ABSTRACT
The Makran coast of Pakistan and Iran is dominated by spectacular marine terraces of greater size and extent than most other coasts of the world. This terraced coast extends >1000 km from near Karachi, Pakistan, to Jask, Iran, near the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz. Although wave-cut cliffs, nips, tombolos, beach ridges, marshes, lagoons, sand dune colonies and stream wadis also occur along this coast, the most striking features are marine terraces which rise as isolated, flat-topped hills with wave-cut levels bevelled on their seaward side. Submarine, structural and stream terraces also occur but marine terraces are by far the most extensive and comprise about half of the Iranian Makran coast and about a third of the Pakistan coast. These terraces rise at least 245 m above the flat coastal plain of Iran and up to 460 m along the Pakistan coast. Most of the terraces represent small horsts along faults parallel to the coast. Because of the diverse elevations the terraces cannot be correlated precisely between the different areas, except for the closely spaced Konarak and Gurdim terraces. Terraces sampled were formed during two time periods, at ~30,000 14C yr BP and 23,000 14C yr BP.
