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Sea-Level Changes Over the Past 1,000 Years in the Pacific Author(S): Patrick D View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of the South Pacific Electronic Research Repository Coastal Education & Research Foundation, Inc. Sea-Level Changes over the past 1,000 Years in the Pacific Author(s): Patrick D. Nunn Source: Journal of Coastal Research, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Winter, 1998), pp. 23-30 Published by: Coastal Education & Research Foundation, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4298758 . Accessed: 11/09/2013 18:35 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Coastal Education & Research Foundation, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Coastal Research. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 144.120.8.19 on Wed, 11 Sep 2013 18:35:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions JournalofCoastal Research 14 J 1 23-30 RoyalPalmBeach, Florida Winter1998 Sea-Level Changes over the Past 1,000 Years in the Pacific1 Patrick D. Nunn Department of Geography The University of the South Pacific P.O. Box 1168 Suva, FIJI ABSTRACTI Nunn, P.D., 1998. Sea-level changes over the past 1,000 years in the Pacific.Journal of CoastalResearch, 14(1), 23- ,S $00 ?00O av 30. Royal Palm Beach (Florida),ISSN 0749-0208. r???????* The absence of good informationabout sea-level change for the past 1,000 years in the Pacificis unfortunategiven our much clearer understandingof the earlier Holoceneand the past - 100 years. Yet such informationis neededif we are to be able to properlyunderstand the causes of late Neogene sea-level changes and to understandthe envi- ronmentaleffects of predictedfuture changes. Data are selected from sites in AmericanSamoa, Fiji, the GambierIslands, Guam,Kosrae, New Zealand,Rota and the Tuamotuswhich have been tectonicallystable for the past thousandyears. These data are plotted and a sea-level envelopedrawn to characterisethe most probablePacific-wide course of sea-level changefor the last millennium. Sea level was close to its present level - 1000 years BP, then rose to perhaps 0.9 m above around 700 BP. This periodof sea-level rise coincidedwith a periodof warmingnamed the Little ClimaticOptimum. The transitionto the Little Ice Age, when sea level stood lower, was markedby a transition around690 BP when sea level (and ground temperatures)fell rapidly.A lack of data fromthe following- 200 years suggest that sea level was lower than the level to which it rose duringthe early part of the Little Ice Age. A gradualfall occurredduring the later part of the Little Ice Age to as much as -0.9 m below present some 200 BP. The last part of the millenniumhas been charac- terised by a net rise of sea level. Several anomalousdates fromthe sites examined are most probablyexplicable by post-emergencecontamination of reef limestones. ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: Pacific islands, last millennium, Little Climatic Optimum, Little Ice Age, anomalous dates. INTRODUCTION There are other reasons for studying sea-level changes over the past millennium. One is that the study of their environ- It is somewhat ironic that our knowledge of sea-level vari- mental effects will aid accurate prediction of the conse- ations over the past few thousand years, perhaps even during quences of future sea-level rise. Another is that an under- the latest Neogene (late Quaternary), is better known than standing of last millennium sea levels allows insights into those which occurred over the past 1,000 years. Admittedly, why environments changed. Further, the close relationship the latter changes were of much less magnitude than the for- between changing sea levels and changing earth surface tem- mer, but it is also an issue of precision. Latest Neogene sea- peratures over many time scales means that the record of level changes can be known only comparatively imprecisely changing sea levels over the last millennium can be used as and there are often disputes involving several thousand years a proxy for contemporary temperature changes which, in (or several metres) about particular events. This is obviously turn, permits insights into climate changes. not possible with a single 1,000-year period; many of the tech- This paper looks at sea-level changes over the past 1000 niques used to establish earlier palaeosea-level changes can years in the Pacific islands, then looks at the environmental not be used with such great effect for the last millennium. consequences of these and associated changes before going Yet it is doubly ironic to consider that the last 100 on years, to discuss future changes. for which there are comparatively large numbers of contin- ually-monitored series of sea-level data, is also better known THE HOLOCENE than the preceding 900 years. The existence of this "1,000- CONTEXT year hiatus" in our of sea-level understanding past changes It is now reasonably well established that all Pacific island is a major hindrance for the dis- only by successfully linking coasts experienced inundation associated with a sea level 1- tant to the recent past can we to understand properly hope 2 m higher than present around 4000-2000 years BP (NUNN, how sea level might in the future. change 1995). It seems increasingly possible, both from interpreta- tions of empirical data and from theoretical considerations, 97060 received and accepted in revision 7 May 1997. that Holocene sea level has oscillated for the past few thou- 1A contributionto the work of the INQUAQuaternary Shorelines sand years (FAIRBRIDGE, 1992; NUNN, 1995). West PacificSubcommission In some places, such as French Polynesia (PIRAZZOLIand This content downloaded from 144.120.8.19 on Wed, 11 Sep 2013 18:35:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 24 Nunn 20 N 'o HAWAI • ? Rota GUAM i NORT I PACIFI- C OCEANAT SKo•ae 0 PAPUA SNEW ? Wands WSTERN SAA a ENCH POLYNESIA I 4 "*ITuhi Ragnroa. wi <y FM -40 S wos Boy PACIFIC OCEAN SSOUTHf •S SZEAL Bquo"in Bay 140 E 160 E 1800 160W 140 W I rI Figure 1. The Pacific islands showing the sites from which dates of emerged shorelines have been used to construct the curve of sea-level changes for the past 1,000 years. No error margins are shown. MONTAGGIONI,1986), the fall to the present general level ocean islands such as those in Samoa (DALY, 1920, 1924, within the last 2,000 years occurred comparatively abruptly 1934). compared to the fall in other places, such as Fiji and else- Another major problem is not so much finding suitable where (NUNN, 1990a), which apparently occurred more gent- sites but finding suitable sites for which some dates of shore- ly. line displacement over the past 1,000 years have been ob- In most parts of the Pacific, the sea surface was probably tained. No studies in the Pacific islands to the author's at or close to its present level about 1200-900 years BP. Most knowledge have focused primarily on the last 1,000 years. records show little variation since that time. Dates from this time period have been incidental to studies focusing on the earlier Holocene. THE LAST MILLENNIUM:FINDING The locations of the "stable" sites selected for this study SUITABLE SITES are shown in Figure 1. Each site is discussed briefly below and the case for its tectonic stability over the last 1000 years Many Pacific islands are sites of dramatic, often sporadic, presented. tectonic change which has complicated the derivation of late sea-level records Yet other Neogene change (NUNN, 1994a). American Samoa islands, commonly in intraplate rather than plate-boundary locations, are believed to have been stable at least for much The Samoa islands form a somewhat atypical hotspot is- of the last few thousand years. Their shorelines can then be land chain. Hotspot volcanism is overprinted on a few islands considered to have registered Holocene eustatic changes rath- by anomalous yet superficial volcanism associated with the er than these confused with tectonic changes; this was one tearing of the westward-moving Pacific Plate as it has been reason why DALY chose to work on Pacific (and other) mid- simultaneously pulled down into the trench at the northern Journal of Coastal Research,Vol. 14, No. 1, 1998 This content downloaded from 144.120.8.19 on Wed, 11 Sep 2013 18:35:10 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Holocene Sea-Level Changes in the Pacific Basin 25 end of the Tonga Trench (NATLAND and TURNER, 1985; on the northeast barrier reef (PIRAZZOLIand MONTAGGIONI, KEATING, 1992; NUNN, 1997). Shorelines dating to a Holo- 1987). cene sea-level maximum around 1.5 m above present are found around the coasts of the islands in Western Samoa Guam (NUNN, 1991a) and have been observed in parts of American Guam is a large island in the northwest Pacific lying close Samoa (DALY,1924; KIRCHet al., 1990). This is good evidence to the convergent plate boundary in the region. No volcanism that these islands have been comparatively stable over the has occurred since the early Neogene (middle Miocene) but past few thousand years. uplift associated with forearc deformation occurred within The idea that the Samoa islands have been subsiding rap- the later Neogene. The record of mid-Holocene sea levels from idly over this time period arose from a misinterpretation of Aga Point suggests that late Holocene tectonism has been the only site in the islands at Mulifanua on Lapita Upolu minimal at this site and that the two dates from the last (NUNN, 1995).
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