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Recovery rate of a salt marsh from the 1700 CE Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, Netarts Bay, Oregon

 

Co-Authors: Thomas P. Guilderson, Maureen H. Walczak, & Robert A. Wheatcroft

Abstract: Since the 1700 CE Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake and associated coseismic subsidence and tsunami, vegetated intertidal habitats have reestablished across Pacific Northwest estuaries, yet timescales and mechanisms of recovery are uncertain. We investigated the timescale of salt marsh reestablishment in Netarts Bay, Oregon following the 1700 CE earthquake using a combination of excess 210Pb, 14C, stratigraphic constraints, and Bayesian age-depth modeling. Coseismic subsidence lowered the area to low/mid marsh, which persisted for 200 years before transition to modern high marsh. The modern high marsh now appears in dynamic equilibrium with modern sea level rise. In addition to serving as a methodological proof of concept for dating the past 300 years, these results provide insight into intertidal morphodynamic response to large perturbations along tectonically active margins.

Products: 

 

Peck, E. K., Guilderson, T. P., Walczak, M. H., & Wheatcroft, R. A. (2022). Recovery rate of a salt marsh from the 1700 CE Cascadia Subduction Zone earthquake, Netarts Bay, Oregon. Geophysical Research Letters, e2022GL099115. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL099115

 

Chapter 4 of my Dissertation.

Advancing Geochronology Science (AGeS) Blog Post

Related Conference Abstracts:

GSA Annual Meeting, (virtual presentation, October 2020) "Rate of salt marsh reemergence following the 1700 Cascadia Subduction Zone Earthquake"

Funding: Geological Society of America AGeS2 (Awards for Geochronology Student Research2) 

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