Investigating geological records of tsunamis in Western Thailand with environmental DNA

The identification of tsunami deposits in the geological record remains a challenge because the proxies availabilities are subject to the environment. The proxies may degrade over time and inherently inhibit the robustness of event interpretations. Multi-proxy methods, which leverage on each other's advantage/s and limitation/s, are employed to improve the identification of tsunami deposits from the geological record. Here, we assess the utility of environmental DNA (eDNA) for tsunami research by comparing and contrasting the eDNA collected from a sequence of well-documented palaeotsunami deposits spanning the past three millennia. We study swales in a coastal beach ridge sequences on Phra Thong Island, Thailand and test if eDNA can robustly discriminate the tsunami-deposited sand sheets that intercalate between the non-tsunami derived organic mud layers. Our results indicate that the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami deposit and preceding tsunami deposits (approximately 550 to 700 years ago) contain microbial communities that differ significantly from the overlying and underlying organic mud layers (p-value = 0.0269) but the signal becomes restricted in the older sediment layers up to 2800-year-old that are constantly submerged in groundwater. This work demonstrates the potential for applying eDNA to study tsunami deposits over centennial time frames and perhaps longer.

Automated summary

The identification of tsunami deposits in the geological record is challenging due to the limitations of available proxies. Multi-proxy methods are used to improve the identification of tsunami deposits. This study assesses the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) for tsunami research by comparing eDNA from well-documented palaeotsunami deposits. The results show that eDNA can discriminate recent and past tsunami deposits but is limited in older sediment layers submerged in groundwater.