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Estimating vertical tectonic movement using sediment texture

(Department of Geology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand

P.J. Barrett

(Department of Geology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand

J.R. Goff

(Department of Geology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand

M.A. Harper

(Department of Geology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand

S.L. Irwin

(Department of Geology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, New Zealand

We demonstrate a new method of detecting, and quantifying, vertical sea-floor movements caused by tectonic uplift from a large earthquake, based on grain-size data from two cores from Petone foreshore, Wellington Harbour, New Zealand. An earthquake of magnitude 8+ raised the shores of Wellington Harbour about 2 m in AD 1855, according to historical records. This event has been recognized in two nearshore cores as a sharp decrease in mud content of 15-20% at 3.75 and 4.25 m below the sea floor (bsf). The decrease is attributed to decreased water depth resulting in higher nearshore wave-induced energy levels. The two levels in the core have been dated approximately by ¹⁴C, palynology and variations in heavy metal concentrations and are consistent with a date of AD 1855 for the abrupt shallowing of the foreshore. We infer that the mud-depth relationship has probably been affected since European colonization (post-AD 1840) by increased sediment input into the harbour. Chronological markers in the two cores suggest that rates of sediment accumulation have increased by a factor of at least ten, from 2 mm yr^-1 prior to AD 1855 to 30 mm yr^-1 since then.

Key Words: Sediment texture • palaeoseismicity • tectonics • earthquakes • New Zealand.

The Holocene, Vol. 7, No. 2, 213-221 (1997)
DOI: 10.1177/095968369700700209


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