Figure 1From: Potential for timing high-energy marine inundation events in the recent geological past through age-dating of reef boulders in FijiFour possible origins for reef-platform carbonate boulders (RPCBs) deposited on a tropical coastline with adjacent fringing reefs. Living coral framework is the usual source of RPCBs, produced when a fragment of the reef crest is quarried, transported and then deposited on the reef platform by high-energy wave action. If a RPCB is quarried from the reef crest (A) then dating of fossil corals is useful. Dating of RPBCs that are sourced from Holocene reef remnants (B), older parts of the reef structure (C), submarine talus (D), or reworked pre-existing boulders on the reef (not shown), will provide spurious ages. This is because coral mortality predates by an unknown period of time the HEMI events that transported them to their current reef-top position.Back to article page