Late Pleistocene-Holocene Evolution of Malé Island (North Malé Atoll Rim, Republic of Maldives)

Abstract

Malé, the capital of the Republic of Maldives, is established on an island of about 6.8 square kilometres, with a maximum relief of 2.7 m and a population of 236,000 inhabitants. It is amongst the most densely populated areas on Earth and located virtually at sea-level. This study focuses on the late Pleistocene-Holocene evolution of Malé island that recently formed as part of the discontinuous North Malé Atoll rim. Understanding the formation of Malé Island is relevant in predicting its future in the context of accelerating rates of sea-level rise in the next centuries due to anthropogenic global warming. Analyses of two boreholes up to 35 m-long, published information from additional boreholes drilled on Malé Island and a high-resolution multi-beam bathymetric survey acquired along its upper slopes and deep surroundings were available for this study. Two distinct sedimentary units were recovered from the boreholes. Facies analyses of the lower unit reveal an overall deepening coralgal reef that accumulated probably during the previous interglacial (Marine Isotope Stage = MIS 5e) and which was subsequently altered by meteoric diagenesis during a 100 kyr-long time of exposure. The upper unit consists of Holocene unconsolidated coralgal accumulation, unconformably overlying the lower karstified coralgal MIS 5e unit. The upper unit, protected behind a karstified late Pleistocene reef, was initiated at ~8200 yr BP and vertically grew 25 m-high until 6510 yr BP in the northern part of the Malé Island area, which at the time was a karstified limestone island with a central geomorphological depression. The narrow, 30 to 35 m-deep, newly formed central faro lagoon started to fill ~ 5500 yr BP, when a reef initiated on top of the southern highest Pleistocene karstified reef and sea-level rise stalled. The infilling of the faro lagoon was completed ~ 4500 yr BP. An island formed that was flanked on its south side by a shallow lagoon and surrounded by a reef flat. Through several phases of land reclamation since the 1950s, the shallow lagoon was infilled and the reef flat buried with sand and rubble to form Malé Island as it is known today.