CONTINUOUS RECORD OF REEF GROWTH OVER THE PAST 14 KY ON THE MID-PACIFIC ISLAND OF TAHITI

Two boreholes were drilled through coralgal sequences in the barrier-r eef edge of the mid-Pacific island of Tahiti, and their bases were rad iometrically dated at 10.23 (+/-0.05) and 13.77 (+/-0.05) ka (thousand calendar years). The sequences are composed mainly of the reef-edge A cropora gr. danai-robusta and Hydrolithon onkodes assemblage, occasion ally replaced by reef-slope tabular Acropora-Neogoniolithon or domal P orites-Lithophyllum assemblages. The response of reef growth to sea-le vel rise has varied according to the framework type, and vertical accr etion rates have ranged from 9.3 to 20.6 mm.yr(-1). From a general tre nd of long-term, continuous, sea-level rise tracked by growth, the ree f-edge coralgal assemblages have experienced two distinct changes cont rolled by the antecedent paleotopography and internal reef processes. During the past 13.8 k.y. at Tahiti, there is no evidence of any reef- drowning event primarily caused by global glacio-eustatic perturbation s as has been recorded in the Caribbean.