Sedimentation rates on Wistari Reef

Wistari Reef is a lagoonal platform reef, situated on the Tropic of Capricorn, within the Capricorn and Bunker region of the southern Great Barrier Reef. Four core samples were collected from various locations on the reef and radiometerically dated. This allowed sedimentation rates for the Holocene sediments of Wistari Reef to be calculated. The maximum sedimentation rate represents the accumulation that has occurred between the core top date and the core base date; the minimum accretion rate takes only the basal core data into account, thus allowing for bioturbation of the sediments. The biggest maximum rate of accretion was seen at core IC-02, which exhibited an accretion rate of 4.79m/ka. The smallest minimum accretion rate was seen in VC-02 (on a sanded reef flat) with a accretion rate of 0.57m/ka.