Micropaleontological Evidence of Large Earthquakes in the Past 7200 Years in Southern Hawke’S Bay, New Zealand
ARTICLE IN PRESS Quaternary Science Reviews 25 (2006) 1186–1207 Micropaleontological evidence of large earthquakes in the past 7200 years in southern Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand Bruce W. Haywarda,Ã, Hugh R. Grenfella, Ashwaq T. Sabaaa, Rowan Cartera,1, Ursula Cochranb, Jere H. Lippsc, Phil R. Shaned, Margaret S. Morleya,e aGeomarine Research, 49 Swainston Rd, St Johns, Auckland, New Zealand bInstitute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, P.O. Box 30 368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand cDepartment of Integrative Biology and Museum of Paleontology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA dDepartment of Geology, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92 019, Auckland, New Zealand eAuckland War Memorial Museum, Private Bag 92 018, Auckland, New Zealand Received 15 May 2005; accepted 25 October 2005 Abstract Foraminiferal and diatom assemblages in 11 cores (3–7.5 m deep) of Holocene sediment from brackish marine Ahuriri Inlet in southern Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, provide a record of 8.5 m of subsidence followed by 1.5 m of uplift in the last 7200 cal years, in a region overlying the subduction zone between the Australian and Pacific Plates. Modern Analogue Technique was used to estimate paleotidal elevation of the 97 richest foraminiferal assemblages. The most precise estimates are for high-tidal salt marsh assemblages cored in marginal settings in the north and south of the former inlet. The least precise estimates are from low-tidal and subtidal assemblages from cores in the middle of the inlet. These paleoelevation estimates combined with sediment thicknesses, age determinations (from tephrostratigraphy and radiocarbon dates), the New Zealand Holocene sea level curve, and estimates of compaction, identify the Holocene land elevation changes and earthquake-displacement events in each core.
[Show full text]