Late Quaternary coseismic uplift events on the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea, deduced from coral terrace data

Abstract

Up to six regressive terraces occur on the Holocene raised reef tract and up to 15 occur on late Pleistocene raised reef tracts along 40 km of coastline at Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea. We suggest that the regressive terraces represent repeated episodic uplift caused by great earthquakes. Ages of Holocene coseismic uplift events are established by radiocarbon dating; the late Pleistocene events are bracketed by U series ages of the raised reef tracts on which they occur. The mean recurrence interval of great earthquakes that caused the uplift events is 970 to 1165 years in the Holocene and probably the same in the late Pleistocene; the interval ranged from about 200 to 1900 years. The uplift rate increases parallel to the coast from northwest to southeast, and the amplitude of coseismic uplifts generally increases similarly, although some events produced uplift with little shore‐parallel tilting. The mean amplitude of coseismic uplifts throughout the study area is ∼3 m in for both Holocene and late Pleistocene sequences. Large, late Quaternary landslides are numerous, and some probably were triggered by the great earthquakes that caused coseismic uplift. There appears to be no continuum between historical large earthquakes at Huon Peninsula of magnitudes >7 that produced no or only minor uplift, and the great earthquakes represented by meter‐scale coseismic uplifts and very large landslides. Two tectonic subregions are recognized, which were uplifted together by some Holocene events but not by others. There is no surface trace of Holocene faulting between the subregions, and a buried fault is thought to separate them.