Chapter 33 Archaeological dating of tsunami and storm deposits

The potential of tsunamis and large storms to result in loss of life, property damage, habitat alteration, and geomorphological change leads to a need to resolve the timing and regularity of past events. A standard means to inform and determine coastal-hazard potential is to create event catalogs consisting of historical and instrumental records combined with physical field evidence. Coastal regions, today as well as in the past, are attractive settlement locations due to the enhanced food security, access to networks and, often, milder climates. Because of this, the intermingling of coastal archaeological artifacts and fingerprints of natural tsunami and storm events can and do occur. When this overlap is identified, archaeological remains can provide an added spectrum of chronological markers that may provide age information, and in some cases improve age resolution.