Logo image
Stratigraphic evidence for an early Holocene earthquake in Aceh, Indonesia
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Stratigraphic evidence for an early Holocene earthquake in Aceh, Indonesia

Candace A. Grand Pre, Benjamin P. Horton, Harvey M. Kelsey, Charles M. Rubin, Andrea D. Hawkes, Mudrik R. Daryono, Gary Rosenberg and Stephen J. Culver
Quaternary science reviews, v 54
26 Oct 2012

Abstract

Foraminifera Paleoseismicity Pollen Relative sea level Subsidence stratigraphy Sumatra Tsunami deposit
The Holocene stratigraphy of the coastal plain of the Aceh Province of Sumatra contains 6 m of sediment with three regionally consistent buried soils above pre-Quaternary bedrock or pre-Holocene unconsolidated sediment. Litho-, bio-, and chronostratigraphic analyses of the lower buried soil reveals a rapid change in relative sea-level caused by coseismic subsidence during an early Holocene megathrust earthquake. Evidence for paleoseismic subsidence is preserved as a buried mangrove soil, dominated by a pollen assemblage of Rhizophora and/or Bruguiera/Ceriops taxa. The soil is abruptly overlain by a thin tsunami sand. The sand contains mixed pollen and abraded foraminiferal assemblages of both offshore and onshore environments. The tsunami sand grades upward into mud that contains both well-preserved foraminifera of intertidal origin and individuals of the gastropod Cerithidea cingulata. Radiocarbon ages from the pre- and post-seismic sedimentary sequences constrain the paleoearthquake to 6500–7000 cal. yrs. BP. We use micro-and macrofossil data to determine the local paleoenvironment before and after the earthquake. We estimate coseismic subsidence to be 0.45 ± 0.30 m, which is comparable to the 0.6 m of subsidence observed during the 2004 Aceh–Andaman earthquake on Aceh’s west coast. ► We develop a multi-proxy methodology to estimate coseismic subsidence. ► Radiocarbon estimates reveal coseismic subsidence in Sumatra 6500–7000 cal. yrs BP. ► Subsidence is ∼0.45 m, which is comparable that of the 2004 Aceh–Andaman Earthquake.

Metrics

14 Record Views
32 citations in Scopus

Details

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

InCites Highlights

Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:

Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
International collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Geography, Physical
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Logo image