Geophysical contributions to the COASTPLAN project, Lae area, Papua New Guinea, 1998

702001-100775-573-B
Author : John Milsom
Publication : Bulletin of the Geological Society of Malaysia
Page : 667-675
Volume Number : 43
Year : 1999
DOI : https://doi.org/10.7186/bgsm43199965

Bulletin of the Geological Society of Malaysia, Volume 43, Dec. 1999, pp. 667 – 675

Geophysical contributions to the COASTPLAN project, Lae area, Papua New Guinea, 1998

JOHN MILSOM

Department of Geological Sciences, University College London, Gower St, London WC1 E 6BT, UK

 

Abstract: The Lae Coastal Hazards study is one of three pilot projects currently sponsored by CCOP as part of the overall COASTPLAN programme. The aim of the study is to assess the vulnerability of the coastal region at the head of the Huon Gulf, and particularly the Lae urban area, to natural disaster. Detailed investigations of possible risk made in early 1998 by the COASTPLAN team were supported by a gravity survey designed to clarify the factors controlling uplift and subsidence in this tectonically active region. The total of 93 new gravity stations established in the Leron-Lae-Finschafen area confirmed the presence of a major foreland basin gravity low in the northern Markham Valley and the probability of an extension of the Papuan Ultramafic Belt beneath the Huon Peninsula. Correlations between gravity patterns and local and regional seismicity suggest that some potential long term and short term sources of geological hazards may have been overlooked.

https://doi.org/10.7186/bgsm43199965