Abstract
Abstract. In this paper, we describe a sea-level database compiled using published last interglacial, Marine Isotopic Stage 5 (MIS 5), geological sea-level proxies within East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean (EAWIO). Encompassing vast tropical coastlines and coralline islands, this region has many occurrences of well-preserved last interglacial stratigraphies. Most notably, islands almost entirely composed of Pleistocene reefs (such as Aldabra, the Seychelles) have provided reliable paleo relative sea-level indicators and well-preserved samples for U-series chronology. Other sea-level proxies include uplifted marine terraces in the north of Somalia and Pleistocene eolian deposits notched by the MIS 5 sea level in Mozambique to tidal notches in luminescence-limited eolian deposits in Mozambique. Our database has been compiled using the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) interface and contains 58 sea-level indicators and 2 terrestrial-limiting data points. The open-access database is available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4302244 (Version 1.03; Boyden et al., 2020).
Highlights
We describe a sea-level database compiled using published last interglacial, Marine Isotopic Stage 5 (MIS 5), geological sea-level proxies within East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean (EAWIO)
The main aim of this paper is to describe a standardized database of geological sea-level proxies, compiled using the tools available through the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) project
The indicative range (IR) is defined by the upper and lower limits of where the indicator forms in relation to a known datum; the reference water level (RWL) is the mid-point of the IR
Summary
The main aim of this paper is to describe a standardized database of geological sea-level proxies, compiled using the tools available through the World Atlas of Last Interglacial Shorelines (WALIS) project (https://warmcoasts.eu/ world-atlas.html, last access: 11 February 2021). During an expedition on board HMS Alert in 1882, Abbott surveyed the Aldabra and Glorieuses island groups, providing the first description of raised coral reefs in this area It would not be until the 1920s and 1930s when the coastal geomorphology of EAWIO was revisited and new sites were added. Stockley (1928) was the first to describe emergent reefs as a dominant lithology of the Zanzibar Archipelago This was followed much later by Battistini (1966), who described several cropping-out reefs along the central Tanzanian coast, which he attributed to the same transgressive sequences he observed on the northern coast of Madagascar (Tatsimian and Karimbolian). While mainly volcanic in origin, the Mascarene Archipelago has extensive modern fringing coral reefs and a few occurrences of emerged paleo-reefs (Faure, 1977). Battistini et al (1976) first described emergent Pleistocene reef sections along the western coast of Mauritius, but for the most part, post-volcanic subsidence means that the majority of Pleistocene outcrops are covered by either more recent eolian sands or Holocene modern coral accumulation (Camoin et al, 1997)
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