Jr. Goff et C. Chague-goff, A late holocene record of environmental changes from coastal wetlands: Abel Tasman National Park, New Zealand, QUATERN INT, 56, 1999, pp. 39-51
Particle size, organic content, loss on ignition (LOI), geochemistry, radio
carbon and Cs-137 analyses were carried out on paired cores taken from Wain
ui, Totaranui and Awaroa Inlets, Abel Tasman National Park. A 1700 year rec
ord of long- and short-term environmental changes was produced representing
a sedimentary and geochemical sequence from tidal Bat to mature salt marsh
. The sequence is punctuated by a series of short-term environmental change
s, namely tsunami, establishment of salt marsh, and European settlement. Lo
ng-term environmental changes include fluctuating accretion rates and relat
ive sea level rise. Tsunami "signatures" include: (i) a peak in fines, (ii)
contemporaneous or "delayed" peak in organic content and/or LOI, (iii) con
temporaneous peaks in Fe and/or S, (iv) dilution of anthropogenic contamina
nts, and (v) visible change in the sediments. Ruptures of the Wellington an
d West Wairarapa Faults are considered to be the tsunamigenic sources. Pre-
European sediment accretion rates in Abel Tasman National Park range from 0
.5 to 1.7 mm/a, with post-European settlement rates increasing to 1.6-2.7 m
m/a. In the past 30 years, rates have increased to 2.3-3.3 mm/a. The compon
ent of relative sea level rise is estimated to be about 1.3-2.2 mm/a which
compares favourably with the nearest tidal records from Wellington. (C) 199
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