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.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aitken M J 1998 An introduction to optical dating: The dating of Quaternary sediments by the use of photon-stimulated luminescence (USA, New York: Oxford University Press) 280p.
Babu N, Suresh Babu D S and Mohan Das P N 2007 Impact of tsunami on texture and mineralogy of a major placer deposits in southwest coast of India; Environ. Geol. 52 71–80.
Bailey R M et al 1997 Partial bleaching and the decay form characteristics of quartz OSL; Radiation Measurements 27(2) 123–136.
Bøtter-Jensen L et al 2003 Optically stimulated luminescence dosimetry, 1st edn (Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Science), 374p.
Buynevich I V, FitzGerald D M and van Heteren S 2004 Sedimentary records of intense storms in Holocene barrier sequences, Maine, USA; Mar. Geol. 210 135–148.
Buynevich I V, FitzGerald D M and Goble R J 2007a A 1500 yr record of North Atlantic storm activity based on optically dated relict beach scarps; Geology 35 543–546.
Buynevich I V, Bitinas A and Pupienis D 2007b Lithological anomalies in a relict coastal dune: Geophysical and paleoenvironmental markers; Geophys. Res. Lett. 34 L09707, doi: 10.1029/2007GL029767.
Buynevich I V, Jol H M and FitzGerald D M 2009 Coastal Environment; In: Ground Penetrating Radar: Theory and Applications (ed.) Jol H M, Elsevier, pp. 299–322.
Clarke M, Rendell H, Tastet J-P, Clave B and Masse L 2002 Late-Holocene sand invasion and North Atlantic storminess along the Aquitaine Coast, southwest France; The Holocene 12 231–238.
Jain M and Singhvi A K 2001 Limits to depletion of blue-green light stimulated luminescence in feldspars: Implications for quartz dating; Radiation Measurements 33(6) 883–892.
Jain M et al 2003 Characterisation of blue-light stimulated luminescence components in different quartz samples: Implications for dose measurement; Radiation Measurements 37(4–5) 441–449.
Jankaew K, Atwater B F, Sawai Y, Choowon M, Charoentitirat T, Martin M E and Prendergast A 2008 Medieval forewarning of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in Thailand; Nature 455 1228–1231.
Jol H M, Smith D G and Meyers R A 1996 Digital ground penetrating radar (GPR): A new geophysical tool for coastal barrier research (examples from the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts, U.S.A.); J. Coast. Res. 12 960–968.
Meyers R, Smith D G, Jol H M and Peterson C D 1996 Evidence for eight great earthquake subsidence events detected with ground penetrating radar, Willapa barrier, Washington; Geology 24 99–102.
Monecke K, Finger W, Klarer D, Kongko W, McAdoo B G, Moore A L and Sudrajat S U 2008 A 1000-year sediment record of tsunami recurrence in northern Sumatra; Nature 455 1232–1234.
Morton R A, Gelfenbaum G and Jaffe B E 2007 Physical criteria for distinguishing sandy tsunami and storm deposits using modern examples; Sedim. Geol. 200 184–207.
Murari M K 2008 Component specific luminescence of natural minerals and their application to the dosimetry of natural radiation environment; Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Udaipur, 141p.
Murari M K and Singhvi A K 2006 Component specific paleodose estimation in optically stimulated luminescence dating: Methodology, applications and implications (Oral Presentation), paper presented at Asia–Pacific Conference on Luminescence Dating (APLD), Hongkong, China.
Murari M K, Achyuthan H and Singhvi A K 2007 Luminescence studies on the sediments laid down by the December 2004 tsunami event: Prospects for the dating of palaeo tsunamis and for the estimation of sediment fluxes; Curr. Sci. 92 367–371.
Murray A S and Olley J M 2002 Precision and accuracy in the optically stimulated luminescence dating of sedimentary quartz: A status review; Geochronometria 21 11–16.
Murthy K S R, Subrahmanyam A S, Lakshmi Narayana S, Chandrasekar D V and Rao T C S 1995 Some geodynamic aspects of the Krishna–Godavari basin, east coast of India; Cont. Shelf Res. 15 779–788.
Nagendra R, Kamalakannan B V, Sajith C, Sen G, Reddy A N and Srinivasulu S 2005 A record of foraminiferal assemblage in tsunami sediments along Nagapattinam coast, Tamil Nadu; Curr. Sci. 89 1947– 1952.
Nair R R, Buynevich I, Goble R J, Srinivasan P, Murthy S G N, Kandpal S C, Vijayalakshmi C S and Trivedi D 2010 Subsurface images shed light on past tsunamis in India; Eos, Transactions American Geophysical Union 91(50) 489–490.
Rajendran C P, Rajendran K, Machado T, Satyamurthy T, Aravazhi P and Jaiswal M 2006 Evidence of ancient sea surges at the Mamallapuram coast of India and implications for previous Indian Ocean tsunami events; Curr. Sci. 91 1242–1247.
Ramaiyan M, Krishna Prasad E and Suresh P K 1997 Shoreline oscillation of Tamil Nadu coast; In: Proc. Second Indian National Conference of Harbour and Ocean Engineering, Trivandrum, pp. 1176–1181.
Selvaraj K and Ram Mohan V 2003 Textural variation and depositional environments of innershelf sediments off Kalpakkam, southeast coast of India; J. Geol. Soc. India 61 449–462.
Shiki T, Tsuji Y, Yamazaki T and Minoura K 2008 Tsunamiites Features and Implications, Elsevier, pp. 1–2.
Singhvi A K and Porat N 2008 Impact of luminescence dating on geomorphological and palaeoclimate research in drylands; Boreas 37 536–558.
Singhvi A K et al 2008 Sensitivity changes during OSL read out: Implications and modified SAR protocol, paper presented at ICLA 2008, NPL, New Delhi.
Sommerville A A, Hansom J D, Sanderson D C W and Housley R A 2003 Optically stimulated luminescence dating of large storm events in Northern Scotland; Quat. Sci. Rev. 22 1085–1092.
Srinivasulu S, Thangadurai N, Switzer A D, Ram Mohan V and Ayyamperumal T 2007 Erosion and sedimentation in Kalpakkam (N Tamil Nadu, India) from the 26th December 2004 tsunami; Mar. Geol. 240 65–75.
Subrahmanyan K S and Selvan T A 2001 Geology of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry; Geol. Soc. India Spec. Publ. p. 192.
Vijayalakshmi C S, Srinivasan P, Murthy S G N, Trivedi D and Nair R R 2010 Granularity and textural analysis as a proxy for extreme wave events; J. Earth. Syst. Sci. 119(3) 297–305.
Wintle A G and Murray A S 2006 A review of quartz optically stimulated luminescence characteristics and their relevance in single-aliquot regeneration dating protocols; Radiat. Meas. 41 369–391.
Wintle A G 2008 Luminescence dating of Quaternary sediments – Introduction; Boreas 37 469–470.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
NAIR, R.R., MURARI, M.K., LAKSHMI, C.S.V. et al. Subsurface signatures and timing of extreme wave events along the southeast Indian coast. J Earth Syst Sci 120, 873–883 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-011-0109-y
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-011-0109-y