Authors / CoAuthors
Hayne, M. | Chappell, J.
Abstract
A series of storm deposits at Curacoa Island, a steep bedrock island in the Palm Group, north Queensland, record the passage of cyclonic events. Storm ridge accretion occurs when cyclonic waves and surge combine to transport coarse sediment, mostly broken coral, onto the shore and deposit it above normal tidal levels. Narrow fringing reefs at Curacoa act as a rapidly replenished sediment source, augmented by lithic gravel transported longshore. Beachface, stormberm, ridge platform and washover deposits can accrete during a single event. A series of storm ridges were examined via stratigraphic pits and trenches on two traverses; deposits from 22 events were identified and their ages were determined with multiple, accordant radiocarbon dates from corals within each deposit. About 15% of the dates were older than accordant group ages and indicated reworked specimens. Accordant group ages were combined and converted to calibrated radiocarbon ages. Ridge ages increase uniformly with distance from the oldest ridge indicating uniform depositional processes over the last 5000 years. A time series of storm deposit ages indicates that cyclone frequency was statistically constant over the last 5000 years. This evidence is despitesuggestions of 1oC warmer sea surface temperatures in the region about 5000 years ago (Gagan et al., 1998) which may have promoted cyclonic frequency. warmer .
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nonGeographicDataset
eCat Id
38109
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Keywords
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- External PublicationScientific Journal Paper
- ( Theme )
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- geohazards
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- AU-QLD
- Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)
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- Earth Sciences
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- Published_Internal
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2001-01-01T00:00:00
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geoscientificInformation
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