Institute of Polar Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China.
Sci Rep. 2013;3:1655. doi: 10.1038/srep01655.
The risk of large, devastating tsunamis in the South China Sea and its surrounding coastal region is commonly underestimated or unrecognized due to the difficulty of differentiating tsunami from storm deposits. As a consequence, few convincing records have documented tsunami deposits in this region. Here we report preliminary evidence from Xisha Islands in the South China Sea for a large tsunami around AD 1024. Sand layers in lake sediment cores and their geochemical characteristics indicate a sudden deposition event around AD 1024, temporally consistent with a written record of a disastrous event characterized by high waves in AD 1076. Heavy coral and shell fossils, which are older than AD 1024, deposited more than 200 meters into the island, further support the occurrence of a high-energy event such as a tsunami or an unusually large storm. Our results underscore the importance of acknowledging and understanding the tsunami hazard in this area.
由于难以将海啸与风暴沉积物区分开来，南海及其周边沿海地区发生大型破坏性海啸的风险通常被低估或未被认识到。因此，该地区很少有令人信服的海啸沉积物记录。在这里，我们报告了南海西沙群岛的初步证据，证明公元 1024 年左右发生了一次大型海啸。湖泊沉积物岩芯中的砂层及其地球化学特征表明，公元 1024 年左右发生了一次突然的沉积事件，与公元 1076 年发生的以高浪为特征的灾难性事件的书面记录在时间上是一致的。比公元 1024 年还要古老的大量珊瑚和贝壳化石被沉积在岛屿 200 多米深的地方，进一步支持了海啸或异常大风暴等高能事件的发生。我们的研究结果强调了在该地区承认和了解海啸灾害的重要性。
