Late Quaternary Tectonics and Environmental History in the Kamchatka- Komandorsky Region, Russian Far East

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The primary goal of this project is to determine the history of earthquakes, tsunamis, and coastal deformation in the northwestern-most Pacific and southwestern Bering Sea, since the retreat of glaciers about 10,000 years ago. In order to achieve this history, the project will also contribute to the millennial-scale history of large volcanic eruptions on Kamchatka. Primary means for accomplishing these goals are field work, coastal surveying, trench excavation, strata description and sampling--as well as radiocarbon dating for age control, and analysis of volcanic ash layers and of tsunami deposits. This project focuses on the region where the Emperor Seamount chain and the Aleutian-Komandorsky islands are colliding with Kamchatka, and where the subduction zone ends, with tectonic transition into the Bering Sea. The history of tsunamis and volcanic eruptions in this region has applications to the entire North Pacific and Bering Sea region--as a guide for understanding tectonic history, as a tool for correlation (for example, in the Aleutians), and as an indicator for natural-hazard analysis. Moreover, Kamchatka tsunamis affect localities and populations as distant as Hawaii and Chile. This project also will record the history of vegetation changes at selected sites via pollen analysis and macrovegetation studies. In cooperation with archaeologists, human-occupation levels will be recorded for potential future exploration, and for documenting the relationship between human habitation and geologic events. This project also will provide ages of basal peat horizons, which have implications for global carbon budgets and for climate-change models.