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Abstract:

The highly scenic Andaman coast of peninsular Thailand is locally dominated by steep limestone hills and karst towers that rise from broad alluvial plains, from mangrove swamps or from the sea. The karst terrain stretches north and west across the Malay peninsula to the Gulf of Siam. Some of the variations in the style of this karst have resulted from lithological and structural factors. However, steepening of the slopes by marine erosion at times of formerly high sea levels has probably been important to the development of the most spectacular part of this landscape. Notches and caves cut in limestone towers up to 10-15m above present sea level may represent the maximum transgression of the Last Interglacial. Morphological evidence hints that former shorelines may now lie hundreds of metres above present sea level due to diastrophic movements during the late Cainozoic. However, this evidence is equivocal and it has been argued that similar landforms in neighboring parts of Malaysia may be the result of terrestrial planation processes that operated independent of sea level during the Pleistocene glacial stages.