Radiocarbon redating of contaminated samples from a tropical volcano: the Mansion ‘Series’ of St Kitts,West Indies

Heavy rainfall and dense vegetation on tropical volcanoes produce abundant carbonized wood in pyroclastic deposits, in addition to easy contamination of this wood by root systems and soluble humic material. Because the physical nature of the charcoal varies, some samples are more prone to contamination. Two independent studies of the same volcano, Mt Liamuiga on St Kitts in the Lesser Antilles, sometimes using samples from the same carbonized tree, yielded a systematic difference in radiocarbon ages. An exchange of samples and a re-investigation of three physically distinct types of charcoal yielded the following results. Rare, hard, dense charcoal, lacking contamination, which had yielded a spurious age of 2860 years bp, was redated at 1845±58 years bp. Common soft, friable charcoal with good cellular structure proved to be susceptible to contamination. A field decontamination technique utilized by one group seems significant as it yields older ages than when only routine laboratory pre-treatment was used, indicating that the latter technique only partly removes the dried and hard residue produced by the decomposition of modern plant rootlets. A previous date of 24870 years bp obtained from powdery charcoal in a horizon beneath the Mansion Series contradicted ages older than 41000 years bp from common friable charcoal in the lower Mansion Series. The soft powdery charcoal was re-investigated using a sample collected a few centimeters from the original, although field decontamination of this sample was not possible, more extensive laboratory treatment yielded an age of ca. 43000 years bp, again proving that routine laboratory pretreatments are inadequate. A revised geochronology for the Mansion Series is described and a cautionary discussion is presented for the benefit of investigators using radiocarbon ages to date volcanic deposits.     

The First Appearance of Cattle in Denmark Occurred 6000 Years Ago: An Effect of Cultural or Climate and Environmental Changes

Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios from bones of contemporaneous Late Atlantic aurochs and early cattle in eastern Denmark are significantly different and provide information on the origin and feeding strategies of the earliest domestic cattle. The data show that the early cattle were feeding on grass right from the beginning 4000 cal. yr BC. In contrast, the youngest aurochs population primarily browsed and grazed from the dense forest floor resulting in rather negative δ¹³C values measured on bone collagen. The oldest aurochs have similar isotope values to the earlier cattle, whereas the youngest aurochs have similar values to Late Atlantic red deer from the same locality. As eastern Denmark was largely covered by forest, speculations on the origin of the grazing areas are many. The grass may have grown in openings in the forest, at the forest fringe, or more likely on the newly reclaimed coastal land areas exposed by the decreasing rate of eustatic sea‐level rise contemporaneously with isostatic uplift, during the Littorina transgressions. The stable isotope values do not indicate that leaf foddering of the early cattle was of importance.     

A geochronological approach to understanding the role of solar activity on Holocene glacier length variability in the Swiss Alps

We present a radiocarbon data set of 71 samples of wood and peat material that melted out or sheared out from underneath eight presentday mid‐latitude glaciers in the Central Swiss Alps. Results indicated that in the past several glaciers have been repeatedly less extensive than they were in the 1990s. The periods when glaciers had a smaller volume and shorter length persisted between 320 and 2500 years. This data set provides greater insight into glacier variability than previously possible, especially for the early and middle Holocene. The radiocarbon‐dated periods defined with less extensive glaciers coincide with periods of reduced radio‐production, pointing to a connection between solar activity and glacier melting processes. Measured long‐term series of glacier length variations show significant correlation with the total solar irradiance. Incoming solar irradiance and changing albedo can account for a direct forcing of the glacier mass balances. Long‐term investigations of atmospheric processes that are in interaction with changing solar activity are needed in order to understand the feedback mechanisms with glacier mass balances.     

Historic Dead Sea Level Fluctuations Calibrated with Geological and Archaeological Evidence

The Dead Sea, the Holocene terminal lake of the Jordan River catchment, has fluctuated during its history in response to climatic change. Biblical records, calibrated by radiocarbon-dated geological and archaeological evidence, reinforce and add detail to the chronology of the lake-level fluctuations. There are three historically documented phases of the Dead Sea in the Biblical record: low lake levels ca. 2000–1500 B.C.E. (before common era); high lake levels ca. 1500–1200 B.C.E.; and low lake levels between ca. 1000 and 700 B.C.E. The Biblical evidence indicates that during the dry periods the southern basin of the Dead Sea was completely dry, a fact that was not clear from the geological and archaeological data alone.     

Temporal variations in magma composition at Merapi Volcano (Central Java, Indonesia): magmatic cycles during the past 2000 years of explosive activity

Merapi Volcano (Central Java, Indonesia) has been frequently active during Middle to Late Holocene time producing basalts and basaltic andesites of medium-K composition in earlier stages of activity and high-K magmas from 1900 ¹⁴C yr BP to the present. Radiocarbon dating of pyroclastic deposits indicates an almost continuous activity with periods of high eruption rates alternating with shorter time spans of distinctly reduced eruptive frequency since the first appearance of high-K volcanic rocks. Geochemical data of 28 well-dated, prehistoric pyroclastic flows of the Merapi high-K series indicate systematic cyclic variations. These medium-term compositional variations result from a complex interplay of several magmatic processes, which ultimately control the periodicity and frequency of eruptions at Merapi. Low eruption rates and the absence of new influxes of primitive magma from depth allow the generation of basaltic andesite magma (56–57 wt% SiO₂) in a small-volume magma reservoir through fractional crystallisation from parental mafic magma (52–53 wt% SiO₂) in periods of low eruptive frequency. Magmas of intermediate composition erupted during these stages provide evidence for periodic withdrawal of magma from a steadily fractionating magma chamber. Subsequent periods are characterised by high eruption rates that coincide with shifts of whole-rock compositions from basaltic andesite to basalt. This compositional variation is interpreted to originate from influxes of primitive magma into a continuously active magma chamber, triggering the eruption of evolved magma after periods of low eruptive frequency. Batches of primitive magma eventually mix with residual magma in the magmatic reservoir to decrease whole-rock SiO₂ contents. Supply of primitive magma at Merapi appears to be sufficiently frequent that andesites or more differentiated rock types were not generated during the past 2000 years of activity. Cyclic variations also occurred during the recent eruptive period since AD 1883. The most recent eruptive episode of Merapi is characterised by essentially uniform magma compositions that may imply the existence of a continuously active magma reservoir, maintained in a quasi-steady state by magma recharge. The whole-rock compositions at the upper limit of the total SiO₂ range of the Merapi suite could also indicate the beginning of another period of high eruption rates and shifts towards more mafic compositions.     

放射性碳测年国际比对活动的初步结果

中国科学院地球环境研究所^14C实验室作为中国唯一的代表参加了第四届放射性碳测年国际比对活动(FIRI），取得了比较优异的成绩。初步分析了本届比对活动的测年结果，得出如下结论：不同的^14C测年方法对测年结果无明显的影响，不同现代碳标准的选择对大部分样品的测年结果有较明显的影响，而采用不同的本底物质仅对老年龄样品的定年有显著影响；加速器质诺测年法在各种^14C测年方法中最准确、精度最高，正逐渐成为国际^14C测年方法的主流。     

Evolution and inheritance of a rock coast: western Galicia,northwestern Spain

There is increasing evidence that shore platforms and other elements of rock coasts may be inherited, at least in part, from interglacial stages when sea level was similar to today's. Most of this evidence, which includes ancient beaches and datable terrestrial deposits, has been obtained from areas of resistant, slowly eroding rock, where the platforms often appear to be much too wide to have developed since the sea reached its present level. It is much more dif?cult to demonstrate that inheritance has occurred in areas of weaker rock, which generally lack any datable material. The coast of western Galicia in northwestern Spain has shore platforms in igneous and metamorphic rocks that were deeply weathered during the Tertiary. These platforms are closely associated with ancient beaches from the last interglacial stage, and associated periglacial and ?uvio‐nival deposits that covered and fossilized most of the Eemian platforms and cliffs during the late middle and late Weichselian glacial stage. The sedimentary processes and the thickness and facies of the sediments were determined by the height, aspect and gradient of the coastal mountains, and their distance from the coast. Radiocarbon dating, sedimentary analysis and platform morphology indicate that the shore platforms of Galicia have been inherited from at least the last interglacial stage. They were fossilized in places beneath thick Weichselian deposits and then exhumed during the Holocene transgression. The abundant evidence for inheritance in Galicia has important implications for other coasts in fairly weak rocks where such evidence is generally lacking. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

二维温盐环流模式研究14C在海洋中的分布

海洋碳循环模式中常使用放射性同位素14C来检验该模式的物理模型是否较好地反映了海洋中的大尺度变化的过程。本工作使用的物理模型是包括太平洋、大西洋和南大洋在内的二维温盐环流模式，在给定的年平均海表强迫下积分4000年后，环流达到准稳态，其定常流场用来驱动14C模式。对14C模式积分5000年以上，可得到14C稳态的分布。使用不同的二氧化碳海气交换系数和垂直湍流扩散系数值进行了7个实验，发现使用Broecker等的交换系数方程和扩散系数值依深度从0.6增加到1.45 cm2/s，模拟的结果较好。使用观测到的大气中14C含量，进一步研究了工业革命后及核试验后的14C在海洋中的穿透，模拟结果与现有的一些资料进行了比较，总体上给出了合理的结果。     

Late Pleistocene-Holocene Paleoclimatic History of the Southern Kerala Basin, Southwest India

The South Kerala Sedimentary Basin (SKSB) constitutes one of the most significant landward extensions of the southwest offshore sedimentary basins of India, and is situated between 8^o45^' and 10^o15^' N latitudes. With a maximum width of about 20 km and incorporating a 700 m thick sedimentary succession ranging in age from Early Miocene to Holocene, this belt lies almost entirely under water or alluvium-covered coastal plains. In this study, we use two continuously cored bore holes at Eruva (7.25m deep) and Muthukulam (3m deep) separated by a distance of about 7km to investigate the depositional environment as well as paleo ecology of the depocentre and climatic aspects during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. Results from C¹⁴ dating of shell fragments from Eruva (depth zone: 2.10–6.64m) yielded ages in the range of 36.2 to 42.5 kyBP corresponding to the late Pleistocene. Wood fragments in the Muthukulam core sample (depth zone: 1.27–3.00m) gave C¹⁴ ages in the range of 3.7 to 7.2 kyBP indicating a Holocene history. The lower half of the Eruva bore hole indicates a marginal marine environment with an abundant supply of terrestrial carbonaceous debris probably corresponding to a period of abnormally high rainfall recorded in many parts of the globe covered by the Asian summer monsoon. The sediments in the upper part of this bore hole indicate a continuation of this environment but with much less input of terrestrial organic carbon. The lower part of the bore hole from this locality, corresponding to the Holocene transgression, is similar to the lower part of Eruva bore hole in the case of TOC. Deposition took place in water bodies with considerable marine influence but receiving high amounts of terrestrial plant debris-mostly in the form of finely divided particles mixed with mud. This transgressive sequence was also deposited during a time when the Asian summer monsoon was abnormally high in intensity as indicated by many examples in India, Africa, Madagascar and elsewhere. It is significant that during the deposition of this part, the sea level was probably the same as present or higher suggesting possible lowering of the stream velocities and resultant deposition of only muddy sediments laden with terrestrial organic material along the coast. The upper part of the section shows a progressively reduced rainfall pattern culminating in a period of very low precipitation with the development of a paleosol, which is traceable all over the SKSB where Late Holocene sediments are available. This period also witnessed aeolian activity modifying the sand ridges in the ridge-runnel systems formed by the Holocene regression.     

Mid-late Holocene anthropogenic and natural variations in geochemistry and sedimentation in the Yazoo Basin: Clark Lake,Sharkey County,Mississippi

A 4000-yr history at Clark Lake reveals natural variations in sediment geochemistry and nutrient levels and anthropogenic influence on twentieth century sedimentation rates. Sediment texture and ridge and swale topography indicate that the channel system creating Clark Lake is now occupied by the Yazoo River. Between 1.24 and 0.60 m (2522–865 cal yr BP), total carbon percentages and the C/N ratio average 42% and 17, respectively. The base of the 1650-yr interval and onset of high organic activity in the lake coincides with the abandonment of the Yazoo Meander Belt. The top of the interval is marked by a drop in C/N ratio to 11 and a geochemical transition zone. No change in the rate of sediment accumulation or clay mineralogy was observed despite increased cumulative percentages of Al, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Ca, and Na. The decrease in organic activity at 865 cal yr BP is attributed to unfavorable growth conditions related to the entrenchment of the Yazoo River and changes in the hydroperiod of the area. Significant floodplain alteration was completed in 1978, but the only major effect was increased sedimentation in the late twentieth century due to the completion of the Whittington Auxiliary Channel.