Marine Geology, Volume 217, Issues 1-2, 30 May 2005, Pages 49-65

doi:10.1016/j.margeo.2005.02.006  

Copyright (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A 4500-year record of emergence events at Onnetoh , Hokkaido , northern Japan , reconstructed using plant macrofossils

Yuki Sawai^a and Hiroo Nasu<sup>a, b

a</sup>Active Fault Research Center, Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Site C7 1-1-1 Higashi, Tsukuba 305-8567, Japan
^bInternational Research Center for Japanese Studies, 3-2 Oeyama-cho, Goryo, Nishikyo-ku, Kyoto 610-1192, Japan

Received 28 July 2004;  revised 12 January 2005;  accepted 8 February 2005.  Available online 9 April 2005 .

Abstract

Plant macrofossils (vascular plants and mosses) document six episodic emergence events during the late Holocene at Onnetoh, eastern Hokkaido , northern Japan . Four events were dated by the AMS radiocarbon method to 4240-3910, 3640-3360, 1520-1260, and 790-660 cal year BP, and another was dated by liquid scintillation spectrometry of radiocarbon to 2750?2430 cal year BP. We attribute the three most recent and the two oldest periods of emergence events identified in this study to uplift associated with unusually large interplate earthquakes along the southwestern part of the Kuril subduction zone.

Keywords: plant macrofossils; emergence events; Holocene; earthquake; Hokkaido ; Kuril subduction zone