Age of -360-m reef terrace, Hawaii, and the rate of late Pleistocene subsidence of the island

Abstract

Observations from a manned submersible vehicle indicate that the −360-m reef terrace northwest of the island of Hawaii is a drowned coral reef. The preferred uranium-series age of coralline algae collected from the reef face is 120 ± 5 ka. This age agrees with the notion that the reef was drowned during the sea-level rise following the major lowstand of the sea that occurred at 145 ka (oxygen isotope stage 6). This drowning pattern is similar to the previously determined radiocarbon age of 13 ka for drowning of the −150-m reef off west Hawaii, which drowned during the sea-level rise following the last major lowstand of the sea at 18 ka (oxygen isotope stage 2). Estimated average subsidence of the reef site off northwest Hawaii is 2.7 mm/yr since final drowning of the −360-m reef.