Raised beach deposits and the distribution of structural lineaments on Macquarie Island

Abstract

The distribution of previously-unmapped raised beaches on Macquarie Island makes it difficult to accept earlier interpretations of landform evolution. These raised beaches occur up to 270 m ASL, and in places previously thought to have been glaciated. The elevation of the beaches and the distribution and shape of many of the island's plateau lakes and structural lineaments would appear to be consistent with a history in which rapid uplift associated with. block-faulting and other tectonic factors played a much more important role in landform evolution than has been recognised in the past.