Data referring to elevations of emerged shoreline indicators along
the coasts of Beqa and Yanuca islands in southern Fiji were collected and
indicate the presence of former mean sea levels at elevations (and shoreline
names) of 0.96 m (MUAI), 1.93 m (BULl), 2.63 m (MUA2), 4.32 m (MUA3),
5.94 m (MUA4), and 7.79 m (MUA5) above present mean sea level. No dates
for shoreline formation or emergence are available directly although age is
believed to increase with increasing elevation. Investigations of the Beqa lagoon
floor and comparison of shoreline levels between eastern Beqa, western Beqa,
Yanuca, and Vatulele island (at the western end of the Vatulele-Beqa Ridge)
suggest that downfaulting along faults and grabens trending a little west of north
has occurred both during and since the time of shoreline emergence. Uplift related
perhaps to either compression of the area between the Kadavu Trench (Hunter
Fracture Zone) to the south and the Fiji Fracture Zone to the north or the
renewal of northward underplating along the Kadavu Trench is believed to
be responsible for shoreline emergence, which was probably contemporary
along the whole Vatulele-Beqa Ridge and occurred during-the middle and late
Quaternary