Annually laminated sediments from the anoxic inner basin of Effingham Inlet, Pacific coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, yield a high-resolution 42 m paleoenvironmental record, from the present to about 14 ka 14C BP (17 ka cal BP). A new age model, based on 68 radiocarbon dates from twigs and small plant material, from the 40 m core MD02-2494 and 2 m freeze cores from the surface, is anchored by the Mazama Ash and varve counting. A Poisson-process sedimentation model is used, applying a new method to determine the Poisson k value, giving a realistic age model compatible with the multi-proxy core data. Twenty-one “seismites”, which are lithofacies in the Effingham cores that may be representative of seismically triggered mass-wasting events, are identified and dated precisely, then compared with the chronology of the deep-sea turbidite record farther south in the Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ), to determine if regional sediment disturbances can be identified. With 16 proposed correlations, Effingham seismite ages are 169 ± 206 years older than turbidite ages estimated largely by radiocarbon analysis of foraminifera in hemipelagic deposits.
Ultra-high resolution sediment analysis and diatom paleoecology from Effingham Inlet, British Columbia, Canada: implications for late Holocene environmental change
