**2. Methods and materials**

#### **2.1 Study area and sampling**

The data used in this study were obtained from three cores which were sampled in November 2010 using a hand-held D-Corer from three separate locations; (1) 0.7 m core extracted ~20 m inland of the shore at Ma'asina (S1); (2) 2 m core extracted ~75 m inland of the shore at Manono-uta (S2); and (3) 1.5 m core extracted ~150 m inland of the shore at Lano (S3) (**Table 1**).

The cores were sampled from coastal wetlands inland of the shore, and for the case of Manono and Ma'asina, these wetlands were exposed to inundation during the 2009 tsunami. At Ma'asina, a discernible calcareous sand deposit was observed between 0.4–0.8 m depth in the core. The embayment which this area is located has been impacted in the past by far-field tsunamis such as the 1960 Valdivia


#### **Table 1.**

*Core site locations and descriptions used in this study.*

tsunami and 1952 tsunamis originating from the Chile/Peru region, and the 1957 tsunami originating in the Aleutian Islands. However, a distinct calcareous sand unit indicative of the 2009 event was not discernable to the naked eye at the surface of the core.

No discernible calcareous sand deposits were observed in the Manono-uta core, though distinct changes in grain size, organic content (loss on ignition) and indicative pXRF elemental compositions comparable with the characteristics of the 2009 tsunami deposits on eastern Upolu were reported in [19]. At Lano, a distinct calcareous sand deposit was observed at ~1 m depth intercalated between dark brown soil units.
