Reef-Platform Coral Boulders: Evidence for High-Energy Marine Inundation Events on Tropical Coastlines

Preface Acknowledgements Chapter 1 Coastal Boulders: Introduction and Scope 1.1 Types of Coastal Boulders 1.2 Association with High-Energy Marine Inundation 1.3 Rationale for This Book 1.4 References Chapter 2 Historical Review and Changing Terminology 2.1 Named Coastal Landmarks 2.2 Earliest Scientific Observations of Coral Boulders * Box 1. Matthew Flinders' Observations of Coral Boulders on the Great Barrier Reef in 1802 2.3 The Eruption of Krakatau Volcano in 1883 2.4 Reef Remnants versus Storm Deposits: Competing Ideas, Early 1900s 2.5 Varying Expressions for Coral Boulders 2.6 Perspectives on Sediment Clast Size 2.7 References Chapter 3 The Scientific Value of Reef-Platform Boulders for Interpreting Coastal Hazards 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Coastal Sedimentology Within Marine Inundation Research 3.3 Wave Energy Estimation 3.3.1 Boulder Transport Equations * Box2. Hydrodynamic Equations for Coastal Boulder Transport (Nott, 2003) * Box 3. Revised Hydrodynamic Equations (Nandasena et al., 2011) * Box4. Boulder Displacement: Equations for Estimating Minimum Current Velocity and Wave Height (Frohlich et al., 2011) 3.3.2 Assumptions and Difficulties 3.4 Inundation Direction 3.5 Boulder Mapping 3.6 Dating Prehistorical Marine Inundations 3.6.1 Boulder Age-Dating 3.6.2 Obstacles to Accurate Dating 3.7 References Chapter 4 Uncertainties and Continuing Challenges with Interpreting Coastal Boulders 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Mechanisms of Coral Boulder Generation 4.3 Identifying Original Sources for Carbonate Boulders on Reefs 4.4 `Anthropogenic Boulders': Advantages of Studying Boulders Sourced from Rip-Rap 4.5 Distinguishing Between Storm and Tsunami Boulders * Box 5: Equation to Distinguish Storm from Tsunami Boulders (Lorang, 2011) 4.6 Undetectable Marine Inundation Events 4.7 Boulder Reworking by Backwash or Subsequent Events 4.8 Longevity of Boulders 4.9 Issues with Data Collection and Presentation 4.9.1 Volumetric Calculations4.9.2 Inconsistent Data * Box 6: Nature of Boulder Data 4.10 References Chapter 5 Case Study: Coastal Boulder Fields on Taveuni Island Coasts, Fiji 5.1 Introduction and Aims 5.2 Background to the Study Area 5.3 Features of Tropical Cyclone Tomas, March 2010 5.4 Field Procedures and Observations 5.5 Results and Discussion 5.3 Boulder Quarrying and Remobilisation 5.4 Transport Mechanisms and Flow Velocities 5.5 Caveats to Findings 5.6 Conclusions 5.7 References Chapter 6 Outlook for Boulder Studies Within Tropical Geomorphology and Coastal Research 6.1 Brief Summary: Current Understanding, Guiding Questions 6.2 Future Prospects and Recommendations 6.3 References

[1]  J. Terry,et al.  “Stones from the dangerous winds”: reef platform mega-clasts in the tropical Pacific Islands , 2011 .

[2]  Michaela Spiske,et al.  A quasi-experimental setting of coarse clast transport by the 2010 Chile tsunami (Bucalemu, Central Chile) , 2011 .

[3]  J. Talandier,et al.  Sedimentation et fracturation de haute energie en milieu recifal: Tsunamis, ouragans et cyclones et leurs effets sur la sedimentologie et la geomorphologie d'un atoll: Motu et hoa, a rangiroa, Tuamotu, Pacifique SE , 1985 .

[4]  Adam D. Switzer,et al.  Competing mechanisms for boulder deposition on the southeast Australian coast , 2010 .

[5]  N. Saintilan,et al.  Recent Storm Boulder Deposits on the Beecroft Peninsula, New South Wales, Australia , 2005 .

[6]  Kam‐biu Liu,et al.  A 1,000-Year History of Typhoon Landfalls in Guangdong, Southern China, Reconstructed from Chinese Historical Documentary Records , 2001 .

[7]  J. Chappell,et al.  Cyclone frequency during the last 5000 years at Curacoa Island, north Queensland, Australia , 2001 .

[8]  Kefu Yu,et al.  High-precision U-series ages of transported coral blocks on Heron Reef (southern Great Barrier Reef) and storm activity during the past century , 2012 .

[9]  J. Terry,et al.  Recent heightened tropical cyclone activity east of 180° in the South Pacific , 2010 .

[10]  Christopher A. Gomez,et al.  Comment on ‘Reassessment of hydrodynamic equations: Minimum flow velocity to initiate boulder transport by high energy events (storms, tsunamis), by N.A.K. Nandasena, R. Paris and N. Tanaka [Marine Geology 281, 70–84] , 2012 .

[11]  Giuseppe Mastronuzzi,et al.  Evaluation of tsunami flooding using geomorphologic evidence , 2009 .

[12]  K. Goto,et al.  Sedimentary processes associated with sand and boulder deposits formed by the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami at Sabusawa Island, Japan , 2012 .

[13]  James D. Hansom,et al.  Patterns and rates of erosion produced by high energy wave processes on hard rock headlands: The Grind of the Navir, Shetland, Scotland , 2008 .

[14]  G. Baines,et al.  Tropical Cyclone Bebe Creates a New Land Formation on Funafuti Atoll , 1973, Science.

[15]  D. Kelletat,et al.  Paleo-Tsunami Relics on the Southern and Central Antillean Island Arc , 2005 .

[16]  R. Weiss.  The mystery of boulders moved by tsunamis and storms , 2012 .

[17]  N. Mhammdi,et al.  The Rabat and Larache boulder fields; new examples of high-energy deposits related to storms and tsunami waves in north-western Morocco , 2011 .

[18]  C. Frohlich,et al.  Huge erratic boulders in Tonga deposited by a prehistoric tsunami , 2008 .

[19]  J. Terry,et al.  Interpreting features of carbonate geomorphology on Niue Island, a raised coral atoll , 2003 .

[20]  P. Bassett-Smith.  Coral Reefs , 1889, Nature.

[21]  Zhongyuan Chen,et al.  Morphodynamics of a boulder beach, Putuo Island, SE China coast: The role of storms and typhoon , 2011 .

[22]  J. Nott,et al.  Extreme Marine Inundations (Tsunamis?) of Coastal Western Australia , 2003, The Journal of Geology.

[23]  D. Kelletat,et al.  Sedimentologic and geomorphologic tsunami imprints worldwide—a review , 2003 .

[24]  D. Kelletat,et al.  Field Signatures of the SE-Asian Mega-Tsunami along the West Coast of Thailand Compared to Holocene Paleo-Tsunami from the Atlantic Region , 2007 .

[25]  H. Brückner,et al.  Coastal stratigraphies of eastern Bonaire (Netherlands Antilles): New insights into the palaeo-tsunami history of the southern Caribbean , 2010 .

[26]  O. Planchon,et al.  Polygenetic (tsunami and storm) deposits? A case study from Ushant Island, western France , 2010 .

[27]  Jian-xin Zhao,et al.  Timing and duration of the Last Interglacial inferred from high resolution U-series chronology of stalagmite growth in Southern Hemisphere , 2001 .

[28]  R. Young,et al.  Catastrophic wave (tsunami?) transport of boulders in southern New South Wales, Australia , 1996 .

[29]  E. S. Hills.  Fitting, Fretting and Imprisoned Boulders , 1970, Nature.

[30]  S. McGree,et al.  The Exceptional Flooding on Vanua Levu Island, Fiji, during Tropical Cyclone Ami in January 2003 , 2004 .

[31]  U. Radtke,et al.  57 / 1 – 2 150 – 178 Hannover 2008 Electron spin resonance ( ESR ) dating of Quaternary materials , 2010 .

[32]  R. Paris,et al.  Boulder accumulations related to storms on the south coast of the Reykjanes Peninsula (Iceland) , 2010 .

[33]  D. Kelletat,et al.  Wave‐Emplaced Coarse Debris and Megaclasts in Ireland and Scotland: Boulder Transport in a High‐Energy Littoral Environment , 2009, The Journal of Geology.

[34]  M. Cook,et al.  Boulder Ridges on the Aran Islands (Ireland): Recent Movements Caused by Storm Waves, Not Tsunamis , 2012, The Journal of Geology.

[35]  Christophe Morhange,et al.  Coastal boulders as evidence for high-energy waves on the Iranian coast of Makran , 2011 .

[36]  J. Goff,et al.  Australasian palaeotsunamis — Do Australia and New Zealand have a shared trans-Tasman prehistory? , 2009 .

[37]  Anna Franca,et al.  Encyclopedia of Modern Coral Reefs: Structure, Form and Process , 2011 .

[38]  J. Pandolfi,et al.  Reconciliation of Late Quaternary Sea Levels Derived from Coral Terraces at Huon Peninsula with Deep Sea Oxygen Records , 1995 .

[39]  S. Gale.  Dating the recent past , 2009 .

[40]  D. Neil,et al.  High-precision U-series dating of very young cyclone-transported coral reef blocks from Heron and Wistari reefs, southern Great Barrier Reef, Australia , 2009 .

[41]  J. Terry,et al.  Tempestuous times in the South Pacific islands. , 2010, Science.

[42]  F. Imamura,et al.  Numerical analysis of boulder transport by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami at Pakarang Cape, Thailand , 2010 .

[43]  F. Imamura,et al.  Distribution of boulders at Miyara Bay of Ishigaki Island, Japan: A flow characteristic indicator of tsunami and storm waves , 2010 .

[44]  C. Emiliani.  Planet Earth: Cosmology, Geology, and the Evolution of Life and Environment , 1992 .

[45]  A. Hall,et al.  Wave-Emplaced Coarse Debris and Megaclasts in Ireland and Scotland: Boulder Transport in a High-Energy Littoral Environment: A Discussion , 2010, The Journal of Geology.

[46]  S. M. May,et al.  Bonaire's boulder fields revisited: evidence for Holocene tsunami impact on the Leeward Antilles , 2012 .

[47]  A. Hall,et al.  Distribution, geomorphology and lithofacies of cliff-top storm deposits: Examples from the high-energy coasts of Scotland and Ireland , 2006 .

[48]  R. Morton,et al.  Description of extreme-wave deposits on the northern coast of Bonaire, Netherlands Antilles , 2010 .

[49]  A. Scheffers,et al.  Tsunamis, hurricanes, the demise of coral reefs and shifts in prehistoric human populations in the Caribbean , 2009 .

[50]  Mike Walker,et al.  Quaternary Dating Methods , 2005 .

[51]  R. Morton,et al.  Recent storm and tsunami coarse-clast deposit characteristics, southeast Hawaiʻi , 2011 .

[52]  K. Crook,et al.  Sedimentology of rocky shorelines: 2: Shoreline megaclasts on the north shore of Oahu, Hawaii—origins and history , 2002 .

[53]  Z. Böröcz,et al.  The role of porosity in discriminating between tsunami and hurricane emplacement of boulders — A case study from the Lesser Antilles, southern Caribbean , 2008 .

[54]  Christopher A. Gomez,et al.  Tsunamis as geomorphic crises: Lessons from the December 26, 2004 tsunami in Lhok Nga, West Banda Aceh (Sumatra, Indonesia) , 2009 .

[55]  B. Jones,et al.  Very large boulders on the coast of Grand Cayman - the effects of giant waves on rocky coastlines , 1992 .

[56]  M. Allison,et al.  Sedimentology and Stratigraphy of the Amazon Continental Shelf , 1991 .

[57]  Fumihiko Imamura,et al.  Historical and geological evidence of boulders deposited by tsunamis, southern Ryukyu Islands, Japan , 2010 .

[58]  R. Schiebel,et al.  Onset of submarine debris flow deposition far from original giant landslide , 2007, Nature.

[59]  J. Goff.  Evidence of a previously unrecorded local tsunami, 13 April 2010, Cook Islands: implications for Pacific Island countries , 2011 .

[60]  Edward Bryant,et al.  Tsunami: The Underrated Hazard , 2001 .

[61]  M. Hughes,et al.  Imbricate and fitted fabrics in coastal boulder deposits on the Australian east coast , 1989 .

[62]  J. Cooper,et al.  In situ exhumation from bedrock of large rounded boulders at the Giant's Causeway, Northern Ireland: An alternative genesis for large shore boulders (mega-clasts) , 2011 .

[63]  B. B. Sharp,et al.  Water Hammer: Practical Solutions , 1995 .

[64]  A. Hall,et al.  Cliff-top megaclast deposits of Ireland, a record of extreme waves in the North Atlantic—storms or tsunamis? , 2004 .

[65]  R. Young,et al.  Evidence of Tsunami Sedimentation on the Southeastern Coast of Australia , 1992, The Journal of Geology.

[66]  Jarg R. Pettinga,et al.  The source mechanism and numerical modelling of the 1953 Suva tsunami, Fiji , 2007 .

[67]  T. C. Blair,et al.  Grain-Size and Textural Classification of Coarse Sedimentary Particles , 1999 .

[68]  Kefu Yu,et al.  Reconstruction of storm/tsunami records over the last 4000 years using transported coral blocks and lagoon sediments in the southern South China Sea , 2009 .

[69]  R. Taborda,et al.  Boulder deposition during major tsunami events , 2011 .

[70]  J. Nott.  Records of prehistoric tsunamis from boulder deposits: evidence from Australia , 2000 .

[71]  M. Crozier,et al.  Boulders of MIS 5 age deposited by a tsunami on the coast of Otago, New Zealand , 2007 .

[72]  Daisuke Sugawara,et al.  Coastal changes in the Sendai area from the impact of the 2011 Tōhoku-oki tsunami: Interpretations of time series satellite images, helicopter-borne video footage and field observations , 2012 .

[73]  Christopher A. Gomez,et al.  Learning from a major disaster (Banda Aceh, December 26th, 2004): a methodology to calibrate simulation codes for tsunami inundation models , 2006 .

[74]  O. Voldoire,et al.  Nannoliths abundance and distribution in tsunami deposits: example from the December 26, 2004 tsunami in Lhok Nga (northwest Sumatra, Indonesia) , 2010 .

[75]  Larissa A. Naylor,et al.  Geological controls on boulder production in a rock coast setting: Insights from South Wales, UK , 2011 .

[76]  J. Goff,et al.  Flow speed estimated by inverse modeling of sandy sediment deposited by the 29 September 2009 tsunami near Satitoa, east Upolu, Samoa , 2011 .

[77]  J. Terry.  Tropical Cyclones: Climatology and Impacts in the South Pacific , 2007 .

[78]  Christophe Morhange,et al.  Large boulder accumulation on the Algerian coast evidence tsunami events in the western Mediterranean , 2009 .

[79]  F. Imamura,et al.  Characteristics and hydrodynamics of boulders transported by storm waves at Kudaka Island, Japan , 2009 .

[80]  Larissa A. Naylor,et al.  Boulders as a signature of storms on rock coasts , 2011 .

[81]  Pinxian Wang,et al.  Storm cycles in the last millennium recorded in Yongshu Reef, southern South China Sea , 2004 .

[82]  D. Dominey-Howes,et al.  Deposits, flow characteristics, and landscape change resulting from the September 2009 South Pacific tsunami in the Samoan islands , 2011, Earth-science reviews.

[83]  R. Thaman,et al.  UNESCO-IOC international tsunami survey team Samoa (ITST Samoa): interim report of field survey 14th - 21st October 2009 , 2009 .

[84]  J. Terry,et al.  Coral boulders, gravel tongues and sand sheets: Features of coastal accretion and sediment nourishment by Cyclone Tomas (March 2010) on Taveuni Island, Fiji , 2012 .

[85]  A. Scheffers,et al.  Tsunami deposits on the coastline of west Crete (Greece) , 2007 .

[86]  Tom Simkin,et al.  Krakatau 1883, The Volcanic Eruption and Its Effects , 1984, The Journal of Asian Studies.

[87]  Giovanni Scicchitano,et al.  Large boulder deposits by tsunami waves along the Ionian coast of south-eastern Sicily (Italy) , 2007 .

[88]  A. Hall.  Storm wave currents, boulder movement and shore platform development: A case study from East Lothian, Scotland , 2011 .

[89]  S. Etienne.  Marine inundation hazards in French Polynesia: geomorphic impacts of Tropical Cyclone Oli in February 2010 , 2012 .

[90]  F. Imamura,et al.  Distribution, origin and transport process of boulders deposited by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami at Pakarang Cape, Thailand , 2007 .

[91]  F. Imamura,et al.  A numerical model for the transport of a boulder by tsunami , 2008 .

[92]  Giuseppe Mastronuzzi,et al.  Large boulder accumulations by extreme waves along the Adriatic coast of southern Apulia (Italy) , 2004 .

[93]  Y. Yokoyama,et al.  Identification of 1771 Meiwa Tsunami deposits using a combination of radiocarbon dating and oxygen isotope microprofiling of emerged massive Porites boulders , 2008 .

[94]  P. Hearty.  Boulder Deposits from Large Waves during the Last Interglaciation on North Eleuthera Island, Bahamas , 1997, Quaternary Research.

[95]  Giuseppe Mastronuzzi,et al.  Boulder accumulations produced by the 20th of February, 1743 tsunami along the coast of southeastern Salento (Apulia region, Italy) , 2007 .

[96]  J. Goff,et al.  Multi-proxy records of regionally-sourced tsunamis, New Zealand , 2010 .

[97]  K. Crook,et al.  Evaluating the impacts of huge waves on rocky shorelines: an essay review of the book 'Tsunami - The Underrated Hazard' , 2003 .

[98]  S. Suanez,et al.  Quarrying, transport and deposition of cliff-top storm deposits during extreme events: Banneg Island, Brittany , 2011 .

[99]  J. Nott,et al.  Geological Indicators of Large Tsunami in Australia , 2001 .

[100]  M. Buckley,et al.  Inverse modeling of velocities and inferred cause of overwash that emplaced inland fields of boulders at Anegada, British Virgin Islands , 2012, Natural Hazards.

[101]  J. Goff,et al.  The use of boulders for characterising past tsunamis: Lessons from the 2004 Indian Ocean and 2009 South Pacific tsunamis , 2011 .

[102]  T. Done,et al.  Effects of tropical cyclone waves on ecological and geomorphological structures on the Great Barrier Reef , 1992 .

[103]  H. Roberts,et al.  Hurricane-Generated Waves and Coastal Boulder Rampart Formation. , 1977 .

[104]  Christopher A. Gomez,et al.  Development of the AMS method for unconsolidated sediments. Application to tsunami deposits , 2011 .

[105]  Instability of coral limestone cliffs due to extreme waves , 2010 .

[106]  R. Edwards,et al.  U/Th-dating living and young fossil corals from the central tropical Pacific , 2003 .

[107]  J. Nott.  Waves, coastal boulder deposits and the importance of the pre-transport setting , 2003 .

[108]  A. Hall,et al.  Magnitude and frequency of extra-tropical North Atlantic cyclones: A chronology from cliff-top storm deposits , 2009 .

[109]  F. Imamura,et al.  Emplacement and movement of boulders by known storm waves — Field evidence from the Okinawa Islands, Japan , 2011 .

[110]  F. Imamura,et al.  Discrimination of boulders deposited by tsunamis and storm waves at Ishigaki Island, Japan , 2010 .

[111]  D. Stoddart,et al.  Reconnaissance geomorphology of Rangiroa Atoll, Tuamotu Archipelago. With List of Vascular Flora of Rangiroa , 1969 .