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Extreme events; ground-penetrating radar; heavy minerals; magnetic susceptibility; optical luminescence dating.

Written history’s limitation becomes apparent when attempting to document the predecessors of extreme coastal events in the Indian Ocean, from 550–700 years in Thailand and 1000 years in Indonesia. Detailed ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys in Mahabalipuram, southeast India, complemented with sedimentological analyses, magnetic susceptibility measurements, and optical dating provide strong evidence of extreme wave events during the past 3700 years. The diagnostic event signatures include the extent and elevation of the deposits, as well as morphologic similarity of buried erosional scarps to those reported in northern Sumatra region. Optical ages immediately overlying the imaged discontinuities that coincides with high concentration of heavy minerals date the erosional events to 340 ± 35, 350 ± 20, 490 ± 30, 880 ± 40, 1080 ± 60, 1175 ± 188, 2193 ± 266, 2235 ± 881, 2489 ± 293, 2450 ± 130, 2585 ± 609, 3710 ± 200 years ago. These evidences are crucial in reconstructing paleo extreme wave events and will pave the way for regional correlation of erosional horizons along the northern margin of Indian Ocean.

Rajesh R Nair¹ Madhav K Murari² C S Vijaya Lakshmi³ Ilya Buynevich⁴ Ron J Goble⁵ P Srinivasan⁶ S G N Murthy⁶ Deshraj Trivedi³ Suresh Chandra Kandpal³ S M Hussain⁷ D Sengupta³ Ashok K Singhvi²

1. Department of Ocean Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India.
2. Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad 380 009, India.
3. Department of Geology and Geophysics, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721 302, India.
4. Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Temple University, 1901 N., 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA.
5. Department of Geosciences, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska 68588, USA.
6. Structural Engineering Research Centre, Chennai, India.
7. Madras University, Chennai, India.

Published

October 2011

Manuscript received

9 July 2010

Manuscript revised

4 April 2011

Accepted

16 May 2011