis is more common in deeper southern parts of the gulf. Elphidium crispum, a shallow‐water species, and E. macelliforme, favouring deeper water, provide a useful numerical ratio. Their logarithmic relative abundance in the sediment size fraction 0.50–0.25 mm correlates closely with water depth, particularly for southern Gulf St Vincent. Vibrocore SV23 recovered an undisturbed section of Quaternary strata from one of the deepest parts (40 m) of the gulf. Late Pleistocene sediment (oxygen isotope stage 3) was in turn overlain by rapidly deposited lacustrine and restricted marginal marine sediment before development of more open Holocene marine conditions. Using the Elphidium ratios and other supporting foraminiferal data on a framework of 14C dates, a palaeosea‐l...


Marine Geology | 1984

The submarine Quaternary stratigraphy of northern Spencer Gulf, South Australia

J.R Hails; Antonio P. Belperio; Victor A. Gostin; G.E.G. Sargent

Abstract The seafloor morphology and lithology of northern Spencer Gulf, South Australia, is related to successive transgressions and regressions accompanying glacial and non-glacial periods. Vibrocoring has revealed a veneer of Holocene bioclastics and a sequence of Pleistocene marine strata which display varying degrees of pedogenesis, oxidation, decalcification and clay illuviation. The contact between the Holocene and Pleistocene sediments is marked by either a thin alluvial or aeolian horizon or by a soil horizon of variable development. The Pleistocene marine strata have been assigned to four Formations (older Pleistocene marine beds, Mambray Fm., False Bay Fm., and Lowly Point Fm.) based on superposition of lithofacies and intervening pedogenic horizons. A sequence of slightly altered, laminated lagoonal clays (Lowly Point Formation) and bryozoan rich limestones (False Bay Formation) has been encountered in deeper parts of the Gulf. Stratigraphically below these is a widespread, weathered marine unit (Mambray Formation) which contains abundant remains of the bivalve Anadara trapezia and the foraminifer Marginopora vertebralis, species absent from the present biota. This unit, in turn, is underlain by a sedimentary sequence strongly altered by pedogenesis and clay illuviation (older Pleistocene marine beds); its original marine character has been largely obliterated. A dearth of fluvial gravels and sand from the vibrocores, as well as evidence from palaeosols, indicate that a predominantly semi-arid to arid climate has persisted in the northern Gulf region since ca. 125,000 yrs ago, and that there has been little subsequent terrigenous material transported to the Gulf.

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J. H. Cann

University of South Australia

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J.R Hails

University of Adelaide

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Robert P. Bourman

University of South Australia

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Nick Harvey

University of Adelaide

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David M. Price

University of Wollongong

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Henry Polach

Australian National University

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R. W. L. Kimber

Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation

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