Fiji : Viti Levu : reconnaissance photographic evidence for earthquake and tsunami events on tropical reef margins

Photographs have been taken from a helicopter at locations on the barrier and fringing reefs
extending from east to west on the southern coast of Viti Levu, Fiji. The sites are systematically
described with reference to UTM coordinates, local names and observations of typical subaerial
to submarine features of reef, estuarine and reef-rentrant structure. Most of the photographs
document expected reef and other coastal scenes but exceptional features such as very large
boulders and cracks map to the nearest facing barrier reef to the deep epicentre for the 1953
earthquake and associated tsunami. The observations are used to suggest that exceptionally large
boulders perched on barrier or fringing reefs may be used as a criterion for the recognition of
historical sites sites of earthquake and tsunami generation.