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A re-analysis of the Lake Suigetsu terrestrial radiocarbon calibration dataset

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Takeshi Nakagawa

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Abstract

Lake Suigetsu, Honshu Island, Japan provides an ideal sedimentary sequence from which to derive a wholly terrestrial radiocarbon calibration curve back to the limits of radiocarbon detection (circa 60 ka bp). The presence of well-defined, annually-deposited laminae (varves) throughout the entirety of this period provides an independent, high resolution chronometer against which radiocarbon measurements of plant macrofossils from the sediment column can be directly related. However, data from the initial Lake Suigetsu project [1-3] were found to diverge significantly from alternative, marine-based calibration datasets released around the same time (e.g. [4,5]). The main source of this divergence is thought to be the result of inaccuracies in the absolute age profile of the Suigetsu project, caused by both varve counting uncertainties and gaps in the sediment column of unknown duration between successively-drilled core sections. Here, a re-analysis of the previously-published Lake Suigetsu data is conducted. The most recent developments in Bayesian statistical modelling techniques (OxCal v4.1; [6]) are implemented to fit the Suigetsu data to the latest radiocarbon calibration datasets and thereby estimate the duration of the inter-core section gaps in the Suigetsu data. In this way, the absolute age of the Lake Suigetsu sediment profile is more accurately defined, providing significant information for both radiocarbon calibration and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction purposes. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Publication metadata

Author(s): Staff R, Bronk Ramsey C, Nakagawa T

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms

Year: 2010

Volume: 268

Issue: 7-8

Pages: 960-965

ISSN (print): 0168-583X

ISSN (electronic): 1872-9584

Publisher: Elsevier BV

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2009.10.074

DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2009.10.074

Notes: Proceedings of the Eleventh International Conference on Accelerator Mass Spectrometry


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