Hostname: page-component-6766d58669-76mfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-16T03:44:41.716Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Optical Dating of Tsunami-Laid Sands1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David J. Huntley  and
John J. Clague
David J. Huntley
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
John J. Clague
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Canada, 100 West Pender St. Vancouver, British Columbia, V6B 1R8, Canada and Institute for Quaternary Research, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The ages of some tsunami deposits can be determined by optical dating, a key requirement being that the deposits are derived from sediment that was reworked and exposed to daylight by tidal currents, waves, wind, or bioturbation during the last years before the tsunami. Measurements have been made using 1.4 eV (infrared) excitation of K-feldspar grains separated from samples of prehistoric tsunami sand sheets and modern analogs of tsunami source sediments at four sites in Washington state and British Columbia. Source sands gave equivalent doses indicative of recent exposure to daylight. Tsunami sand at Cultus Bay, Washington, yielded an optical age of 1285 ± 95 yr (calendric years before A.D. 1995, ±1σ). At 2σ, this age overlaps the range of from 1030 to 1100 yr determined through a combination of high-precision radiocarbon dating and stratigraphic correlation. Tsunami sands at three sites near Tofino and Port Alberni on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, have optical ages of 260 ± 20, 325 ± 25, and 335 ± 45 yr. Historical records and radiocarbon dating show that the sand at each of the three sites is between 150 and 400 yr old. These optical ages support the hypothesis that the Vancouver Island sands were deposited by a tsunami generated by a large earthquake on the Cascadia subduction zone about 300 yr ago.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 46 , Issue 2 , September 1996 , pp. 127 - 140
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

1

Geological Survey of Canada Contribution 40595.

References

Aitken, M. J. (1985). “Thermoluminescence Dating.“ Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Amit, R., and Gerson, R. (1986). The evolution of Holocene Reg (gravelly) soils in deserts—an example from the Dead Sea Region. Catena 13, 59–79.Google Scholar
Amit, R., Gerson, R., and Yaalon, D. H. (1993). Stages and rate of gravel shattering process by salts in desert Reg soils. Geoderma 57, 295–324.Google Scholar
Amit, R., Harrison, J. B.J., and Enzel, Y. (1995). Use of soils and colluvial deposits in analyzing tectonic events—the southern Arava Rift, Israel. Geomorphology 12, 91–107.Google Scholar
Amit, R., Harrison, J. B.J., Enzel, Y., and Porat, N. (in press). Soils as a tool for estimating ages of Quaternary fault scarps in hyperarid environments. Catena. Google Scholar
Ben Menahem, A. (1979). Earthquake catalogue for the Middle East (92 B.C.–1980 A.D.). Bollettino di Geofisica Teorica ed Applicata 21, 245–313.Google Scholar
Ben Menahem, A., Vered, M., and Brook, D. (1982). Earthquake risk in the Holy Land: Bollettino di Geofisica Teorica ed Applicata 24, 175–203.Google Scholar
Druckman, Y., Weissbrod, T., and Garfunkel, Z. (1993). “Geological Map of Israel 1:100,000, sheets 25, 26.” The Geological Survey of Israel.Google Scholar
Duller, G. A. T. (1991). Equivalent dose determination using single aliquots. Nuclear Tracks and Radiation Measurements 18, 371–378.Google Scholar
Duller, G. A. T. (1994). Luminescence dating of sediments using single aliquots: New procedures. Quaternary Geochronology (Quaternary Science Reviews) 13, 149–156.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
El Isa, Z., H., and Mustafa, H. (1986). Earthquake deformations in the Lisan deposits and seismotectonic implications. Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society 86, 413–424.Google Scholar
Enzel, Y., Amit, R., Harrison, J. B.J., and Porat, N. (1994). Morphologic dating of fault scarps and terrace risers in the Southern Arava, Israel: Comparison to other age dating techniques and implications for paleoseis-micity. Israel Journal of Earth Sciences 43, 91–103.Google Scholar
Forman, S.L., Machette, M.N., Jackson, M.E., and Maat, P. (1989). An evaluation of thermoluminescence dating of paleoearthquakes of the American Fork segment, Wasatch Fault Zone, Utah. Journal of Geophysical Research 94 B2, 1622–1630.Google Scholar
Forman, S.L., Nelson, A.R., and McCalpin, J. P. (1991). Thermolumines-cence dating of fault-scarp-derived colluvium: Deciphering the timing of paleoearthquakes on the Weber Segment of the Wasatch Fault Zone, North Central Utah. Journal of Geophysical Research 96 B1, 595–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freund, R., Zak, I., and Garfunkel, Z. (1968). Age and rate of the sinistral movement along the Dead Sea rift. Nature 220, 253–255.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfunkel, Z. (1970). The tectonics of the western margins of the southern Arava. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The Hebrew University, Jerusalem.Google Scholar
Gerson, R., Grossman, S., and Bowman, D. (1984). Stages in the creation of a large rift valley—geomorphic evolution along the southern Dead Sea Rift. In “Tectonic Geomorphology” (Hack, J. T., and Morisawa, M., Eds.), pp. 53–73. Allen & Unwin, London.Google Scholar
Gerson, R., and Grossman, S. (1991). Late stages in the morphotectonic evolution of the southern Arava Valley Rift. Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure Report ES-1–91, 1–31.Google Scholar
Gerson, R., Grossman, S., Amit, R., and Greenbaum, N, (1993). Indicators of faulting events and periods of quiescence in desert alluvial fans. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 18, 181–202.Google Scholar
Godfrey-Smith, D.I., Huntly, D.J., and Chen, W. H. (1988). Optical dating studies of quartz and feldspar sediment extracts. Quaternary Science Review 7, 373–380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gru¨n, R., and MacDonald, P. D. M. (1989). Non-linear fitting of TL/ESR dose–response curves. Applied Radiation and Isotopes 40, 1077–1080.Google Scholar
Huntley, D.J., Godfrey-Smith, D.I., and Thewalt, M. L.W. (1985). Optical dating of sediments. Nature 313, 105–107.Google Scholar
Hutton, J.T., Prescott, J.R., Bowman, J.R., Dunham, M. N.E., Crone, A.J., Machette, M.N., and Twidale, C.R., (1994). Thermoluminescence dating of Australian palaeo-earthquakes. Quaternary Geochronology (Quaternary Science Review) 13, 143–147.Google Scholar
IPRG, (1993). The Seismological Bulletin of Israel 1900–1993. The Institute for Petroleum Research and Geophysics Z1/567/79(106A), 1–10.Google Scholar
Li, S-H. (1994). Optical dating: Insufficiently bleached sediments. Radiation Measurements 23, 563–567.Google Scholar
Marco, S., Agnon, A., Stein, M., and Ron, H. (1994). A 50,000 year continuous record of earthquakes and surface ruptures in the Lisan Formation, the Dead Sea Graben. U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report 94–568, 112–114.Google Scholar
Marco, S., and Agnon, A. (1995). Prehistoric earthquake deformations near Masada, Dead Sea graben. Geology 23, 695–698.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matar, A. (1990). Contribution a l'etude seismotectonique de la Syrie (al-ghab). Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Universite Joseph Fourier, Grenoble I.Google Scholar
McCalpin, J. P. and Forman, S. L. (1991). Late Quaternary faulting and thermoluminescence dating of the East Cache fault zone, north-central Utah. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 81, 139–161.Google Scholar
McCalpin, J.P., Forman, S.L., and Lowe, M. (1994). Reevaluation of Holocene faulting at the Kaysville site, Weber segment of the Wasatch fault zone, Utah. Tectonics 13, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mejdahl, V. (1987). Internal radioactivity in quartz and feldspar grains. Ancient TL 5, 10–17.Google Scholar
Nelson, A. R. (1992). Lithofacies analysis of colluvial sediments—an aid in interpreting the recent history of Quaternary normal faults in the Basin and Range province, western United States. Journal of Sedimentary Petrology 62, 607–621.Google Scholar
Niemi, T.M., and Ben-Avraham, Z. (1994). Evidence for Jericho earthquakes from slumped sediments of the Jordan River delta in the Dead Sea. Geology 22, 395–398.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prescott, J.R., and Hutton, J. T. (1988). Cosmic ray and gamma ray dosime-try for TL and ESR. Nuclear Tracks and Radiation Measurements 14, 223–227.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Quennell, A. M. (1984). The western Arabian rift system. In “The Geological Evolution of the eastern Mediterranean” (Dixon, J. E., and Robertson, A. H. F., Eds.), pp. 775–788. Geological Society of London Special Publication 17.Google Scholar
Sanderson, D. C. W. (1988). Thick source beta counting (TSBC): A rapid method for measuring beta dose-rates. Nuclear Tracks and Radiation Measurements 14, 203–207.Google Scholar
Schwartz, D., and Coppersmith, K. J. (1984). Fault behavior and characteristic earthquakes: Examples from the Wasatch and San Andreas fault zones. Journal of Geophysical Research 89 B7, 5681–5698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shamir, G., and Shapira, A. (1994). Seismicity parameters of seismogenic zones in and around Israel. IRPG Report Z1/567/79(109), 11–12.Google Scholar
Singhvi, A.K., Sharma, Y.P., and Agrawal, D. P. (1982). Thermolumines-cence dating of dune sands in Rajastan, India. Nature 295, 313–315.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wallace, R. E. (1977). Profile and age of young fault scarps, north-central Nevada. Geological Society of America Bulletin 88, 1267–1281.Google Scholar
Wells, D.L., and Coppersmith, K. J. (1994). Updated empirical relationships among magnitude, rupture length, rupture area, and surface displacement. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 84, 974–1002.Google Scholar
Wintle, A. G. (1993). Luminescence dating of aeolian sands: an overview. In “The Dynamics and Environmental Context of Aeolian Sedimentary Systems” (Pye, K., Ed.), pp. 49–58. Geological Society of London Special Publication 72.Google Scholar
Wintle, A.G., Li, S-H., and Botha, G. A. (1993). Luminescence dating of colluvial deposits from Natal, South Africa. South African Journal of Science 89, 77–82.Google Scholar
Wintle, A.G., Li, S-H., Botha, G.A., and Vogel, J. C. (1995a). Evaluation of luminescence dating procedures applied to late Holocene colluvium near St. Paul's Mission, Natal, South Africa. The Holocene 5, 97–102.Google Scholar
Wintle, A.G., Botha, G.A., Li, S.H., and Vogel, J. C. (1995b). A chronological framework for colluviation during the last 110 kyr in KwaZulu/ Natal. South African Journal of Science 91, 134–139.Google Scholar