Coastal Calc-arenites as new archive of Holocene storminess in the SW Indian Ocean

Applicant: Prof. Dr. Matthias Hinderer/Dr. Michaela Falkenroth

Funding: DFG applied for, IAS Postdoc Grant

Person of Charge Dr. Michaela Falkenroth

Duration: since 2022

Summary

Unlike for the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, for the SW Indian Ocean there is no robust record of extreme-wave events. In a recent study by Green et al. (2022) it was revealed that Holocene storminess along the SE African margin was higher than previously thought, their work is based on seismological data. From our previous work in South Africa (i.e. Falkenroth et al. 2021), we learned that coastal calc-arenites, like beachrock, are also an archive of extreme-wave events in the region. This project aims to use fieldwork, sedimentological facies analysis, radiocarbon dating, petrography and isotope geochemistry to unravel the timing and magnitude of event layers along the coastlines of NE South Africa, Mozambique, Tanzania and Madagascar to gain a more complete understanding of the marine flooding hazard.

Green, A.N., Cooper, J.A.G., Loureiro, C., Dixon, S., Hahn, A., Zabel, M. 2021. Stormier mid-Holocene southwest Indian Ocean due to poleward trending tropical cyclones. Nature Geoscience, 15, 60-66.