Based on geomorphologic evidence tsunami are one of the major natural hazards in the Caribbean; recent studies reveal that they strongly affect the coastal environment of even remote sites like the Islands of Curacao, Aruba and Bonaire (Leeward Netherlands Antilles, Caribbean). Identifying Paleo-Tsunami events in geological records and differentiating these from storm deposits, however, remains a challenge.

Here, we use geologic land mapping, marine seismic imaging, and Gravity sediment cores from coastal-marine and lacustrine sites to place better constraints on a known submarine slide that likely generated a substantial (>5 m) tsunami along the southwest coast of the island of Curacao. The coring locations were chosen on the basis where theoretical models predicted run up heights between 2 and 10 m from a Tsunami that was caused by the catastrophic Caracas Bay slide ca 14,000 years ago. An ongoing detailed core description, magnetic susceptibility, grain size measurements and microfacies analyses revealed a succession of storm and Tsunami deposits in marine sediments in the partial open bay areas of Spanish Water and Fuik-Bay, and in lake sediments in the rather storm protected Lagoon Jan Thiel. The latter is characterized by an annual (?) laminated succession of silt and evaporates and intercalated peat layers providing a high-resolution record for reconstructing groundwater fluctuations and paleoclimate high-resolution variability in this semi-arid climate region.

Presentations
Wulf, S., Boon, R., Hornbach, M., Mann, P., and King, W., 2007, Distinguishing Paleo-tsunami and Storm Deposits in Distal Lagoon and Bay Sediments in Curacao (Netherlands Antilles), to be presented at the AGU 2008 Ocean Sciences Meeting, Orlando, Florida, 2008.

Publications