Late Holocene tsunami traces on the western and southern coastlines of the Peloponnesus (Greece)

Greece, in particular the western and southern parts close to the subduction zone of the Hellenic Trench, experiences strong earthquakes and subsequent tsunamis. Nevertheless, field evidence of tsunamis from the late Holocene is extremely rare. Our research along the coastlines of the western and southern Peloponnesus resulted in new findings of tsunami impacts in the form of clusters and ridges of large boulders and thick tsunamigenic sand layers encountered in vibracores. Many boulders contained attached marine organisms, which prove that they were transported from the foreshore environment against gravity by extreme wave events. The attached organisms, which have been dated by ¹⁴C-AMS, suggest that historical tsunami events of great energy occurred around 1300 cal AD. A wood fragment found at the base of tsunami deposits in a vibracore from Cape Punta was dated to ~ 250 cal AD.     

Improved age modelling and high-precision age estimates of late Quaternary tephras,for accurate palaeoclimate reconstruction

The role of tephrochronology, as a dating and stratigraphic tool, in precise palaeoclimate and environmental reconstruction, has expanded significantly in recent years. The power of tephrochronology rests on the fact that a tephra layer can stratigraphically link records at the resolution of as little as a few years, and that the most precise age for a particular tephra can be imported into any site where it is found. In order to maximise the potential of tephras for this purpose it is necessary to have the most precise and robustly tested age estimate possible available for key tephras. Given the varying number and quality of dates associated with different tephras it is important to be able to build age models to test competing tephra dates. Recent advances in Bayesian age modelling of dates in sequence have radically extended our ability to build such stratigraphic age models. As an example of the potential here we use Bayesian methods, now widely applied, to examine the dating of some key Late Quaternary tephras from Italy. These are: the Agnano Monte Spina Tephra (AMST), the Neapolitan Yellow Tuff (NYT) and the Agnano Pomici Principali (APP), and all of them have multiple estimates of their true age. Further, we use the Bayesian approaches to generate a revised mixed radiocarbon/varve chronology for the important Lateglacial section of the Lago Grande Monticchio record, as a further illustration of what can be achieved by a Bayesian approach. With all three tephras we were able to produce viable model ages for the tephra, validate the proposed ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age ranges for these tephras, and provide relatively high precision age models. The results of the Bayesian integration of dating and stratigraphic information, suggest that the current best 95% confidence calendar age estimates for the AMST are 4690–4300 cal BP, the NYT 14320–13900 cal BP, and the APP 12380–12140 cal BP.     

寻求高分辨率的古环境记录

古气候变化突然事件的发现和对未来环境变化的预测,提出了取得高分辨率古环境记录的要求。本文试图对国际以及国内文献作一综述,以介绍晚第四纪环境变迁高分辨率研究的最新进展,并以海洋部分作为重点。综述涉及千年、百年、十年和年际的不同时间尺度,但着重阐述“亚米兰科维奇”气候变化,包括Heinrich和Dansgaard／Oeschger事件。对于放射性碳测年数据换算为日历年进行专门讨论,因为这是为环境事件建立精确年代顺序的先决条件。最后,向我国同行提出三点建议：1)在对地层记录运用高分辨率研究方法时要经过精心选择,避免盲目性,并充分意识到此类研究的特殊要求;2)依靠我国所在区域的特殊自然条件,在高分辨率古环境研究中发展独立的学术思想;3)将高分辨率研究方法推广到前第四纪的沉积序列中去。     

Summary findings of the fourth international radiocarbon intercomparison (FIRI)(1998–2001)

Interlaboratory comparisons have been widely used in applied radiocarbon science. These are an important part of ongoing quality assurance (QA) programmes, which are vital to the appropriate interpretation of the evidence provided by the ¹⁴C record in Quaternary applications (including climate change and environmental reconstruction). International comparisons of laboratory performance are an essential component of the quality assurance process in radiocarbon dating. If the user community is to have confidence in radiocarbon results, it needs to be assured that laboratories world wide are producing measurements that are reliable and in accordance with ‘good practice’. The findings from the most recent (completed in 2001) and extensive (more than 90 participating laboratories) radiocarbon intercomparison (FIRI) are reported here. This study was designed (i) to assess comparability, or otherwise, of the results from different laboratories and (ii) to quantify the extent and possible causes of any interlaboratory variation. The results demonstrate that there are no significant differences amongst the main measurement techniques (gas proportional counting, liquid scintillation counting and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS)) but there is evidence of small laboratory offsets relative to known age samples for some laboratories. There is also evidence in some cases of underestimation of measurement precision. Approximately 10% of all results were classified as extreme (outliers) and these results were generated by 14% of the laboratories. Overall, the evidence supports the fact that radiocarbon laboratories are generally accurate and precise but that, notwithstanding internal QA procedures, some problems still occur, which can best be detected by participation in independent intercomparisons such as FIRI, where the results allow individual laboratories to assess their performance and to take remedial measures where necessary. The results from FIRI are significant in that they show a broad measure of agreement between measurements made in different laboratories on a wide range of materials and they also demonstrate no statistically significant difference between measurements made by radiometric or AMS techniques. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

老碳对水生态系统食物网的贡献

传统理论认为,支撑水生态系统食物网的碳主要来自于系统内部的初级生产者,如藻类、大型水生植物等,或者来自陆源输入的新鲜且容易分解的有机质;而部分生物或非生物生产的有机碳,在冰川、冻土等环境中可停留数百年至数千年(定义为老碳),由于储存环境稳定、物理化学性质顽固,难以参与水生生态系统有机碳循环.近年来这一观念不断被挑战.研究表明老碳能够参与水生态系统食物网碳循环:可以被微生物分解利用;被浮游动物、无脊椎动物直接或者间接摄取、或沿着营养级传递至鱼类、水禽等高级消费者.这意味着除了内部初级生产,老碳是支撑水生态系统重要的碳源.本文概述了当前老碳与水生态系统食物网关系研究最新进展和所取得的研究成果,介绍放射性14C同位素技术在水生态学领域的应用,同时提出研究中存在的问题以及未来研究应关注的方向,以期促进我国水生态系统碳循环研究的进一步发展.     

渤海湾牡蛎礁平原中部兴坨剖面全新世地质环境变迁

渤海湾牡蛎礁平原中部兴坨剖面的有孔虫组合划分为5种沉积环境7个带(亚环境)，从下向上依次为晚更新世陆相(Ⅶ带)、早全新世海陆过渡相(Ⅵ带：沿海低地与潮间带)、中晚全新世海相(Ⅴ带：潮下带-浅海，Ⅳ带：低潮线附近)、晚全新世海陆过渡相(Ⅲ带：开放潮间带，Ⅱ带：渴湖)和河流泛滥相(Ⅰ带：古土壤及洪积层)。^14C确定了全新世底泥炭始于9486 cal BP，Ⅳ带始于约4696 cal BP。Ⅱ带所处的渴湖环境，从约4000 cal BP直至隋唐温暖期之前，历时约2700年。隋唐暖期古土壤发育向南东减弱至逐渐消失，说明在比兴坨更靠近渤海湾的地方，潟湖持续的时间更长。广泛存在的潟湖，是牡蛎礁平原晚全新世的重要地貌景观。     

湖泊沉积物的14 C和光释光测年* ——以固城湖为例

富含有机质的湖泊沉积物被认为是¹⁴ C测年建立古环境记录年代标尺的理想材料,光释光测年方法近年开始应用于水成沉积物的定年。应用¹⁴ C和光释光两种方法对江苏固城湖湖心钻孔岩芯进行了年龄测定,结果表明全样有机质的¹⁴ C年龄与石英的光释光年龄存在系统差异,后者较前者年轻约2000年。系统光释光测年研究排除了光释光年龄低估的可能性,所以,二者的差异可能是湖泊沉积物碳库效应的反映。     

北京大学AMS 14 C 国际比对样品测量*

介绍了北京大学加速器质谱(AMS)实验室参加国际原子能机构 (IAEA) 组织的第五届¹⁴ C国际比对样品测量的过程和结果,包括样品制备、小型¹⁴ C测量加速器质谱计装置和比对测量结果的统计分析等。北京大学的测量结果与IAEA加权统计平均值的偏差在1σ之内, 这一结果较客观地体现了我国¹⁴ C AMS年代测定在国际同类实验室中所处的地位。     

Periods of rapid environmental change around 12 500 and 10 000 years B.P., as recorded in Swiss lake deposits

In the sediment of three Swiss lakes at a range of altitude from 514 to 2017 m, the Bölling and the Preboreal are recognized as two periods of rapid biotic changes. The main reason is rapid climatic change that triggered shifts in different groups of aquatic and terrestrial organisms. Although these groups would be expected to have very different response times, e.g., to increasing summer temperature, their assemblages responded with surprizing synchroneity. For extracting climatic signals from stratigraphies, the quickly responsive indicators like oxygen isotopes or beetles are useful. For understanding ecological dynamics under a changing climate, the comparison of biota with various response time are important.This is the sixth of a series of papers to be published by this journal that was presented in the paleolimnology sessions organized by R. B. Davis and H. Löffler for the XIIth Congress of the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), which took place in Ottawa, Canada in August 1987. Drs. Davis and Löffler are serving as guest editors of this series.     

On the choice of timescale in glacial rebound modelling: mantle viscosity estimates and the radiocarbon timescale

Most glacial rebound studies have been carried out with respect to the radiocarbon timescale, whose departures from the calendar timescale are becoming increasingly well established. In consequence, it has sometimes been argued that the choice of the radiocarbon timescale may invalidate some of the conclusions drawn from rebound and sea-level analyses. The purpose of this note is to compare rebound model results based on both timescales, using the British Isles data for the test. The results indicate that the choice of timescale is unimportant provided that the time dimension of viscosity is appropriately defined. The results confirm that the radiocarbon viscosities are about 15 per cent less than the corresponding calendar-time viscosities. Also, provided that consistency of timescales is maintained in the analysis, and that the time-accuracy estimates of the radiocarbon data reflect the departures from a linear timescale, the use of the radiocarbon timescale does not impinge on inferences drawn about the timing of melting of ice sheets or eustatic sea-level change.