TY - JOUR
T1 - Micromorphological analysis of coastal sediments from Willapa Bay, Washington, USA
T2 - A technique for analysing inferred tsunami deposits
AU - Kilfeather, Aoibheann A.
AU - Blackford, Jeffrey J.
AU - van der Meer, Jaap J.M.
N1 - © Birkhauser Verlag, Basel, 2007
PY - 2007/3
Y1 - 2007/3
N2 - Tsunami deposits are provisionally distinguished in the field on the basis of anomalous sand horizons, fining-up and fining-landward, coupled with organic-rich, fragmented 'backwash' sediments. In this paper, micromorphological features of a sediment sequence previously interpreted as being of tsunami origin are described. These characteristics are shown to be consistent with the macro-scale features used elsewhere, but show additional details not seen in standard stratigraphies, including possible evidence for individual waves, possibly wave-magnitude progression, organic fragment alignment and intraclast microstructures. Although replication and more complete studies are needed, this analysis confirms the identification of a tsunami in Willapa Bay in ca.1700 AD, while demonstrating a widely applicable technique for confirming or refuting possible tsunami deposits.
AB - Tsunami deposits are provisionally distinguished in the field on the basis of anomalous sand horizons, fining-up and fining-landward, coupled with organic-rich, fragmented 'backwash' sediments. In this paper, micromorphological features of a sediment sequence previously interpreted as being of tsunami origin are described. These characteristics are shown to be consistent with the macro-scale features used elsewhere, but show additional details not seen in standard stratigraphies, including possible evidence for individual waves, possibly wave-magnitude progression, organic fragment alignment and intraclast microstructures. Although replication and more complete studies are needed, this analysis confirms the identification of a tsunami in Willapa Bay in ca.1700 AD, while demonstrating a widely applicable technique for confirming or refuting possible tsunami deposits.
KW - Cascadia subduction zone
KW - Micromorphology
KW - Thin sections
KW - Tsunami
KW - Washington
KW - Willapa Bay
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34147191680&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s00024-006-0173-4
DO - 10.1007/s00024-006-0173-4
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:34147191680
SN - 0033-4553
VL - 164
SP - 509
EP - 525
JO - Pure and Applied Geophysics
JF - Pure and Applied Geophysics
ER -