Marine tearrace, Curaçao

Drainage exposure of a marine terrace on the north coast of Curaçao, showing fossil coral reefs from two high-sea stands, separated by an unconformity (horizontal line in shadowed part of photo). Lower coral reef dates to ~200,000 years and upper reef dates to ~120,000 years. Line of boulders on the upper reef may be a tsunami deposit dating to the past few thousand years or less (Muhs, D.R., Pandolfi, J.M., Simmons, K.R., and Schumann, R.R., 2012, Sea-level history of past interglacial periods from uranium-series dating of corals, Curaçao, Leeward Antilles islands: Quaternary Research, v. 78, p. 157-169).