plain, and with the largest solid discharg-
es in the vicinity of the river bed, it was
rising progressively, with increasing slope
over the primitive and low delta, which
was close to the level of the sea(16,37).The clogging of Campos Bay occurred more intensely
than that of Feia lagoon Bay. In the first one, a profusion of la-
goons remained, while in the second the great Feia lagoon re-
mained as a sample of one of the two great Holocene bays built
by the ancient Paraíba do Sul bed. Finally, a simple delta which
Lamego calls "beak-shaped” or "in cusp" or still the "Tiber"
or "Paraiba" type - at the end of the left channel of the great
river, a channel that first stabilized by natural action and then
by anthropic action. In addition to those three deltas, Lamego
also pointed the runoff delta of the Feia lagoon, a large water
reservoir that remained open until the advent of the restingas.
Once closed, the strength of accumulated water, notably during
the flood season, furrowed several distributary channels to the
south of the lake spring. Most of them met in the old bed of the
Iguaçu River, now reduced to Açu Lagoon, which ended at the
lowest point of the coast until the opening of Barra do Furado
in 1688 by the Captain José de Barcelos Machado. Lamego re-
ports that "With the exception of Carapebas that flows to Barra
do Furado, the natural path of this labyrinthine network was the
Açu River, which also receives on its left bank the Novo River
and then seeks an exit to the sea in a tortuous course among
restingas``(16,37).
Finally, it is worth to highlight the sealing of the deltaic
plain by the restingas. This type of geomorphological formation
is constituted by the action of marine currents leading to emul-
sified sediments that, when encountering an obstacle on the
coast lose speed and gradually form a sand strip perpendicular
to the coast. They can also be formed by the process of trans-
gression (sea encroachment) and regression (sea withdrawal)
quite pronounced in the Pleistocene and in the Holocene. Ac-
cording to Lamego’s explanation,
A secondary coastal current borders the
coastline from a short distance of the
beach. It is due to the dominant winds or
counter currents formed by a main cur-
rent when coasting a cape that protects
a cove. In the first case, it should be
noted that on the coast of the northern
Fluminense the currents change their di-
rection because the winds intermittentlyblow from NE or SW though the north-
east ones are predominant.The current
tangent to the water body that separates
it from the coastline loses speed in the
contact, depositing the sediments in a
strip parallel to the beach. Either end of
the cove serves as a starting point for
the formation of a restinga. A pontal or
a rocky islet next to the coast may have
the same function, since the current, af-
ter surrounding them encounters calm
waters on the other side(16,37).From the 1980s, the interpretation of Lamego, which has
become classic, has been reviewed by a group of geologists.
Gilberto T. M. Dias challenges the possibility of a "goose foot"
delta in the open ocean, due to the great ocean energy. Instead,
he underpins the statement that the Paraíba do Sul paleo-delta
would present a configuration like the current one(38).In the 1980s, Elmo da Silva Amador proposed a typology
for the lagoons of the State of Rio de Janeiro, largely contem-
plating the lentic ecosystems of northern Fluminense. Regard-
ing the restinga coastal lagoons, he classifies them into three
groups: 1) lagoons between strands of restingas: embedded in
a system of double restinga, with a generally shallow river bed;
ranging from 3,000 to 3,700 years BP; very numerous on the Flu-
minense coast, nevertheless, are very vulnerable to anthropic
interference; occur from Marambaia restinga to the northern
Fluminense coast, which Marapendi is the best known; 2) La-
goons associated with the development of the Paraíba do Sul
river delta: they are related to regressive/transgressive events
conditioning the delta evolution, with ages oscillating between
5,000 years BP in the interior, and 2,000 years BP on the coast;
the lagoons of Campelo, Ribeira, Salgada and Ostras illustrate
well this type. 3) Lagoons perpendicular to damming coast: orig-
inated from the dam of valleys inscribed in the basement, flood-
ing, in their development process, the ridges formed by restinga
strands; among them the lagoons of Carapebus, Cabiúnas and
Comprida. 4) Lagoons resulting from abandoned river channels
in the Paraíba do Sul river delta, of which Açu, Iquipari and Grus-
saí stand out. 5) Tidal lagoons: usually shallow, communicate
with the sea through meandering tidal channels, such as Gargaú
lagoon, for example(39).Recently, the geologists Louis Martin, Kenitiro Suguio,
Jean-Marie Flexor and José Maria Landim Dominguez, based
on information obtained mainly using chemical-radioactive
dating methods, presented a very comprehensive picture that
would have gone through seven stages, already outlined, in their
general guidelines in 1984(40). Stage 1: probably during the Plio-