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Holocene sea-level change and human response in Pacific Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2007

Patrick D. Nunn
Patrick D. Nunn
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji. E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

Holocene sea-level changes affected people living in the Pacific Islands and their ancestors along the western Pacific Rim. Sea-level changes, particularly those that were rapid, may have led to profound and enduring societal/lifestyle changes. Examples are given of (1) how a rapid sea-level rise (CRE-3) about 7600 BP could ultimately have led to the earliest significant cross-ocean movements of people from the western Pacific Rim into the islands; (2) how mid to late Holocene sea-level changes gradually created coastal environments on Pacific Islands that were highly attractive to human settlers; (3) a hypothesis that rapid sea-level fall during the ‘AD 1300 Event' brought about widespread disruption to trajectories of cultural evolution throughout the Pacific Islands; and (4) the effects of recent and likely future sea-level rise on Pacific Island peoples.

Keywords

AD 1300 Eventcultural changepostglacial sea-level riserecent and future sea-level rise
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 98 , Issue 1 , March 2007 , pp. 117 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 2007

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