Paleoceanography of coral reefs in the Hawaiian-Emperor Chain – revisited

Abstract

This paper is a review of the present knowledge of coral reef ecology and paleoecology in the Hawaiian-Emperor Chain during the last 70 Ma. Research on fossil coral deposits throughout the H-E Chain has played a major role in producing information concerning the subsidence, uplift and drowning of individual islands, as well as the paleocirculation of the North Pacific Ocean during Tertiary time. The origin of the Hawaiian Islands and seamounts over the Hawaiian hotspot and their subsequent subsidence and transport by plate motion to the north and northwest are reviewed and new data concerning uplift of the central high Hawaiian Islands caused by lithospheric flexure and the effect of sea level change on the geological evolution of individual islands are presented. The Darwin Point, where atolls drown to form guyots, is redefined in dynamic terms as a function of climate and sea level history. The absence of coral reefs during the first half of Hawaiian history is evidence for a major change in ocean circulation in the north Pacific about 35 million years ago during the Middle Tertiary.