Geologic records of Holocene typhoon strikes on the Gulf of Thailand coast

Abstract

8Eric Simon, University of North Texas. 9 10 Washover sedimentation resulting from modern typhoon strikes on the Gulf of Thailand coast 11 forms anomalous sand layers in low-energy coastal environments including marshes, ponds and 12 swales. The primary diagnostic for recognizing prehistoric typhoon-deposited sand layers in the 13 geologic record are sharp upper and lower contacts between coarser-grained transported sand 14 layers and finer-grained in-situ sediments. In this first paleotempestology study in Thailand, 15 cores from two low-energy settings on the Gulf of Thailand coasta coastal marsh near Cha-am 16 and beach ridge plain swales near Kui Burireveal geologic evidence of up to 19 typhoon 17 strikes within the last 8000 years. The sand layers have sharp upper and lower contacts with 18 enclosing finer sediments. Some sand layers also contain other evidence of a sudden powerful 19 landward-directed surge of ocean water, including gravel-sized clasts, offshore foraminifera, 20 abundant shell fragments, plant debris and mud rip-up clasts. Sand layers record eleven typhoon 21 strikes at Cha-am, ranging in age from AD 1952 to 7575 cal yr BP, and eight typhoon strikes at 22 Kui Buri, ranging in age from 4075 to 7740 cal yr BP. Bayesian age-depth models, derived from 23 © 2015. This manuscript version is made available under the Elsevier user license http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ 2 eight AMS radiocarbon dates, suggest that the frequency of typhoon strikes was 2-5 times 24 greater from 3900-7800 cal yr BP compared to 0-3900 cal yr BP. Possible explanations for this 25 variability in the typhoon record are that typhoons were more frequent and/or more intense in 26 Southeast Asia in the mid-Holocene because of climatic changes associated with the Mid-27 Holocene Warm Period or that the record reflects site sensitivity changes resulting from a mid-28 Holocene sea-level highstand. The preliminary finding of a possible link between warmer 29 conditions and a greater frequency of intense typhoon strikes could have important societal 30 implications, given possible consequences of ongoing global warming.31 32

Chronology of Holocene storm events along the European Atlantic coast

“…As the eastern United States is frequently struck by summer hurricanes, researchers tried to understand how the cyclonic season is correlated with global oceanatmosphere mechanisms. Although only a few studies have focused on this recent issue, storminess reconstructions have also been developed for all other continents: Oceania (May et al, 2015(May et al, , 2017Nott and Hayne, 2001), Asia (Lallemand et al, 2015;Liu et al, 2001;Williams et al, 2015;Yu et al, 2009), Africa (Bozzano et al, 2002), South America (Oliveira et al, 2014;Ramírez-Herrera et al, 2012) and Mediterranean coasts (Degeai et al, 2015;Dezileau et al, 2011Dezileau et al, , 2016Kaniewski et al, 2016;Sabatier et al, 2008Sabatier et al, , 2012Vallve and Martin-Vide, 1998). Few studies have investigated the European Atlantic coast, where stormy chronologies are mainly concentrated on the British Isles (Hansom and Hall, 2009;Oldfield et al, 2010;Orme et al, 2015Orme et al, , 2016, and where some other works have recently analyzed Holocene French storms (Sorrel et al, 2009(Sorrel et al, , 2012Van Vliet Lanoe et al, 2014).…”

Holocene changes in flooding frequency in South Korea and their linkage to centennial-to-millennial-scale El Niño–Southern Oscillation activity

“…Consequently, it is likely that the site of core DSR09 in southern Korea (this study) and Kamikoshiki Island in southwestern Japan (Woodruff et al, 2009) were influenced by typhoons with recurving tracks to Korea and Japan during the periods of increased ENSO activity (El Niño–like stage), whereas Thailand coasts (Williams et al, 2016) and Taiwan (Chen et al, 2012) were influenced by typhoons with a westerly path toward south China during the periods of decreased ENSO activity (La Niña–like stage), as suggested by Elsner and Liu (2003). Thus, this study supports the results from Elsner and Liu (2003) and Woodruff et al (2009) suggesting that ENSO activity has potentially played a key role in governing typhoon variability in East Asia.…”

“…For example, during the period of 3600–2500 cal yr BP, the typhoon-induced deposition of coarser grain-size sediment in the Kamikoshiki coastal lake corresponded to increased ENSO activity. Recently, Williams et al (2016) traced past typhoon activity on the Gulf of Thailand coast based on typhoon-deposited sand layers and found that a possible oscillating pattern in tropical cyclone activity in the western North Pacific. Their data clearly showed significantly reduced tropical cyclones in Thailand during periods of enhanced ENSO activity ca.…”

Temporal approaches of historical extreme storm events based on sedimentological archives

“…P. Donnelly et al, 2004;Donnelly and Woodruff, 2007;Lambert et al, 2008;Noren et al, 2002;Parris et al, 2009;Scileppi and Donnelly, 2007;Scott et al, 2003) was the first place where this characteristic method significantly developed in the early 21st century. It was then expanded worldwide with some notable examples of works in Oceania (Hayne and Chappell, 2001;May et al, 2016May et al, , 2015Nott et al, 2009;Nott and Hayne, 2001) ; Asia (Liu et al, 2001;Williams et al, 2015;Woodruff et al, 2009;Yu et al, 2009) ; Africa (Bozzano et al, 2002;Khalfaoui et al, 2019) ; in the North Sea (Chang et al, 2006;Jong et al, 2006) ; or in South America (Oliveira et al, 2014;Ramírez-Herrera et al, 2012). In western Europe, several studies have analyzed "cliff top storm deposits" (e.g.…”