Record of Former Aeolian Processes in Deposits of the Duneless Coast of Catalonia, Spain

Renata Dulias; Joaquim Farguell

doi:10.14746/quageo-2026-0014

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Record of Former Aeolian Processes in Deposits of the Duneless Coast of Catalonia, Spain

Quaestiones Geographicae

AHEAD OF PRINT

By: Renata Dulias and Joaquim Farguell

Open Access

|Apr 2026

Figures & Tables

Examples of the protection of initial aeolian forms and the vegetation growing on them: A – Dunes Beach, Santa Susanna, B – Canet Beach, Canet de Mar (Photo R. Dulias 2023).

Changes to the Fenals Beach coastline in Lloret de Mar, Costa Brava in 2020 and 2024 (acc. to Google Earth).

Location of the study area on the Iberian Peninsula – A and in northeastern Catalonia, Spain – B (acc. to ontheworldmap.com, changed).

Location of research sites (1–20) against the geology of the Costa del Maresme and Costa Brava (acc. to Mapa geològic de Catalunya 1: 300 000 2024).

Lloret Beach in Lloret de Mar A – as an example of a sandy-gravel pocket beach on the Costa Brava and Dunes Beach in Santa Susanna B – as an example of a large open sandy-gravel beach on the Costa del Maresme (Photo R. Dulias 2023). Textural features of the deposits are presented in Tables 2 and 3.

Table 1.

Quartz grain types according to the morphoscopic analysis of Cailleux (1942), modified by Myciels-ka-Dowgiałlo, Woronko (1998).

Name	Features	Krumbein (1941) roundness scale	Environment
C	Broken (cracked)		Mainly glacial, periglacial, but also in other environments
NU	Fresh, angular grains with sharp edges (not abraded)	0.1–0.2	Weathered in situ and/or from crushing grains formed in all environments
EL	Very well-rounded, shiny	0.7–0.9	Long-term water transport – fluvial, high-energy beach
EM/EL	Moderately rounded, shiny	0.3–0.6	Short-term water transport – fluvial, high-energy beach
RM	Very well-rounded, matt	0.7–0.9	Long-term (several 1000 years), intensive aeolian transport
EM/RM	Moderately rounded, matt only of the edges	0.3–0.6	Short-term aeolian transport (several 100 years) or low transport intensity

Macroscopically visible differences in grain size of deposits between the swash zone – A and the backshore – B, Poblenou Beach in Pineda de Mar (Photo R. Dulias 2023). Textural features of the deposits are presented in Tables 2 and 3.

Table 2.

Mean grain size (Mz) and sorting (δ) (a – no sample taken).

No.	Site	Municipality	Mean Mz [mm]		Sorting δ [phi]
No.	Site	Municipality	Swash zone	Backshore	Swash zone	Backshore
1	Caleta Lloret	Lloret de Mar	a	1.729	a	0.64
2	Lloret Beach		2.250	2.129	0.56	0.64
3	Fenals Beach		2.330	3.095	0.42	0.60
4	Boadela Beach		a	2.969	a	0.49
5	Sant Francesc Beach	Blanes	3.031	2.694	0.42	0.63
6	Blanes Beach		1.647	1.932	0.45	0.63
7	S’Abanell Beach		1.670	1.516	0.70	0.70
8	Punta de la Tordera		1.021	1.366	0.42	0.63
9	Pomereda Beach	Malgrat de Mar	0.933	1.444	0.52	0.52
10	Llevante Beach	Santa Susanna	1.320	0.927	0.58	0.55
11	Dunes Beach	Santa Susanna	1.790	1.424	0.47	0.68
12	Pineda Beach	Pineda de Mar	a	1.778	a	0.61
13	Riera Beach		1.537	1.149	0.53	0.37
14	Poblenou Beach		1.537	1.231	0.65	0.36
15	Calella Beach	Calella	1.395	1.283	0.44	0.43
16	Garbi Beach	Calella	1.366	1.602	0.53	0.53
17	Canet Beach	Canet de Mar	1.516	1.526	0.48	0.57
18	Cavallo Beach	Arenys de Mar	2.412	2.313	0.70	0.62
19	Fenals–Boadela cliff	Lloret de Mar	1.087		0.37
20	Tordera River	Blanes	1.670		0.77

Table 3.

Percentage of quartz in fractions of 0.8–1.0 mm and 0.5–0.8 mm (a – no sample taken; b – no fraction).

No.	Site	Municipality	Swash zone		Backshore
No.	Site	Municipality	0.8–1.0 mm	0.5–0.8 mm	0.8–1.0 mm	0.5–0.8 mm
1	Caleta Lloret	Lloret de Mar	a	a	96	86
2	Lloret Beach		94	b	97	86
3	Fenals Beach		96	b	99	86
4	Boadela Beach		a	a	96	b
5	Sant Francesc Beach	Blanes	86	b	96	84
6	Blanes Beach		96	86	94	94
7	S’Abanell Beach		89	86	88	81
8	Punta de la Tordera		94	86	90	83
9	Pomereda Beach	Malgrat de Mar	93	81	95	78
10	Llevante Beach	Santa Susanna	88	88	88	82
11	Dunes Beach	Santa Susanna	89	77	82	71
12	Pineda Beach	Pineda de Mar	a	a	84	76
13	Riera Beach		82	70	84	62
14	Poblenou Beach		89	79	84	74
15	Calella Beach	Calella	90	68	85	76
16	Garbi Beach	Calella	91	74	88	71
17	Canet Beach	Canet de Mar	97	96	89	86
18	Cavallo Beach	Arenys de Mar	92	76	96	87
19	Fenals–Boadela cliff	Lloret de Mar	100		72
20	Tordera River	Blanes	90		83

Quartz grain abrasion in the fraction 0.8–1.0 mm in the swash zone – A and backshore – B.

Table 4.

Quartz grain abrasion in the fraction 0.8–1.0 mm (S – swash zone; B – backshore; a – no sample taken).

No.	Site	Municipality	Quartz grain abrasion [%]
			C		NU		EL		EM/EL		RM		EM/RM
			S	B	S	B	S	B	S	B	S	B	S	B
1	Caleta Lloret	Lloret de Mar	a	5	a	52	a	0	a	5	a	0	a	38
2	Lloret Beach		6	2	38	35	0	0	6	6	3	2	47	55
3	Fenals Beach		5	4	35	39	0	0	5	5	0	0	55	52
4	Boadela Beach		a	15	a	50	a	0	a	3	a	0	a	32
5	Sant Francesc Beach	Blanes	0	1	45	67	0	0	15	5	0	0	40	27
6	Blanes Beach		2	3	47	39	0	0	18	18	0	0	33	41
7	S’Abanell Beach		0	1	62	62	0	0	5	14	0	0	33	23
8	Punta de la Tordera		0	0	70	50	0	0	24	25	0	0	6	25
9	Pomereda Beach	Malgrat de Mar	2	2	52	56	0	0	16	15	0	0	30	27
10	Llevante Beach	Santa Susanna	4	4	50	47	0	0	15	16	0	1	31	32
11	Dunes Beach	Santa Susanna	3	0	37	33	0	0	27	23	0	0	33	44
12	Pineda Beach	Pineda de Mar	a	2	a	43	a	0	a	17	a	0	a	38
13	Riera Beach		2	0	34	24	0	0	32	45	0	0	32	31
14	Poblenou Beach		3	3	39	42	0	0	22	22	0	0	36	33
15	Calella Beach	Calella	0	1	39	42	0	0	20	25	0	0	41	32
16	Garbi Beach	Calella	1	0	40	34	0	0	28	17	0	0	31	49
17	Canet Beach	Canet de Mar	2	5	31	31	0	0	16	24	1	0	50	40
18	Cavallo Beach	Arenys de Mar	0	1	27	48	0	0	15	9	0	0	58	42
19	Fenals–Boadela cliff	Lloret de Mar	0		100		0		0		0		0
20	Tordera River	Blanes	0		65		0		14		0		21

Table 5.

Quartz grain abrasion in the fraction 0.5–0.8 mm (S – swash zone; B – backshore; a – no sample taken; b – no fraction).

No.	Site	Municipality	Quartz grain abrasion [%]
			C		NU		EL		EM/EL		RM		EM/RM
			S	B	S	B	S	B	S	B	S	B	S	B
1	Caleta Lloret	Lloret de Mar	a	3	a	64	a	0	a	2	a	2	a	29
2	Lloret Beach		b	5	b	40	b	0	b	6	b	9	b	40
3	Fenals Beach		b	4	b	44	b	2	b	6	b	6	b	38
4	Boadela Beach		a	b	a	b	a	b	a	b	a	b	a	b
5	Sant Francesc Beach	Blanes	b	2	b	67	b	0	b	4	b	0	b	27
6	Blanes Beach		5	2	57	32	0	0	13	16	0	0	25	50
7	S’Abanell Beach		0	1	87	42	0	2	4	10	0	1	9	44
8	Punta de la Tordera		0	4	55	49	0	0	22	12	0	2	23	33
9	Pomereda Beach	Malgrat de Mar	3	1	42	59	0	0	19	21	0	0	36	19
10	Llevante Beach	Santa Susanna	2	2	41	39	1	0	22	18	0	0	34	41
11	Dunes Beach	Santa Susanna	1	3	37	53	0	0	31	19	0	0	31	25
12	Pineda Beach	Pineda de Mar	a	0	a	35	a	3	a	13	a	0	a	49
13	Riera Beach		0	3	45	43	3	0	22	35	1	0	29	19
14	Poblenou Beach		1	4	51	35	0	1	15	15	0	1	33	44
15	Calella Beach	Calella	5	2	45	46	0	1	13	8	0	0	37	43
16	Garbi Beach	Calella	5	3	71	56	0	2	7	9	0	0	17	30
17	Canet Beach	Canet de Mar	10	3	48	38	0	1	10	15	0	0	34	43
18	Cavallo Beach	Arenys de Mar	0	1	46	37	0	0	18	13	0	1	36	48
19	Fenals–Boadela cliff	Lloret de Mar	0		100		0		0		0		0
20	Tordera River	Blanes	6		60		0		20		0		14

S’Abanell Beach: A – On the 1888 plan of Blanes (Source: Castells et al. 1994, modified) – In the southwestern part of the area, most probably checked dune fields or vegetation growing on aeolian forms (outlined in red); B – Contemporary view of the beach from La Palomera, with a strip of buildings in the area of the former dune fields (Photo R. Dulias 2023).

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/quageo-2026-0014 | Journal eISSN: 2081-6383 | Journal ISSN: 2082-2103 (formerly 0137-477X)

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Language: English

Submitted on: Jun 30, 2025

Published on: Apr 27, 2026

Published by: Adam Mickiewicz University

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

coastal deposits,

quartz grain abrasion,

morphoscopic analysis,

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© 2026 Renata Dulias, Joaquim Farguell, published by Adam Mickiewicz University
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

AHEAD OF PRINT

Record of Former Aeolian Processes in Deposits of the Duneless Coast of Catalonia, Spain

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Fig. 3.

Fig. 4.

Fig. 5.

Table 1.

Fig. 6.

Table 2.

Table 3.

Fig. 7.

Table 4.

Table 5.

Fig. 8.

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