MARINE TERRACES ALONG THE MYANMAR COAST AND THEIR ACTIVE TECTONIC SIGNIFICANCE

Abstract

Wave-cut platforms, uplifted marine terraces, and areas of subsidence are among the most striking geomorphic features along some parts of the Myanmar coast. Depending on the local tectonic setting, processes of development of terraces of the Myanmar coast can be classified into at least three categories viz. (i) uplifting of wave-cut platforms or intertidal deposits by megathrust earthquakes, (ii) growth of prodelta sandbars where tectonic signatures, should they ever form, are overwhelmed by rapid sedimentation, and (iii) uplifting of wave-cut platforms or intertidal deposits developed in strike-slip related sigmoidal basins on the coast by strike-slip tectonic activity. Some of the higher flat areas behind those on or close to the shore could probably belong to the fourth category that is lowering of the sea level during the last glacial ages in Pleistocene time. Many of these terraces are still not yet properly studied, hence should be carried out.