Late Holocene sea level and reef-flat progradation, Phuket, South Thailand

• DOI: 10.1007/s003380050128
• Publication Date: 2002-08-25T04:19:44Z
• Authors: T. P. Scoffin; M. D. A. Le Tissier
• Keywords: 14. Life underwater; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Fringing reefs growing in the muddy waters of SE Phuket contain fossil, former reef-front, massive corals that protrude above the intertidal reef flat. The top surfaces of some of these massive fossil corals have been dated and surveyed. The results indicate that these reefs commenced growth 6000 y ago when the sea level (low spring tide) was 1 m above present and that the average rate of reef-front progradation was 1.7 cm per year.