Preliminary Study on the Holocene Carbonate Deposition of Taiping-Dao, Nansha(Spratly) Islands

Taiping-Dao, the largest islet of the Nansha Islands of South China Sea, is a sand cay developed on Holocene coral reef. Reef-flat surface of the islet was surveyed. Most of the flat is covered by coral cobbles/shingles and bioclastic sands; living corals only occur along the margin. Carbon 14 dating of reef rocks taken on the reef-flat surface and in drill cores indicates that the Holocene reef development began about 7.9 ka and the reef flat and sand cay might have started to build up 4.7 ka and kept expanding in a progradation mode since then