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GEOS2016 Singapore - Keynote Address Sedimentary Geology of Coastal-Transitional and Shallow-Marine Depositional Environments and Rock Successions: Lessons from the Recent, Holocene and Tertiary by Abdul Hadi bin Abd Rahman Department of Geosciences, Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS, 31750 Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Rizuan, Malaysia ABSTRACT Coastal-transitional and shallow marine environments are geomorphic zones that are very important to human civilization. Today, a large percentage of the world’s population is concentrated within the coastal-transitional zone. Many modern major cities are built near coastlines. Major human economic activities such as fishery, shipping, waste disposal and tourism are reliant on the well-being of coastal and shallow marine zones. Historically, many important civilizations are centered on coastal plains, and are closely associated to the shallow seas. These geographic regions have been very important in the past, and remain very important today and also in the future, to human society. The coastal-transitional and shallow marine environments are located at the interface and interaction zone between three major earth’s surface systems – atmosphere, ocean and land. As such, these zones host some of the most dynamic, natural, surface environments. In addition, many human activities along the coasts modify the way natural systems operate, through pollution, siltation, dredging, and construction of man-made structures. The high and continuously increasing density of human population within these zones has intensified these activities, and in one way or another, presents a new dimension of environmental threat to the coastal ecosystems. Improving our scientific understanding of the dynamics of these environments can improve the ways we interact and manage its well-being. Global warming and sea level rise is one major cause of coastal erosion. While the rise in global temperature is well evidenced, and the corresponding rise in eustatic sea level is widely seen as the main cause of worldwide coastal erosion, the rate of sea level rise remains uncertain (Stive, 2004; Zhang et al., 2004). The Holocene is the epoch recording the last 11,700 years of GEOS2016 Singapore - Keynote Address the earth’s history. This relative warm inter-glacial period records the longest warm stable period since the last 400,000 years (Petit et al., 1999). Holocene climatic, environmental and sea level change has been responsible in the shaping of modern coastal-transitional and shallow marine environments around the globe. The sediments deposited during this period cover the largest surface area of the globe. The Holocene coastal sedimentary successions of Perak, Malaysia was studied by the author to understand how the Holocene climate change and sea level rise has affected the development of the coastal plain and coastline. Understanding these changes may allow a better understanding of the impact of future global warming and sea level rise on coastal-transitional environments. The understanding of coastal-transitional and shallow marine environments is not only important in the context of managing modern environments for the human population, it has also been important in the extraction of minerals and fossil fuel in the subsurface. Most of the oil and gas in South East Asia are extracted from known Tertiary coastal marine rock successions in the deep subsurface. Many studies on the Neogene coastal and shallow marine successions have been carried out in Malaysia in relation to the oil and gas industry. This paper highlights the author’s personal experience and interest on the coastal-transitional and shallow marine environments, and its corresponding rock successions. The author, as a sedimentary and petroleum geologist, has been involved in the following researches: i. Modern coastal and shallow marine environments – with a case study on the modern Pahang delta (Figure 1); ii. Holocene sea level change and the development and evolution of coastal and shallow marine environments – with a case study on the Perak coastal-deltaic plain succession and coastline; iii. Sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Neogene (Tertiary) coastal and shallow marine sedimentary successions– with a case study on the generally Miocene Nyalau Formation in Sarawak. The result from these studies highlight the importance of researches on coastaltransitional and shallow marine environments, in managing modern environments, forecasting future challenges of sea level rise and in the extraction of fossil fuel, for the betterment of GEOS2016 Singapore - Keynote Address mankind. This paper also lists recommendations on future directions in coastal-transitional and shallow marine environments research. a b Figure 1. Three images of the Pahang coastline acquired from MACRES; these images are from the year: (a) 1988, (b) 1995 and (c) 2000. All the three images display the development of a broad strand-plain, wave-dominated beach in the north, while the southern flank of the delta is marked by a barrier-sheltered, tide-influenced lagoon (Courtesy of MACRES, Malaysia). References Petit, J.R., Jouzel, J., Raynaud, D., Barkov, N.I., Barnola, J.-M., Basile, I., Bender, M., Chappellaz, J., Davis, M., Delaygue, G., Delmotte, M., Kotlyakov, V.M., Legrand, M., Lipenkov, V.Y., Lorius, C., Pepin, L., Ritz, C., Saltzman, E., Stievenard, M., 1999. Climate and atmospheric history of the past 420,000 years from the Vostok ice core, Antarctica. Nature 399, 429–436. Zhang, K., Douglas, B. C. and Leatherman, S. P., 2004. Global Warming and Coastal Erosion. Climate Change, 64, 41-58. Stive, M. J. F., 2004. How important is global warming for coastal erosion – An editorial comment. Climate Change, 64, 27-39. c