Millennium‐scale recurrent uplift inferred from beach deposits bordering the eastern Nankai Trough, Omaezaki area, central Japan

Abstract

A flight of Holocene marine terraces on the southwestern coast of Cape Omaezaki of central Japan provides evidence of recurrent millennium‐scale uplift events. We reconstructed the uplift history of these terraces by using facies analysis of drill core and geoslicer samples, environmental analysis of trace fossils, and 14 C age determinations. Coastal uplift can be identified by the displacement of beach deposits such as foreshore deposits, which represent the intertidal swash zone of a wave‐dominated sandy coast. Three levels of former beach deposits facing the Nankai Trough were identified near the coast in the Omaezaki area. The highest of these, dated at about 3020–2880 BC, records a maximum of 2.2–2.7 m of emergence. The middle beach surface, of minimum age 370–190 BC, shows 1.6–2.8 m of emergence. The lowest beach surface, which is older than 1300–1370 AD, records 0.4–1.6 m of emergence. Our analysis of vertical crustal deformation data during the Holocene in this region suggests that rapid and strong uplift was restricted to the southwestern coast of the Omaezaki area and was probably caused by high‐angle thrusting on subsidiary faults branching from the underlying plate boundary megathrust.

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