Holocene sea-level rise and coral reef growth on a tectonically rising coast, Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea

Eighty-eight conventional radiocarbon age measurements of corals, collected from Holocene transgressive reefs at Huon Peninsula have been published previously, but, except for 29 dates from a 52 m drillhole, the data have not been systematically analysed. From these data, we show that post-glacial reef growth tracked rising sea level ('keep-up' growth) at Huon Peninsula, from - 70 m at 11,200 yr BP. The Holocene reef emerged about 6300 yr BP in the southeast of the region, where uplift rate is highest (3.3 m ka(-1)), and at about 5950 yr BP in the northwest, where uplift rate is 1.9 m ka(-1). The uplift process is dominated by metre-scale coseismic uplift events; the difference in timing of reef emergence between northwest and southeast, is related to differences in the stepwise uplift of the two regions. Although uplift is stepwise, the uplift-corrected age-height data from the dated corals fall within a tight envelope, which represents a well defined eustatic sea level curve for the calibrated age interval from 7000 to 13,000 yr BP. (C) 1999 INQUA/Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.