Elevation and age of a raised beach in the upper Gulf of Thailand, as evidence for regional sea level during the Late Holocene

Abstract

Few constructional features of coastal geomorphology have been investigated at the northernmost extremity of the Gulf of Thailand (GoT), with a view to establishing the position (height) of local relative sea level (RSL) during the marine regression following the regional mid-Holocene highstand (MHH) that occurred at approximately 6.5 ka BP. Here, the work investigates a 2 m thick exposure of marine gravels on the coast of Ko Khang Khao islet in the eastern Bay of Bangkok. At an elevation of 3.3–5.3 m above modern sea level, the sequence is interpreted to represent a Holocene raised beach. The unlithified sediments comprise rounded quartz and mylonite pebbles and cobbles, oriented predominantly NE–SW, supported by fossiliferous sands that are rich in marine shells, coral fragments and occasional terrestrial gastropods. The juxtaposition of the marine and non-marine gastropoda of contemporaneous ages makes a compelling story for a coastal storm deposit, thrown up either by a winter monsoon storm, or by a palaeotyphoon that managed to penetrate the upper Gulf. Overlapping results of C14 and OSL age-dating of shell material and mineral sands suggest the raised (storm) beach formed between 3.5 and 4.0 ka BP, i.e. ∼ 2.5–3.0 ka after the MHH peak, at a height of ∼ 1.3–3.3 m above the local RSL position at that time (according to glacial isostatic adjustment modelling). Given the otherwise paucity of data from the upper GoT, the Ko Khang Khao raised beach provides new information that expands our current understanding of geographical variations in RSL across Southeast Asia during the Late Holocene.