The nature and origin of beach ridges, western Cape York Peninsula, Queensland

Created 17/10/2025

Updated 17/10/2025

Two sets of beach ridges are known from the western side of Cape York Peninsula. The older set are thought to be late Pleistocene. They rest on a basement of older fan deposits and are regarded as a regressive sequence of barrier islands. The younger ridges represent a progradational sequence post-dating the Holocene transgression. The earliest formed ridge, which is poorly developed, formed as a chenier. It was followed by a barrier island complex whose development lasted until about 3000 years B.P. Subsequently, there was rapid progradation and the development of two sets of chenier-type beach ridges, the younger of which is locally discordant to the ridges of the barrier island complex. These ridges rest on a marine sand and mud unit which appears continuous with a similar unit mapped offshore. The Pleistocene ridges consist of quartzose sand, with negligible carbonate, while the Holocene ridges consist of quartzose sand, shell sand and shells. They show a progressive leaching with age.

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Field Value
Title The nature and origin of beach ridges, western Cape York Peninsula, Queensland
Language eng
Licence Not Specified
Landing Page https://data.gov.au/data/dataset/3e53ee19-d0d8-483d-bb60-fc606596d13b
Contact Point
Geoscience Australia Data
clientservices@ga.gov.au
Reference Period 20/04/2018
Geospatial Coverage
Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors
{
  "coordinates": [
    [
      [
        141.4,
        -14.3
      ],
      [
        142.0,
        -14.3
      ],
      [
        142.0,
        -13.2
      ],
      [
        141.4,
        -13.2
      ],
      [
        141.4,
        -14.3
      ]
    ]
  ],
  "type": "Polygon"
}
Data Portal Geoscience Australia

Data Source

This dataset was originally found on Geoscience Australia "The nature and origin of beach ridges, western Cape York Peninsula, Queensland". Please visit the source to access the original metadata of the dataset:
https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/csw/dataset/the-nature-and-origin-of-beach-ridges-western-cape-york-peninsula-queensland