Holocene shorelines of Tioman island in the South China Sea

Abstract

Ten new radiocarbon ages of biogenic shoreline indicators from tectonically stable Tioman island, Malaysia, demonstrate that regional sea level was between 1.4 m and 3.7 m above present mean sea level during the period 6000 BP to 1900 BP, and that the sea level fluctuated several times in the order of 1 to 2 metres. The dates also suggest that sea level rose twice at rates of 1 m in 300 years but dropped at least twice at slower rates of about 1 to 2 m in 1400 years. In general, a very good correspondence is shown between the eustatic sea level curve constructed on the basis of about 40 dated shorelines from Peninsular Malaysia and that of Tioman island.