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Sea Level Changes in the Last Several Thousand Years, Penghu Islands, Taiwan Strait

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Yue-Gau Chen  and
Tsung-Kwei Liu
Yue-Gau Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National Taiwan University, 245 Choushan Road, Taipei, 106, Taiwan, Republic of China
Tsung-Kwei Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, National Taiwan University, 245 Choushan Road, Taipei, 106, Taiwan, Republic of China
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Abstract

Holocene shore-face and beach-face deposits form plains <5 m above present sea level along Taiwan Strait. We measured the 14C ages of detrital mollusk shells and coral in such deposits at the Penghu Islands. Twelve carbonate samples—mainly from the largest island, Makung—were dated. Age measurements for two coral samples and one mollusk sample from the same outcrop imply that the 14C ages of mollusk shells give the best approximation of depositional age. The highest Holocene relative sea level in the Penghu Islands occurred about 4700 years ago with a height about 2.4 m above the present sea level. Thereafter, relative sea level appreciably fell without detectable fluctuations to its recent position. Our sea level data are consistent with other studies from the central and western Pacific, except for the timing of peak sea level position. This variation may reflect local crustal response to hydroisostatic effects on the continental shelf.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 45 , Issue 3 , May 1996 , pp. 254 - 262
Copyright
University of Washington

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