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Stratigraphic and Microfossil Evidence for Late Holocene Tsunamis at Swantown Marsh, Whidbey Island, Washington

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Harry Williams  and
Ian Hutchinson
Harry Williams
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, University of North Texas, Denton, Texas, 76203
Ian Hutchinson
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada, V5A 1S6
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Abstract

Four muddy sand sheets occur within a tidal marsh peat at Swantown on the west coast of Whidbey Island, Washington. The two largest sand sheets pinch out about 100 m inland and became thinner and finer-grained landward. All four sand sheets contain marine microfossils and have internal stratification. They record repeated inundation of the marsh over a short time period by distinct pulses of sediment-laden ocean water, consistent with deposition by a tsunami wave train. The layers have been radiocarbon-dated to 1160–1350, 1400–1700, 1810–2060, and 1830–2120 cal yr B.P. The overlap in age between the two youngest layers and inferred great earthquake events at the Cascadia plate boundary, some 250 km to the west, suggests they were emplaced by tsunamis from this source area. The two older layers do not correlate with plate-boundary events. They may be products of tsunamis caused by earthquakes on local faults in the Strait of Juan de Fuca or by submarine landslides in this area.

Keywords

tsunamicascadia subduction zonepaleoseismologytidal marsh
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , September 2000 , pp. 218 - 227
Copyright
University of Washington

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