Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Webster, J. M. Articles by Paull, C. K. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Drowning of the –150 m reef off Hawaii: A casualty of global meltwater pulse 1A?

¹ Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, California 95039, USA
² Department of Geological Sciences, University of Minnesota Duluth, Duluth, Minnesota 55812, USA
³ Departamento de Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain
⁴ Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Santa Cruz, California 95064, USA
⁵ U.S. Geological Survey, MS 910, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA
⁶ Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, California 92093, USA
⁷ Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, Moss Landing, California 95039, USA

We present evidence that the drowning of the –150 m coral reef around Hawaii was caused by rapid sea-level rise associated with meltwater pulse 1A (MWP-1A) during the last deglaciation. New U/Th and ¹⁴C accelerator mass spectrometry dates, combined with reinterpretation of existing radiometric dates, constrain the age of the coral reef to 15.2–14.7 ka (U/Th age), indicating that reef growth persisted for 4.3 k.y. following the end of the Last Glacial Maximum at 19 ka. The drowning age of the reef is roughly synchronous with the onset of MWP-1A between 14.7 and 14.2 ka. Dates from coralline algal material range from 14 to 10 cal ka (calibrated radiocarbon age), 1–4 k.y. younger than the coral ages. A paleoenvironmental reconstruction incorporating all available radiometric dates, high-resolution bathymetry, dive observations, and coralgal paleobathymetry data indicates a dramatic rise in sea level around Hawaii ca. 14.7 ka. Paleowater depths over the reef crest increased rapidly above a critical depth (30–40 m), drowning the shallow reef-building Porites corals and causing a shift to deep-water coralline algal growth, preserved as a crust on the drowned reef crest.

Key Words: Hawaii • coral reef drowning • deglaciation • meltwater pulse 1A

This article has been cited by other articles:

				R. A. GASTALDO, E. PURKYNOVA, and Z. SIMUNEK MEGAFLORAL PERTURBATION ACROSS THE ENNA MARINE ZONE IN THE UPPER SILESIAN BASIN ATTESTS TO LATE MISSISSIPPIAN (SERPUKHOVIAN) DEGLACIATION AND CLIMATE CHANGE Palaios, June 1, 2009; 24(6): 351 - 366. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				S. K. IZUKA and J. M. RESIG EVIDENCE OF LATE PLIOCENE-EARLY PLEISTOCENE MARINE ENVIRONMENTS IN THE DEEP SUBSURFACE OF THE LIHUE BASIN, KAUAI, HAWAII Palaios, July 1, 2008; 23(7): 442 - 451. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]