HR: 08:00h
AN: OS31A-01 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: Dating of Submarine Landslides and Their Tsunami Deposits Using Hawaii as an Example
AU: * McMurtry, G M
EM: garym@soest.hawaii.edu
AF: School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, HI 96822 United States
AU: Herrero-Bervera, E
EM: herrero@soest.hawaii.edu
AF: School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, 1000 Pope Road, Honolulu, HI 96822 United States
AB: There have been several approaches to dating the initiation of submarine landslides and the tsunamis they inevitably produce. In Hawaii, the timing of flank failures of major volcanoes has been estimated by radiometric and paleomagnetic dating of the youngest shield-building flows and dikes, the apex ages of the volcanoes, which can also be constrained by the oldest flows of post-collapse volcanism. More precise age estimates can be obtained by direct dating of the landslide. These approaches include paleomagnetic and U-series stratigraphic dating of the overlying pelagic sediment cover upon and in front of the landslide, the latter method producing minimum ages of last landslide turbidite emplacement, e.g., the ca. 120 ka Alika phase 2 event. Elevated, detached landslide blocks make the best targets for such dating because it is assumed that smaller post-emplacement turbidites will not reach their summits. Catastrophic events such as the 1.0 Ma Wailau giant landslide have, however, been dated by turbidite deposition upon large, elevated blocks of the nearby 1.8 Ma Nuuanu giant landslide. Other direct methods for older events include use of thickness of ferromanganese crusts collected from steep, exposed rock scarps and cosmogenic Be-10 or U-series radiometric determination of the few mm/Ma rate of accumulation. In subtropical areas such as Hawaii, coral clast-bearing, elevated marine deposits on the southeastern islands have been identified as deposits from giant tsunamis. Among the key evidence are the great age and paleo-elevations of the coral clasts found in situ. Since modern coral clasts are relatively young, a few thousand years old or less, older analogs swept from the presently submerged reefs offshore can reliably date tsunamigenic depositional events within the late Quaternary using U-series methods. The age of the tsunami will date within these limits (and the analytical precisions) to the youngest in situ coral clast that was entrained by the waves. U-series dates approximately coeval with the Alika 2 giant landslide suggest a youngest 100 ka tsunami emplacement age from 100-137 ka corals collected on Lanai and Hawaii; likewise, older deposits on Molokai and Lanai suggest a 200 ka tsunami emplacement age from corals that range 200-258 ka in age, but interpretative care must be taken as open-system behavior upon weathering may produce apparently younger dates. Other promising methods for dating these deposits include cosmogenic Cl-36 exposure ages of cements and Cl-36 and He-3 exposure ages of the entrained volcanic rocks. Younger events can be dated by the above methods using C-14 or unsupported Pb-210.
DE: 1527 Paleomagnetism applied to geologic processes
DE: 3022 Marine sediments--processes and transport
DE: 4546 Nearshore processes
DE: 4564 Tsunamis and storm surges
DE: 4860 Radioactivity and radioisotopes
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting