Late Quaternary barrier and fringing reef development of Bora Bora (Society Islands, south Pacific): First subsurface data from the Darwin-type barrier-reef system EBERHARD GISCHLER*, J. HAROLD HUDSON † , MARC HUMBLET ‡ , JUAN C. BRAGA § , ANTON EISENHAUER ¶ , ANJA ISAACK*, FLAVIO S. ANSELMETTI** and GILBERT F. CAMOIN †† *Institut f € ur Geowissenschaften, J.W. Goethe-Universit€ at, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany (E-mail: gischler@em.uni-frankfurt.de) †ReefTech Inc., Miami, Florida 33143, USA ‡Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Nagoya University, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan §Departamento de Estratigraf  ıa y Paleontolog  ıa, Universidad de Granada 18002, Granada, Spain ¶GEOMAR, Helmholtz-Zentrum f € ur Ozeanforschung Kiel, 24148 Kiel, Germany **Institute of Geological Sciences & Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research, University of Bern, 3012 Bern, Switzerland ††CNRS, IRD, CEREGE UM34, Aix-Marseille Universit e, 13545 Aix-en-Provence & Europ^ ole M editerran een de l’Arbois, BP 80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence Cedex 4, France Associate Editor – Giovanna Della Porta ABSTRACT The universally known subsidence theory of Darwin, based on Bora Bora as a model, was developed without information from the subsurface. To evaluate the influence of environmental factors on reef development, two traverses with three cores, each on the barrier and the fringing reefs of Bora Bora, were drilled and 34 uranium-series dates obtained and subsequently analysed. Sea-level rise and, to a lesser degree, subsidence were crucial for Holocene reef development in that they have created accommodation space and controlled reef architecture. Ante- cedent topography played a role as well, because the Holocene barrier reef is located on a Pleistocene barrier reef forming a topographic high. The pedestal of the fringing reef was Pleistocene soil and basalt. Barrier and fringing reefs deve- loped contemporaneously during the Holocene. The occurrence of five coralgal assemblages indicates an upcore increase in wave energy. Age–depth plots sug- gest that barrier and fringing reefs have prograded during the Holocene. The Holocene fringing reef is up to 20 m thick and comprises coralgal and microbial reef sections and abundant unconsolidated sediment. Fringing reef growth started 8780  50 yr BP; accretion rates average 565 m kyr 1 . The barrier reef consists of >30 m thick Holocene coralgal and microbial successions. Holocene barrier-reef growth began 10 030  50 yr BP and accretion rates average 615 m kyr 1 . The underlying Pleistocene reef formed 116 900  1100 yr BP, i.e. during marine isotope stage 5e. Based on Pleistocene age, depth and coralgal palaeobathymetry, the subsidence rate of Bora Bora was estimated to be 005 to 014 m kyr 1 . In addition to subsidence, reef development on shorter timescales like in the late Pleistocene and Holocene has been driven by glacioeustatic sea- level changes causing alternations of periods of flooding and subaerial exposure. Comparisons with other oceanic barrier-reef systems in Tahiti and Mayotte exhi- bit more differences than similarities. Keywords Barrier reef, Bora Bora, fringing reef, Pacific, Quaternary, U-series dating. 1 © 2016 The Authors. Sedimentology © 2016 International Association of Sedimentologists Sedimentology (2016) doi: 10.1111/sed.12272