Abstract Northern Vancouver Island lies in the southern part of the Wrangellia tectonostratigraphic terrane which is bounded on the east by plutonic rocks of the Coast Belt and underplated on the west by the Pacific Rim and Crescent accretionary terranes (Wheeler and McFeely, 1991). Amalgamation of Wrangellia to the Alexander Terrane to form the Insular Superterrane appears to have occurred as early as Late Carboniferous time (Gardner et al., 1988). Subsequent accretion of the Insular Superterrane to inboard terranes of the Coast and Intermontane belts may have occurred as late as the mid-Cretaceous (Monger et al., 1982) or as early as the mid-Jurassic when a single superterrane may have been accreted to the North American continental margin (van der Heyden, 1991). There is an accumulating body of geophysical evidence (T. J. Lewis, C. Lowe and T. Hamilton, personal communications, 1993) to suggest that since this accretionary event, the northern tip of Vancouver Island may have been involved in the formation of the Queen Charlotte Basin, a Tertiary trans-tensional province related to oblique convergence of the Pacific and Juan de Fuca plates with the North American plate (Riddihough and Hyndman, 1991). The southern boundary of this extensional regime appears to be marked by the northeasterly trending Brooks Peninsula fault zone which is coincident with Tertiary dike swarms (Nixon et al., 1993a) and young (8 to 2 Ma) calcalkaline lavas of the Alert Bay volcanic belt (Figure 1). The tectonic setting of the Alert Bay suite has been linked to a descending plate-edge

Abstract The coastal region of southern China and Hong Kongcontains several Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary continentalbasins (Figure 1) with red beds and laminated, lacustrinemud stones. Probable early Tertiary lake sediments crop out on the island of Ping Chau (Figure 2) in northeaster nHong Kong (Lai, 1991; Lai et al., 1996; Lee et al., 1991b),although their precise age has been the subject of a longdebate (Heanley, 1923; Williams, 1943; Davis, 1953; Ruxton,1960; Allen and Stephens, 1971; Peng, 1971; Lee, 1985,1987). The Ping Chau Basin covers 45 km2 and is an asymmetri chalf graben bounded by normal faults to the northwest and northeast (Lai, 1985). Two major sedimentary units are present. The Ping Chau Formation (about 210mexposed on the island of Ping Chau) lies at the basin center(Figure 2) and consists of thinly laminated, calcareous and dolomitic mudstone and siltstone, which dip 5-200 to the northeast. These overlie Port Island Formation red bedscomposed of siltstone, sandstone, and conglomerate. A third sedimentary unit, the Kat 0 Formation, occursin a smaller basin to the west of Ping Chau (Figure 1).Thisunit consists of red, massively bedded, sedimentary brecciaand conglomerate laid down in fault-controlled alluvial fans. The precise stratigraphic relationships betweenthe Kat 0, Port Island, and Ping Chau Formations are uncertain due to poor exposure of boundaries and a lackof dating control .Several similar sedimentary basins of Late Cretaceous-early Tertiary age, with red beds or lacustrine mudstone and shale, also occur in southeast China (Gu andRenaut, 1994;Lai 1991). These include the Sanshui Dongguanand Xinhui Basins of Guangdong (Figure 1).Wang etal. (1985) suggested that the Guangdong Basins may have formed a single paleo lake during the early Tertiary, centeredon the modern city of Guangzhou (Figure 1). The record in Guangdong is well preserved by the rocks of the Sanshui Basin. Lai (1991) notes that the lower Tertiary Buxin Group rests on red beds of the329Upper Cretaceous Dalang Shan Formation (Figure 3) and can be divided into three parts. The Paleocene First formation(the Xinzhang Formation of Lee et al., 1991b)consistsof 80 m of conglomerate overlain by 100-300 m of mudstone, marlstone and siltstone red beds with grayintercalations. The Second formation (Eocene) consists of100-300m of gray to black lacustrine mudstone, siltstone, and marlstone. The Third formation consists of 200-350mof Oligocene sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone. Various attempts have been made to correlate the Sanshui(Guangdong) succession with the sequence recognized in Hong Kong at Ping Chau (Figure 3). Lai (1991) suggests that reddened mudstone, sandstone, and conglomerate of the Port Island Formation (Hong Kong) correlate with the Upper Cretaceous Dalang Shan Formation and that the Paleocene First formation of the Buxin Group (Tang et al.,1980)(Figure 3) correlates with sediments (visible on seismic sections) that are hidden below the sea floor near Ping Chau. According to Lai (1991),laminated mudstone and siltstone exposed on Ping Chau Island correlate with the Second formation, whereas the upper Ping Chau Formation sediments (also hidden below sea level) may equate to the Oligocene Third formation. The Kat 0 Formation's red conglomerate remains problematic, with Lai (1985) suggesting an Late Cretaceous age and Lee et al. (1991b) preferring a correlation with the Oligocene red beds of the Huayong or Sanshui Formations of the Sanshui Basin. Similar continental successions are reported from other parts of Guangdong Province by Sun et al.(1981)and Song et al. (1986). Lee et al. (199Ib) note that this suggests the widespread development of oil shales, coals,and lake basins during the late Paleocene-Eocene in the southern coastal regions of south China.

Abstract This article examines local myth and folklore related to earthquakes, landslides, and tsunamis in oral traditions from Cascadia (part of the northern Pacific coast of North America) and in written traditions from Japan, particularly in the Edo (present-day Tokyo) region. Local folklore corresponds closely to geological evidence and geological events in at least some cases, and the symbolic language of myth and folklore can be a useful supplement to conventional geological evidence for constructing an accurate historical record of geological activity. At a deep, archetypical level, Japan, Cascadia, and many of the world′s cultures appear to share similar themes in their conception of earthquakes. Although folklore from Cascadia is fragmentary, and the written record short, the evolution of Japanese earthquake folklore has been well documented over a long period of history and illustrates the interaction of folklore with dynamic social conditions.