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Fossiliferous Lana'i deposits formed by multiple events rather than a single giant tsunami

Nature volume 408, pages 675–681 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

Giant tsunamis, generated by submarine landslides in the Hawaiian Islands, have been thought to be responsible for the deposition of chaotic gravels high on the southern coastal slopes of the islands of Lana'i and Moloka'i, Hawaii. Here we investigate this hypothesis, using uranium–thorium dating of the Hulopoe gravel (on Lana'i) and a study of stratigraphic relationships, such as facies changes and hiatuses, within the deposit. The Hulopoe gravel contains corals of two age groups, representing marine isotope stages 5e and 7 (∼135,000 and 240,000 years ago, respectively), with significant geographical and stratigraphic ordering. We show that the Hulopoe gravel was formed by multiple depositional events, separated by considerable periods of time, thus invalidating the main premise of the ‘giant wave’ hypothesis. Instead, the gravels were probably deposited during interglacial periods (when sea level was relatively high) by typical Hawaiian shoreline processes such as seasonal wave patterns, storm events and possibly ‘normal’ tsunamis, and reached their present height by uplift of Lana'i.

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Figure 1: Summary of the study area on the southern coast of Lana'i, Hawaii.
Figure 2: 230Th–234U–238U data for Hulopoe gravel coral clasts.
Figure 3: Age-elevation relationships for Hulopoe gravel coral clasts.

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Acknowledgements

We thank E. Grossman and M. Coyne for field assistance, K. Spencer for maintaining the UH Isotope Lab, J. Moore, W. Bryan, A. Felton, R. Grigg, C. Glenn, T. Jones, P. Wessel and B. Keating for enlivening discussions, the Manele Bay Hotel for access and D. Muhs for a review. This work was supported by the University of Hawaii, Seagrant, the US Geological Survey and the US National Science Foundation.

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  1. Department of Geology and Geophysics, SOEST, University of Hawaii, 2525 Correa Road, Honolulu, 96822, Hawaii, USA

    Ken H. Rubin, Charles H. Fletcher III & Clark Sherman

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  1. Ken H. Rubin
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  3. Clark Sherman
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Correspondence to Ken H. Rubin.

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Rubin, K., Fletcher, C. & Sherman, C. Fossiliferous Lana'i deposits formed by multiple events rather than a single giant tsunami. Nature 408, 675–681 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35047008

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