The primary goal here is to present a treatise on the significance and value of coarse clastic
carbonate sediments (i.e. large coral boulders) on tropical coastlines for understanding both
modern and pre-historical (Holocene) high-magnitude marine inundation events. There has been a
rapid groundswell of interest in large carbonate blocks on tropical coasts over the last decade
yet it is not widely appreciated that such features were observed and recorded back in the
early explorations of Matthew Flinders on the Great Barrier Reef in the 1800s. This book will
illuminate how various characteristics of datable carbonate blocks torn up from coral reefs and
deposited on reef platforms yield importance evidence about the storms and tsunamis that
emplaced them over decadal and centennial timescales. No comprehensive review has so far been
published. A need now exists for a 'definitive reference' on coral boulder research which
details the earliest observations changing terminology sedimentology and relevance for
coastal hazard research in the tropics. A wide range of examples will be incorporated from
across Asia Australia the Pacific and the Americas as well as a full up-to-date review of
the existing literature.
