ePrints

An automated method for varve interpolation and its application to the Late Glacial chronology from Lake Suigetsu, Japan

Lookup NU author(s): Professor Takeshi Nakagawa

Downloads

Full text for this publication is not currently held within this repository. Alternative links are provided below where available.

Abstract

The Lake Suigetsu sediment has been recognised for its potential to create a wholly terrestrial (i.e. non-reservoir-corrected) C-14 calibration dataset, as it exhibits annual laminations (varves) for much of its depth and is rich in terrestrial leaf fossils, providing a record of atmospheric radiocarbon. Microscopic analysis revealed that the varve record is curtailed due to the incomplete formation or preservation of annual laminae, necessitating interpolation. The program for varve interpolation presented here analyses the seasonal layer distribution and automatically derives a sedimentation rate estimate, which is the basis for interpolation, and applies it to complement the original varve count. As the interpolation is automated it largely avoids subjectivity, which manual interpolation approaches often suffer from. Application to the Late Glacial chronology from Lake Suigetsu demonstrates the implementation and the limits of the method. To evaluate the reliability of the technique, the interpolation result is compared with the C-14 chronology from Lake Suigetsu, calibrated with the tree-ring derived section of the IntCal09 calibration curve. The comparison shows that the accuracy of the interpolation result is well within the 68.2% probability range of the calibrated C-14 dates and that it is therefore suitable for calibration beyond the present tree-ring limit. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Publication metadata

Author(s): Schlolaut G, Marshall MH, Brauer A, Nakagawa T, Lamb HF, Staff RA, Ramsey CB, Bryant CL, Brock F, Kossler A, Tarasov PE, Yokoyama Y, Tada R, Haraguchi T, Suigetsu 2006 Project

Publication type: Article

Publication status: Published

Journal: Quaternary Geochronology

Year: 2012

Volume: 13

Pages: 52-69

Print publication date: 01/12/2012

ISSN (print): 1871-1014

ISSN (electronic):

Publisher: Elsevier BV

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2012.07.005

DOI: 10.1016/j.quageo.2012.07.005

Altmetrics

Funding

Share