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OCR for page 104
6
Graphic Analysis of Dislocated
Quaternary Shorelines
ARTHUR L. BLOOM
Cornell University
NOBUYUKI YONEKURA
University of Tokyo
ABSTRACT
If a sequence of dated emerged shorelines is found at different heights on several transects, the
heights of the intermediate shorelines can be plotted against the height of the highest one in each
sequence. The regressions of the intermediate shoreline positions yield a set of equations:
H. = a.H + b.,
`, ~z m, ~
(6.1)
where Hm ~ is the height of the highest shoreline in the sequence on transect t, Hi ~ is the height of an
intermediate shoreline i on the same transect, al is the regression coefficient, and bi is the intercept.
By assuming or establishing the position of sea level at the time of formation of the highest shoreline,
the initial heights of the intermediate shorelines can be calculated by substitution in Eq. (6.1) without
the previously necessary assumption that the dislocation on any transect had been at a constant rate.
A similar procedure gives the initial level of any shoreline in a sequence of submerged features, if
their depths are plotted against the depth of the deepest shoreline in the sequence. Correlation
coefficients for typical calculations are inflated because Hm' always incorporates all subsequent
movements on that transect.
Nevertheless, realistic and testable results can be achieved for intervals of the last 8000 yr and for
the last 125,000 yr.
INTRODUCTION
This chapter is about an analytical technique for deter-
mining the original altitude of shorelines that are now
displaced by tectonic movements. Before we can evaluate
the causes of sea-level changes, we must be able to mea-
sure them with reasonable confidence. The literature of
sea-level change is a jungle of generalizations, misconcep-
tions, faulty interpretations, unsubstantiated age estimates,
104
and just poor science. R. Stuckenrath, Jr. (University of
Pittsburgh, personal communication), estimated that fully
half of the researchers who received radiocarbon dates
from the Smithsonian Institution radiocarbon laboratory
do not "believe" the results, meaning that if their a priori
conclusions were not confirmed by the dates, the dates
were doubted. A great amount of experience and judg-
ment is required just to know which published data are
valid.
OCR for page 105
GRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF DISLOCATED QUARTERNARY SHORELINES
A basic problem is that sea level is constantly changing
on many temporal and special scales (Figure 6.1~. Waves
cause the water surface to rise and fall a meter or more
every few seconds, providing a high-frequency background
noise to the secular change of millimeters per year that we
hope to document. The diurnal or semidiurnai tide is
commonly the largest magnitude sea-level change on any
time scale short of 104 yr, barring tsunamis and hurricanes.
We consider sea-level changes on two time scales. The
first is the scale of glacially controlled worldwide ("eu-
static") sea-level fluctuations of 104 to 105 yr, which cov-
ers the time scale of complete glacial-interglacial cycles
and their major subdivisions. The second is the scale of
103 to 104 yr, primarily considering the deglacial hemi-
cycle of the last ice age and the most recent 10,000 yr of
geologic history called the Holocene Epoch. On this time
scale, glacial eustatic sea level has risen some 120 m as the
Northern Hemisphere ice sheets disintegrated, and then it
has stabilized or fluctuated slightly with the subsequent
isostatic adjustments of the solid earth to the postglacial
distribution of surface ice and water masses. Doubts,
uncertainty, and unresolved problems are noted in each
section, for our present inquiry is to determine what we
know with confidence and what we still need to learn. The
chapter ends with some suggestions for resolving some of
our uncertainties.
THE GLACIAL CYCLE: 104 TO 105 YEARS
Graphs of sea level for the last 140,000 yr or more are
drawn primarily from two sources: (1) coral-reef terraces
on tropical coasts that have been uplifted by tectonic forces,
ICC A9B
~Joriations
Meteorologicol Annual Tend
TsURD :
Gravity Wolves resect) ~ _;.
~,c ~°c
105
and (2) the deviations from a standard of the i8O/~6O ratios
in foraminiferal tests from deep-sea cores. The methods
and their premises are very different, and yet the superfi-
cial agreement is good, especially concerning the time
scale. The amplitude of interstadial-stadial sea-level change
inferred from the oxygen-isotope record of the last ice age
is significantly greater than that inferred from the coral-
reef record, and we need to understand the cause of that
difference. Nevertheless we should stress the overall
similarities of the graphs more than their differences
(Figures 6.2 and 6.3; see also Matthews, Figure 5.3, this
volume).
For coral-reef terraces, a reasonable time control (26 =
5 percents is available for 200,000 yr by the uranium-
series dating method (Harmon et al., 1979~. For reefs, the
problem is to convert a known age and a present height
into both an initial level and an uplift rate. In the equation
H = ax + b, present height H is the result of uplift rate a
times x (time), and b is the desired initial or starting level.
Clearly, the equation cannot be solved knowing only the
present height and age of a terrace. However, by assuming
that some older reef terrace, such as the last interglacial
one that is about 125,000 yr old, formed at an assumed
level such as +6 m, and assuming that tectonic uplift is
reasonably constant on the time scale of 105 yr, the initial
level b, and the uplift rate a can be inferred. The results
from various islands, where uplift rates vary from 0.1 mm/
yr to more than 5 mm/yr, have been reasonably consistent.
For example, one can confidently predict that if a 28,000-
yr-old reef terrace is found above present sea level, the
uplift rate is greater than about 1.5 mm/yr, because sea
level at that time of reef formation was probably at -35 to
FIGURE 6.1 Schematic diagram of the
spectral distribution of sea level (Stom-
mel, 1963, Figure 11.
OCR for page 106
106
3.0- V29-179 North Atlantic
3.5: ~ D e pt h
'55tm)
. ~ ~ 20 4060 80 100 120 140 Age (Ka)
+3 ^ 12392-1 Canary Islands '~
°~4 \i~t
_ ~4 6 8 ~10 cePth(m)
. . . . . .
~ ) 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Age (Ko)
+3 V19-29 E. equatorial Pacific
0 a\
60 +4 ~8 ~ 10 Depth(m)
65 . . . ~ .. ...
) 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 Age(Ko)
FIGURE 6.2 Three oxygen-isotope curves from
high-sedimentation-rate deep-sea cores that show
details of the variations of oxygen-isotope ratios
for the past 140,000 yr (see text for references).
=0 m and the reef had to rise above present sea level by
at least 5000 yr ago to escape the postglacial rise of sea
level. Such a prediction can then be tested by using it to
predict the height of older and younger terraces in the
sequence: for instance, if the uplift rate were 1.5 mm/yr
(or the equivalent 1.5 m/ka, or kiloanno), the last intergla-
cial terrace should be nearly 200 m above sea level (125 ka
x 1.5 m/la + 6 m, which is the assumed height of sea level
in the last interglacial). Note that the assumed height of 6
m for the last interglacial sea level is only a few percent of
the present terrace height on coasts where tectonic move-
ments are rapid, that is, on the order of millimeters per
year. As many islands on tropical island arcs have coral-
reef terraces measured in hundreds of meters above sea
Thousand years B. ~
150 140 130r120 ~ 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
t ''J \t 'I \.,'''. ~
? T
120
1~o
l-60
\ ;-80
~ 1-1°°
~ 1
-120
-140
Papua New Guinea paleo-sea levels. . .
{Yoneluro and Bloom,ln prep., \ I
T Papau New Guinea sea-level minima. ~
{Chappell,l974)
~ Barbados sea-level minima, a'.~973)
FIGURE 6.3 Revised sea-level curve for the coral-reef terraces
on the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea (Bloom and Yo-
nekura, 1985, Figure 6.4).
ARTHUR L. BLOOM AND NOBUYUKI YONEKURA
level, the calculation of the initial position of sea level
during the last interglacial is not critical. A range of "a
few meters" or "5 to 10 m" above the present gives satis-
factory results that lie within the typical survey errors for
terrace heights.
Figure 6.4 graphically illustrates the assumptions of the
above method: given a sea-level curve and an assumed
uplift rate, reefs grow at times of tangency when land and
sea level are rising at the same rate, just prior to a sea-level
maximum. Sea level then drops while the constructional
reef terraces are carried upward to their present position
on a hillside. In principle, similar reef-building events
should occur just after each sea-level minimum, but so far,
only one such reef has been identified. As noted in the
In ~
- . -
200
-
~ 160
lo
~0
40
MSL O
I
120
40
80
160
o
am ( predicted )
~\~\\+6m
Fumed ~
20 40 60 80 100 120 140 AGE (x10005.)
FIGURE 6.4 The hypothetical coral-terrace sequence generated
by uniform tectonic uplift of 2 m per 1000 yr superimposed on
sea-level oscillations modeled from the oxygen-isotope record of
benthic foraminifera in core V29-179 (Streeter and~Shackleton,
1979~.
final section of this chapter, if others could be found by
drilling or in natural exposures, stadial and glacial minima
as well as interstadial and interglacial maxima sea level
could be dated and the amplitudes of sea-level fluctuations
could be defined.
In addition to the value of coral-reef models for predict-
ing sea levels of the last 125 ka, an excellent predictive
model of the ages of middle Pleistocene and older terraces
can be made if one of the lowest terraces in the sequence
can be proved to be of last interglacial age, about 125,000
yr old. This situation is very common, because sea level
was probably a few meters higher than at present in last
interglacial time (+6 m is the widely accepted estimate).
On stable coasts or coasts with slow uplift, the last inter-
glacial terrace is always prominent. Downtown Honolulu
OCR for page 107
GRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF DISLOCATED QUARTERNARY SHORELINES
is built on it. The height of the last interglacial terrace
above or below the assumed initial level of +6 m estab-
lishes a long-term (105 yr) vertical tectonic rate, which can
be cautiously extrapolated by an order of magnitude to
predict the ages of higher and older terraces dating back to
the early Pleistocene. In the few places where a tephro-
chronology is available, as in New Zealand (Pillars, 1983)
or Japan (Machida, 1975~; or where amino acid racemiza-
tion methods can be applied, as in California (Muhs, 1983),
or reasonably inferred, as in Baja California, Mexico
(Ortlieb, 1980), the predicted ages of older terraces are
reasonably well supported. Correlations are often sug-
gested with the odd-numbered oxygen-isotope stages of
the deep-sea record, but those correlations should be used
with caution, because the earlier oxygen-isotope stages are
themselves dated only by interpolation between the time
of the last interglacial high sea level and the Brunhes-
Matuyama paleomagnetic epoch boundary that is about
730 ka old (Imbrie et al., 1984, p. 282~.
TERRACES OF SEA-LEVEL MAXIMA DURING
AND SINCE THE LAST INTERGLACIAL
The coral-reef terraces of the Huon Peninsula, Papua
New Guinea (Figure 6.3) preserve an exceptionally com-
plete chronology of sea-level fluctuations for at least the
last 140,000 yr (Bloom et al., 1974; Chappell, 1974, 1983;
Aharon and Chappell, 1986~. A great fault splinter on the
northern coast of the Huon Peninsula has been rising and
tilting in late Quaternary time, broken by numerous minor
faults but maintaining its overall morphotectonic integrity.
A succession of coral-reef terraces has been built on this
block. Where the substrate surface was steep or the ter-
race-building interval was brief, the reefs were fringing.
Where the preexisting slope was gentle or sea level stayed
in the same position for a relatively long time (or repeat-
edly occupied the same level), the reef grew as a barrier
seaward of a lagoon that was up to 1 km in width. The
internal structure of the reefs shows that they built upward
and outward over their own fore-reef taluses (Figure 7 of
Chappell, 1974; Chappell and Polach, 19761. Their upper
surfaces are usually level and composed of typical Indo-
Pacific shallow-water corals and algae. Behind the reef
crests, mollusc-rich back-reef and lagoon carbonate sand
accumulated. Reef crests as old as 124,000 yr to 140,000
yr have no more than about 1 m of karst relief. Swallow
holes and sinking streams mark the lagoon floors. Younger
reef terraces show minor gully dissection and dripstone
curtains down their fronts. Less than a meter of soil in
weathered volcanic tephra has accumulated on the terrace
treads.
Previous analyses of the terraces' ages and heights used
107
an assumed constant uplift history and an assumed sea
level of +6 m for the last interglacial stage (124,000 yr) to
derive the paleosea-level positions during the multiple
interstadials of the latest glaciation. The resulting esti-
mates of interstadial sea levels (Bloom et al., 1974) were
consistent with similar estimates for terraces on Barbados,
where the average rate of tectonic uplift was only about 10
percent of the rate in Papua New Guinea. The converging
estimates were regarded as reasonable for the interstadial
sea-level maxima, so that the height of a terrace of similar
age elsewhere could be converted into an uplift rate by
adding the present terrace height above sea level to its
estimated original height (which is for all interstadial ter-
races at or below present sea level) and dividing the change
in height by the age of the terrace.
The weak point of the argument was obviously the
assumption that on the time scale of 104 to 105 yr, tectonic
uplift was at a uniform rate. A new graphic approach to
this problem has been derived, based on previous Japanese
work (e.g., Ota et al., 1968) but similar to the shoreline
relation diagnosis of Scandinavian workers (e.g., Donner,
1965~. Most of the following paragraphs are directly from
Bloom and Yonekura (1985~. For illustration, we can use
data on the ages of terraces and their heights along six
transects on the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea (Tables
6.1 and 6.2~. Arbitrary errors of 5 m, 2 m, and 1 m were
assigned to the reported terrace heights to permit least-
squares error evaluation.
The last interglacial terrace, known as terrace VIIb, has
an assumed age of 124,000 yr and was formed when the
sea was 6 m higher than at present. For each of the six
transects, the heights of all lower and younger terraces are
plotted against the height of terrace VIIb (Figure 6.5~. The
data points on Figure 6.5 are drawn as closed circles large
enough to include the probable errors of age and height. If
we assume that at a critical location terrace VIIb main-
tained a height of 6 m for the past 124,000 yr (ignoring
erosion), then at this location there would have been no
uplift and differences in the elevation of the terraces would
reflect changes in sea level only. Thus where the line of
best fit for a given terrace intersects the vertical dashed
line at HV~b = 6 m, it gives the height of sea level at the
time of formation of that terrace.
A regression may be performed to give a better estimate
of the relationship. This yields the equation:
Hit = aiHvIlb,! + bi,
(6.2)
where HVl[~b ~ is the height of terrace VIIb on transect t; H
is the height of an intermediate terrace i on the same
intersect; ai is the regression coefficient; and bi is the
intercept. The intercept gives the elevation of terrace i
assuming the elevation of terrace VIIb is zero. However,
as we have seen, to calculate sea level at the time each
OCR for page 108
108
ARTHUR L. BLOOM AND NOBUYUKI YONEKURA
TABLE 6.1 Measure of Reef-Crest Elevations (in meters) for Six Transects Along the
Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea
Transects
Terrace Age (ka) Kanzarua Blucher Kwambu Nama Sambero Kambin
VIIb 124 30 80 15 60 50 120
VI 105 50 15 60 15 10 93
V 82 190 55 17 90 80 60
IV 60 125 70 48 - 28
IIIa 50~0 90 65 42
IIIb 40 70 41 28 10 10
II 28 30 18 7 -
I 6 15 10 6 5 5 2.5
NOTE: Data include arbitrary errors that were assigned to permit least squares evaluation, as
follows: _5 m for elevations H 2 60 m; _2 m for 60 m > H 2 5 m; and _1 m for H < 5 m (Bloom
and Yonekura, 1985, Table 6.1~.
terrace i was formed we must predict its value based on an
elevation of 6 m for the terrace VIIb. This is analogous to
predicting the heights of the terraces along a transect at the
critical location where Ham has remained at 6 m and
uplift has therefore been zero.
Thus, by substituting the regression-line values of al
and hi in the equation with Herb = 6 m, the paleosea-level
estimates for the several Wisconsin-age interstadials can
be calculated (Figures 6.3 and 6.5, Table 6.2) without the
further assumption of a constant uplift rate. The justifica-
tion for the method is the very high correlation coeffi-
cients for the regression equations (Table 6.2~. Only ter-
race IIa (50,000 to 40,000 yr ago), which has only three
measured heights, has a least-squares predicted height error
that is significantly greater than the errors arbitrarily as-
signed to the measured terrace heights on the transects
(Table 6.1, Figure 6.31.
The calculated values for terraces I to IV are similar to
those listed in Bloom et al. (1974, Tables 3 and 4), where
they were calculated on the assumption of constant uplift.
However, the newly calculated height of sea level during
the formation of terrace VI (105,000 yr ago) is 0 m instead
of the former value of-15 m, and the calculated height of
sea level at the time of terrace V (82,000 yr ago) is -7 m
instead of the former value of -13 m. The purpose of this
chapter is to review the method, not the results, and so
further discussion is deferred. However, the demonstra-
tion that a valid mathematical regression technique gives
sea-level estimates that are quite similar to those estimates
made by assuming constant uplift rate is justification for
the assumed constancy of uplift at the time scale of 105 yr.
The last interglacial surface is widespread at depths of
6 to 10 m below a Holocene coral veneer on many atolls.
If no more than 1 m of limestone has been lost from the
reef surface during subaerial exposure, a lowering of the
last interglacial reef surface from its assumed original
height of +6 m to (for example) a present height of-6 m
in about 120,000 yr implies an atoll subsidence rate of
about 0.1 m per 1000 yr, a rate appropriate for subsidence
of oceanic lithosphere during cooling (Sclater et al., 1971;
Bloom, 1980, p. 512~.
TECTONIC MOVEMENTS ON THE TIME SCALE
OF 20,000 YEARS
The straight-line regression equations with high corre-
lation coefficients demonstrated above justify the assump-
tion of constant uplift rate on the time scale of 105 yr, but
do not require it on shorter times. Careful analysis of
TABLE 6.2 Regression Equations for Elevations (Hi) of
Terrace i against Elevations of Terrace VIIb
Hi
Age (ha) a
r
SL (m)
VIIb
HVI 105
HV 82
HIV 60
HIIIa 50 - 40
HIIIb 40
HII 28
HI 6
1.00
0.77
0.60
0.46
0.41
0.32
0.20
0.05
0.00 1.000
- .55 0.999
-10.16 0.999
-26.80 0.999
-48.26 0.995
-40.21 0.981
-36.25 0.995
-3.93 0.969
+6.0 (assumed)
+0.1
-6.6
-24.0
-45.8
-38.3
-35.1
-3.6
NOTE: These equations are used for determination of paleo-
sea levels (SL). See Table 6.1 and Figure 6.5 (Bloom and
Yonekura, 1985, Table 6.2).
OCR for page 109
GRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF DISLOCATED QUARTERNARY SHORELINES
Huon Peninsula, Popua New Guineo
JO
m 300
200
100
O
- 100
1 24ka Vl lb: + 6m (ossu med )
105 Vl . O (calculated)
82 ~ -T
60 IV . - 24
50-40: Itla: -46
40 111b:-38
28 11 - 35
6 1 - 4
~ V
/ / ~
/Vl
^250
//6~/o''": IV
I /J/ grout / in ll a
200
:^ Liz
O
3 33 ~
cr cr 0 3
300 m
;K
c.
2
o
o
FIGURE 6.5 Regression of height of terrace i (Hi) as a function
of height of terrace VIIb (Habib) based on six transects on the
Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea (Bloom and Yonekura, 1985,
Figure 6.31.
Table 6.2 shows that there was variation in the Huon
Peninsula uplift rate on the time scale of the 20,000-yr
sampling interval. For instance, terrace VI is 85 percent
the age of terrace VIIb (105 versus 124 ka), but is only 77
percent as high (the value of coefficient al, ignoring bi).
Uplift in the interval between 124,000 and 105,000 yr ago
was somewhat greater than the long-term average.
Another way of modeling uplift rates on the 20,000-yr
time scale is to accept sea-level estimates such as those in
Table 6.2 and Figure 6.3 and from them calculate uplift
rates for successive increments of dated uplift history.
This method is appropriately called bootstrapping in that
each increment of uplift is used as the basis for calculating
the next older increment. An example (Figure 6.6) is drawn
from work by Urmos (19853. The site is Araki Island, a
small reef-terraced island 5 km south of the south coast of
Santo Island, Vanuatu.
On Araki, a Holocene reef terrace about 5500 yr old is
26 m above present sea level. Assuming, for simplifica-
tion, that sea level in the region has not changed in the last
5500 yr, the average late Holocene uplift rate is 4.75 m per
1000 yr. Above the large Holocene reef terrace on Araki
109
is a succession of small stair-step terraces up to the flat
reef-capped summit at 237 m. The next dated terrace on
,VIlb the hillside is about 38,000 yr old and is now at a height of
about 40 m. Since the rate of uplift for the last 5500 yr is
known, and assuming an original paleosea level of - 1 m
(Figure 6.3), the increment of uplift between 5500 and
38,000 yr is calculated to be about 1.75 m per 1000 yr.
The process is repeated for each step back in time, using
the previously established estimates of sea level at the
time of reef growth. The reef at the top of Araki Island is
105,000 yr old and is now at 237 m. If sea level at the time
of origin was at present level (see above), then the average
uplift rate for 105,000 yr has been 2.26 m per 1000 yr.
However, successive increments of uplift rate range from
1.67 to as high as 4.75 m per 1000 yr (Figure 6.6), a factor
of 2.8. In particular, the late Holocene uplift rate has been
faster than at any prior time in the last 105,000 yr. We do
not know if this is evidence of accelerated Holocene tec-
tonic movement, or an artifact of the short sampling inter-
val. We believe that the tectonic uplift of the region has
accelerated in the Holocene, because nowhere in Vanuatu
have we found a reef 28,000 to 30,000 yr old, such as has
been found on the Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea
(Chappell and Veeh, 1978~. If the rapid uplift of the last
5500 yr had continued for as long as the last 28,000 yr, the
interstadial terrace of that age would be far above the
Holocene terrace, even though it started at a sea-level
position 35 m below sea level (Table 6.2, Figure 6.3~.
However, the extreme size of the Holocene terrace on
Araki Island could be caused by a relatively thin Holocene
veneer over an older reef-terrace substrate, as suggested
by the dashed trajectory of inferred uplift for a hypotheti-
cal 28,000-yr-old terrace on Figure 6.6. The presence of
such a substrate under a Holocene veneer has been hy-
pothesized from morphologic evidence in other parts of
south Santo Island (Strecker et al., 1984), but will be
verified only by future drilling.
The accelerated uplift during the last 5500 yr on Araki
Island cannot be directly compared either to the long-term
average rate or to older dated increments of uplift. It is
possible that during any previous 20,000-yr interval be-
tween interstadial high sea levels, much of the total move-
ment was concentrated in brief intervals of 5500 yr or less.
There is no way that such jerkiness could be detected with
the 20,000-yr sampling interval that is provided by the
average spacing of interstadial sea-level oscillations.
Therefore, we can only conclude that the last 5500 yr of
uplift, during which postglacial sea level has been at its
approximate present level, has been unusual by compari-
son to the 20,000- and 100,000-yr average rates, although
we cannot disprove that those average rates consisted of
shorter intervals of alternately fast and slow vertical
movements.
OCR for page 110
110
CONTRADICTORY SEA-LEVEL EVIDENCE FROM
OXYGEN ISOTOPES AND CORAL REEFS
Figures 6.2 and 6.3 illustrate the currently unresolved
contradiction between sea level interpreted from the oxy-
gen-isotope record and sea level calculated by regression
equations on emerged coral-reef terraces. The heights of
the several Wisconsin-age interstadial high sea levels in
the coral record range from near present sea level to no
lower than -46 m, or no more than one-third of full-glacial
sea-level lowering. At comparable time intervals, the deep-
sea oxygen-isotope record shows enrichment of INTO in
the range of 50 to 70 percent of the values for full-glacial
time. If the INTO value is interpreted as primarily con-
trolled by ice volume (Shackleton and Opdyke, 1973;
Shackleton, 1977~' then the sea-level maxima during the
several interstadial intervals would have been twice as low
as the values derived from coral-reef studies. Only if
cooler temperatures of evaporation caused about 70 per-
cent of the observed INTO increase and ice volume caused
about 30 percent would the results of the coral-reef regres-
sion analysis be similar to the predictions from the oxy-
gen-isotope record.
SEA LEVEL DURING FULL-GLACIAL AND
STADIAL INTERVALS
The Pleistocene epoch can be subdivided into glacial
and interglacial ages, although the four glacial and three
interglacial of the traditional classification is certainly
wrong. Within each glacial age, lesser times of ice ad-
vances are called stadials and times of retreat are called
interstadials (or interstades). It is notable that no stratigra-
pher has ever offered a subdivision of interglacial ages. It
was never found necessary, because interglacial intervals
have made up only about 10 percent or less of Pleistocene
time and their duration was less that the inherent errors of
the methods used to date them. Glacial ages, however, are
rich in climate and sea-level detail, whether it is derived
from oxygen-isotope or coral-reef studies.
An important question concerns the drop of sea level
between the various interstadial sea-level maxima. As
should be clear from previous sections of this report,
emerged coral-reef terraces record only times just prior to
interstadial and interglacial high sea levels, when tectonic
uplift was briefly equal to rising sea level. With only two
known exceptions, the theoretically possible reefs that
should grow during the interval of tangency between tec-
tonic uplift and rising sea level just after each stadial or
glacial sea-level minima are unknown. Chappell (1974,
1983) described a cut-and-fill cycle in the uplifted deltaic
foreset beds of the Tewai River delta on the Huon Penin-
sula of Papua New Guinea. Coral reefs that grew on the
ARTHUR L. BLOOM AND NOBUYUK! YONEKURA
nearshore topset beds of this gravel delta are now uplifted
as much as 400 m. A coral cap on a terrace at 390 m is
correlated with terrace VIIb (Figures 6.3 and 6.5, Table
6.1) with an age of about 125 ka. Following this reef-
building event at a relatively high sea level, the underlying
deltaic foreset beds were eroded down to a present height
of 320 m, representing an abrupt drop of sea level of about
70 m. Subsequently, the eroded section was reburied by
aggradation up to a present height of about 300 m, and the
new deltaic gravels were capped by a reef of series VI,
with an age of 105 ka.
In a later paper, Chappell (1983, p. 24) expressed some
reservation or ambiguity about the inferred 70-m drop and
rise of sea level between 125 ka and 105 ka, but as the
record now stands, this single locality may record an abrupt
but extreme sea-level drop of 70 m, 50 to 60 percent of a
full-glacial cycle, within the 20,000-yr interval between
Papua New Guinea reefs VIIb and VI, which correlate
very well with oxygen isotope stages Se and Sc. A similar
event in the Barbados record was reported by Steinen et al.
(1973), in which sea level would have dropped to -71 + 11
m in relation to present sea level between Barbados reef
stages III (125 ka) and II (105 ka). This was included in
a much-cited summary figure of the Papua New Guinea
terrace chronology and sea-level record (Bloom et al.,
1974; Figure 6.5) but was subsequently shown to be erro-
neous (Fairbanks and Matthews, 1978, p. 185~. The ero-
sional disconformity under Barbados reef II (105 ka) was
shown not to separate reef II from underlying reef lime-
stone of stage III (125 ka) but rather from an underlying
limestone that was much older. Thus, the inferred sea-
level drop between 125 ka and 105 ka could not be dem-
onstrated in Barbados.
The only other place where coral limestone from a low
sea level can be shown to have a rational place in a terrace
sequence is on Araki Island, near Santo Island in the
Republic of Vanuatu. The details of uplift history of this
island are not yet published, but Urmos (1985) described a
coral sample with an age of 153 ka and a very heavy 6~8O
ratio appropriate for full-glacial oxygen-isotope stage 6, in
an eroded reef section 180 m above sea level on Araki
(Figure 6.6~. The height and position of the sample local-
ity would be appropriate for a reef that would have grown
during the interstadial sea-level maxima V in the Papua
New Guinea sequence, or oxygen-isotope stage Sa (83 ka).
However, neither the age nor the isotopic ratio of the
sample support this interpretation. As sketched on Figure
6.6, this coral apparently grew during the low sea-level
minimum of the penultimate ice age when sea level was
estimated at-165 m (oxygen-isotope stage 6; 140 to 160
ka). The island of Araki had then not yet emerged from
the sea, but was a rising submarine tectonic block on
which reef growth began when the extreme full-glacial
OCR for page 111
GRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF DISLOCATED QUARTERNARY SHORELINES
low sea level exposed it to the photic zone. The reef was
subsequently drowned by the rapid rise of sea level to
isotope stage Se, and was buried by younger reef growth.
However, the tectonic uplift of Araki Island caused this
ancient, low-sea-level reef to be exposed by erosion dur-
ing the relatively high sea level about 80,000 yr ago (Figure
6.6~.
Scattered in the gray literature of uranium-series dates
from various coral regions are other anomalously old dates
from relatively high inferred sea-level positions. Figure
6.6 offers a valid theory of how such samples can be
explained rather than disregarded as erroneous. An inten-
sive drilling program on selected emerged coral-reef ter-
race sequence, combined with U-series dating and oxy-
gen-isotope analyses of suitable corals, could conceivably
gain some other valid data points for full-glacial and sta-
dial sea-level minima to supplement the current documen-
tation of the intervening interglacial and interstadial
maxima. It can be predicted that the amplitude of the
oscillations would be greater than the amplitude shown by
1
240
A, 200
in
16O
- 120.
3
in
o
HI
~ -40
if:
z -80-
O
c -120
~3 -160-
:.75
~'N'`1'
80
40
- ARAb<, UPLIFT
INFERRED UPLIFT
--- NEW GUINEA SEA
LEVEL COMPILATION
, \, ~ ~
:\
() 20 40 60 80 10~) 12C) 140 160
AGE(xlO3yrBP)
FIGURE 6.6 One model of incremental uplift rates (meters per
1000 yr) for the past 105,000 yr on Araki Island, Vanuatu. Note
the unusually rapid late Holocene rate (Urmos, 1985~.
the deep-sea INTO record, which is inevitably decreased by
even the least amount of bioturbation. The climatic impli-
cations of such a record would be substantial. For ex-
ample, the inferred 70 m drop of sea level recorded in the
Tewai River delta section of Papua New Guinea suggests
a dramatic initial and perhaps brief pulse of ice-sheet
growth during oxygen isotope stage 5d that is not seen in
the deep-sea record, perhaps because of its brevity. A
sharp temperature minimum, corresponding to extreme
cold in the areas of snow accumulation, is seen in the
Vostok ice core (Lorius et al., 1985~. Another hint of the
brief, sharp climatic deterioration in stage 5d is recorded
in one exceptional palynologic record from France (Woil-
lard and Mook, 1982~. If climate can be shown to have
changed from a warmer-than-present interglacial 125 ka to
an ice volume equivalent to one-half or two-thirds of an
ice age within lO,000 yr, the implications for an abrupt
onset of the next ice age are serious. Andrews and Ma-
haffy (1976) showed how difficult it would be to generate
large ice sheets and even 5 m of sea-level lowering within
a few thousand years as a test of the "instant glacieriza-
tion" hypothesis, although Mix and Ruddiman (1984)
suggested how very rapid ice-sheet growth could occur
around the margins of the North Atlantic if a relict mass of
warm surface water remained in the region adjacent to
abruptly cooled adjacent land masses.
LATE-GLACIAL AND HOLOCENE SEA LEVELS:
THE 103- TO 104-YEAR TIME SCALE
Numerous Holocene sea-level graphs have been pub-
lished (see Bloom, 1977~. Good Holocene sea-level curves
are well constrained by radiocarbon dates and have accu-
rate depth or height measurements. However, the search
for the elusive postglacial eustatic sea-level curve of global
applicability has proved fruitless. Every coastal site seems
to have its own unique sea-level history. Regional trends
are obvious and predictable (Figure 6.7), but local effects
such as the size and harmonic shape of an estuary or bay
and their tidal heights change with continued rise of sea
level. In the event of a future sea-level rise that averages
several meters, similar regional and local deviations can
be expected.
The role of isostatic warping of continental margins
and ocean basins under the waterload of rising sea level
has become a major topic of research (Cathles, 1975; Clark
et al., 1978; Pettier, 1982, Chapter 4, this volume). By
their nature, coasts are at the margins of the oceans, where
differential flexure in late-glacial and postglacial time has
been maximal.
The graphic analysis or regression method of determin-
ing late Quaternary sea-level maxima (Figure 6.5) can also
be applied to late-glacial and Holocene sea-level research
OCR for page 112
112
o
-2
_.
~0
,~ so
fir 2O
tC,
o
r
/ EV514TIC
| SEA- LEVEL RISE
6
100O YR BP
O
~ - 2
a)
- ,.
As'
~ _.~
/ ~
/ m ~
~ i
1000 YR BF
. ', .-.
2 0
~00 Ye ~
FIGURE 6.7 Distribution of the six predicted sea-level zones
resulting from retreat of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. Within
each zone the form of the sea-level response is similar. Typical
relative sea-level curves predicted for each zone are included,
(Figure 6.8~. Results are tentative and preliminary, but are
presented here because of their interesting implications
about the relations between sea levels and postglacial
isostatic adjustments (Peltier 1982, Chapter 4, this vol-
ume). Thirteen well-documented and representative sea-
level curves~were selected from the published literature to
compile Figure 6.8. All have records of 8000 radiocarbon
years or more. Some were chosen from Arctic regions
where postglacial emergence due to isostatic uplift is the
dominant process; others are from the Atlantic coast of the
United States and Europe, which are generally areas of
postglacial subsidence (zone II of Figure 6.7~. Each se
ARTHURL.BLOOM AND NOBUYUKIYONEKURA
· ~ ~50
\~ 20
v, JO
~ . , ToO
lODO YR BF10
~0
\ ~R~^srno~
\ ,0'
\I -a
~,
0a 1
~ -5
C ~ 2 0c,, ~10
lD00 YR BP_~5
t0~0
USES.
~.~
Y
, ~ ~ ~ ~. ~
2
- 07R
2
YR BP
-
2.
-2.
,1 ~
~ ~ . . t ~ - - ~
2 O
K)OO OR 8P
and they show the wide variety of sea-level expressions possible
despite the assumption of no eustatic change since 5000 yrBP
(Clark and Lingle, 1979).
lected sea-level curve was sampled at 1000-yr intervals,
recording the age and vertical height or depth of the sample
locality. The height of sea level at each 1000-yr interval
was then plotted as a function of the height (or depth) of
the 8000-yr-old sea level at that locality (Figure 6.8) and
the linear regressions were calculated for each 1000-yr
trend relative to the 8000-yr-old trend line (Table 6.3?.
Unlike Eq. (6.2) and Figure 6.5, in which a value of b,
initial sea level, is significant, all of the regression lines in
Figure 6.8 pass within a fraction of a meter of the origin.
That seems to imply that all 13 samples of each 1000-yr
time interval were proportionately spaced; that is, the
OCR for page 113
GRAPHIC ANALYSIS OF DISLOCATED QUARTERNARY SHORELINES
amount of emergence or submergence recorded for each
1000-yr interval in the last 8000 yr is proportional to the
total amount of emergence or submergence at that place.
This statement is true even though the total vertical change
of relative sea level at the various localities in the past
8000 yr ranges from relative uplift of 70 m at Oslo, Nor-
way, to relative drowning of 20 m on the Delaware coast.
Is it possible that mean sea level has not changed its
absolute level (relative to the center of the Earth, for in-
stance) for the last 8000 yr, and that the observed submer-
gence at U.S. and western European ports is due to isostatic
adjustments downward that are analogous and proportional
to the uplift farther north in more recently deglaciated
reasons? The near-zero intercept of all the regression lines
in Figure 6.8 would seem to indicate that. If so, the best-
documented sea-level histories, those of eastern United
States and western Europe, are not directly reporting addi-
tional water into the world ocean, but local isostatic re
70
60
50 _
Hi
(m) 40
30
20
~10
~i210y
/;L_
/^,
113
sponse to water added 8000 yr or more ago. Postglacial
isostatic uplift has a half-life of 1000 yr or more, and
would give the observed exponentially decreasing sub-
mergence observed at all the stations in the lower left side
of Figure 6.8, but it is provocative that the submergence
should be so rigorously proportional to postglacial uplift
elsewhere. Perhaps future sea-level change will be con-
trolled mostly by residual isostatic response to the loading
and unloading that was completed as much as 8000 yr ago.
Any climatically induced change of real sea level would
be added to or subtracted from the trends documented by
Figure 6.8.
CONCLUSIONS
1. Paleosea levels for the last 125,000 yr can be deter-
mined from tectonically uplifted coral-reef regions, but
thus far only for the interglacial and interstadial sea-level
Us
~o,,-
H29 H48 H6' H8 ~
Hl' H3IH5lH7: ~TO ~'63 HO
f ~/ ~ ~
10 20 30 40 50 60 70
-10 He (m)
H7 = 0.66 H8 -.67
-20 H6=0.43H8-.5O
HE = 0.32 H8 +.25
H. =0.21 H8 + .02
H3-0.13H8~05
HE =0.08H8+.10
Hl =0.05H8-.06
(r7=0.974)
~ r6 = 0.956 ~
(rS=0.923)
(~4 = 0.938 ~
(r3=0.939)
(r2=0.910)
(rl ~ 0.947
FIGURE 6.8 Regression analysis of sea-
level curves from 13 sites (Table 6.11. As
in Figure 6.5, height or depth of sea level
at each younger 1000-yr interval (H7, H6,
etc.) is plotted relative to the height or
depth of the 8000-yr-old shoreline (H8) at
the site. Odd- and even-numbered incre-
ments are plotted by different symbols only
to permit easy visual evaluation of the re-
gression lines. Method, equations, and
coefficients are similar to those used in
constructing Figure 6.5. The important
difference here is that all regression lines
pass through or very close to the origin, as
shown by the small values of coefficient b
(+0.25 to-0.67 m).
OCR for page 114
114
TABLE 6.3 Sea-Level History for the Past 8000 Yr, Northern Hemisphere Sites
ARTHUR L. BLOOM AND NOBUYUKI YONEKURA
Relative Sea Level at 1000-yr Intervals since 8000 yrBP
Location 1000 yr2000 yr3000 yr 4000 yr5000 yr6000 yr7000 yr8000 yr
Ellesmere, Canada 2 + 14+ 18 + 1 13 + 118 + 126+ 147+257+2
NE Greenland 1 + 12+ 12+ 1 2+ 13 + 14+ 112+ 134+2
Oslo, Norway 4 + 17 + 110 + 1 16 + 126 + 132 + 146 + 167 + 1
Jaeren, Norway 0 + 11 + 11 + 1 3 + 16 + 13 + 17 + 14 + 1
Clinton, Conn. -1.0 + 0.5-1.7 + 1-2.7 + 1 -3.6 + 1-5.0 + 1-6.2 + 1-7.3 + 1-8.5 + 1
Plum Island, Mass. -0.7 + 0.2-1.3 + 1-2.1 + 1 -3.2 + 1- .6 + 1-7.0 + 1-9.5 + 1-12.2 + 1
NW England 1 + 11 + 10+ 1 -2+ 1-2+ 1- + 1-6+ 1-14+ 1
San Francisco -2 + 1-3 + 1~ + 1 -6 + 2-7 + 2-10 + 2-12 + 2-17 + 3
U.S. Gulf Coast -0.3 + 0.50.6 + 0.5-1.4 + 0.5 -2.5 + 0.5-3.6 + 1- .8 + 1-7.6 + 2-12 + 2
Delaware -1 + 1-3.5 + 1-5 + 1 -8 + 1-11 + 1-14.5 + 1-17 + 1-20 + 2
Carribean Islands -1 + 2-2 + 2-2.5 + 2 -3.5 + 2-5.3 + 2-7.7 + 2-11.5 + 2-15.5 + 2
SW England 0 + 0.5-0.8 + 0.5-1.3 + 0.5 -1.9 + 0.5-3.4 + 0.5-5.6 + 0.5-11 i 1-17.2 + 1
Panama Republic -2 + 2-2 + 2-5 + 2 -8 + 3-12 + 3-12 + 3-13 + 3-15 + 4
NOTE: For original sources, see Bloom (19771. Error estimates
6.8, were estimated from statements in the original citations.
maxima that recurred at approximately 20,000-yr inter-
vals. The intervening full-glacial or stadial times of gla-
cier expansion and sea-level minima probably could be
determined from coral islands by a future program of
drilling and sampling. In addition, it is possible that
drowned reefs of former stadial and full glacial times are
still exposed on the steep flanks of suitable atolls or shelf
reefs at depths on the order of 120 m. These could be
studied and sampled from existing submersible research
vessels.
2. A few data points now available from coral-reef
studies suggest that the amplitude of multiple sea-level
oscillations within the last ice age was substantial; perhaps
equal to 50 percent or more of the maximum sea-level
lowering that occurred about 1 8,O00 yr ago. In particular,
a shard drop of sea level of 70 m may have occurred within
about 10,000 yr after the last interglacial (isotope stage Se)
sea-level maximum. To the extent that such a sharp sea-
level drop might occur at the beginning of the next ice age,
it should be better documented. Only one place on the
Huon Peninsula of Papua New Guinea is thought to record
the event, but other regions of rapidly uplifted Quaternary
coral reefs could be investigated.
3. The deep-sea oxygen-isotope record probably does
not display the full amplitude of sea-level or temperature
oscillations because of bioturbation. Furthermore, an
obvious discrepancy persists between the absolute heights
of interstadial sea-level maxima as interpreted from the
deep-sea oxygen-isotope record and those calculated from
uplifted coral reefs. The oxygen-isotope record of corals
agrees with the record obtained from pelagic and benthic
foraminifera, and so the problem is not to resolve a contra
added for evaluating the correlation coefficients shown on Figure
diction between the coral-reef and the deep-sea isotopic
record, but to determine whether the oxygen isotope ratios
document ice volumes or temperature, and whether tec-
tonic uplift models of coral coasts are valid. No new
recommendation on this question can be made since the
dilemma is well known and vigorously debated. Only the
cliche, "More work is needed," can be offered.
4. With the last 10,000 yr, proportional rates of emer-
gence or submergence at a selection of North America and
European coastal sites seem to have been remarkably
uniform. One interpretation could be that most of the
glacier meltwater had returned to the sea by 8000 yr ago,
and that the observed sea-level changes at various stations
since then do not involve changes in the mass of ocean
water, but only continuing isostatic adjustments to dis-
placed ice and water loads (and possibly thermal expan-
sion).
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Representative terms from entire chapter:
uplift rate
