Growth patterns of the last ice age coral terraces at Huon Peninsula

Abstract

At Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea, prolific coral growth during the last-glacial was episodic and in response to a series of sea-level rises. The resultant step-like coral terraces are currently situated from 20 m up to 140 m above sea-level due to continuous tectonic uplift of the Peninsula. The sea-level rises were in response to periodic partial disintegration of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets associated with severe climate swings and occurred within decadal timescales. The relatively rapid 15 m to 35 m rise in sea-levels exposed new head-room for corals to colonize. The resulting terrace structures contain individual corals that do not appear to have grown sequentially in time and with elevation. Additionally, following the peak, sea level fell relatively slowly over several thousand years and corals grew and filled in the flanks of the terrace such that younger corals now occupy lower elevations. We have labeled these structures “pack-up” reefs. This is in contrast to coral terraces formed during major sea-level rises from glacial to interglacial or glacial to interstadial transitions where the rate of sea level rise is commensurate with coral growth rates and corals can keep up with sea-level rise by growing on top of each other in a time orderly sequence. Deriving sea-level information from pack-up terraces is difficult and is likely to be ambiguous. The periodic fluctuations in climate were associated with atmospheric radiocarbon swings that seem to have varied smoothly with time. The same corals that show a scatter in stratigraphic temporal ordering appear regularly distributed in time and with radiocarbon content attesting to the veracity of the age measurements and at the same time confirm the disordered distribution of corals in “pack-up” type reefs.