Past wave climate reconstruction through paleo shoreline analysis

Beach ridges serve as physical records of predominant wave direction. Along the Patagonian coast of Argentina, changes in relative sea level have preserved sequences of beach ridges on Last Interglacial and Holocene terraces. At Bahía Laura, a reference site in Patagonia, we use open source software, MeePaSoL, to estimate dominant wave approach angles for modern, mid-Holocene, and Last Interglacial shorelines. We then use XBeach software to run a suite of numerical simulations aimed at identifying offshore wave conditions capable of generating the inferred nearshore wave patterns. The most plausible model scenarios provide insights into how regional wave climate may have changed over millennia. This approach helps us investigate past climate drivers and contributes to understanding future wave-climate dynamics in a changing world.