The browser you are using is not supported by this website. All versions of Internet Explorer are no longer supported, either by us or Microsoft (read more here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Please use a modern browser to fully experience our website, such as the newest versions of Edge, Chrome, Firefox or Safari etc.

Raimund Muscheler

Raimund Muscheler

Professor

Raimund Muscheler

Bulk sediment 14C dating in an estuarine environment: : How accurate can it be?

Author

  • Bryan C. Lougheed
  • Stephen P. Obrochta
  • Conny Lenz
  • Anette Mellström
  • Brett Metcalfe
  • Raimund Muscheler
  • Maja Reinholdsson
  • Ian Snowball
  • Lovisa Zillén

Summary, in English

Abstract Due to a lack of marine macrofossils in many sediment cores from the estuarine Baltic Sea, researchers are often forced to carry out 14C determinations on bulk sediment samples. However, ambiguity surrounding the carbon source pathways that contribute to bulk sediment formation introduces a large uncertainty into 14C geochronologies based on such samples, and such uncertainty may not have been fully considered in previous Baltic Sea studies. We quantify this uncertainty by analyzing bulk sediment 14C determinations carried out on densely spaced intervals in independently dated late-Holocene sediment sequences from two central Baltic Sea cores. Our results show a difference of ~600?14C?yr in median bulk sediment reservoir age, or R(t)bulk, between the two core locations (~1200?14C?yr for one core, ~620?14C?yr for the other), indicating large spatial variation. Furthermore, we also find large downcore (i.e., temporal) R(t)bulk variation of at least ~200?14C?yr for both cores. We also find a difference of 585?14C?yr between two samples taken from the same core depth. We propose that studies using bulk sediment 14C dating in large brackish water bodies should take such spatiotemporal variation in R(t)bulk into account when assessing uncertainties, thus leading to a larger, but more accurate, calibrated age range.

Department/s

  • Quaternary Sciences
  • MERGE: ModElling the Regional and Global Earth system

Publishing year

2017-02-01

Language

English

Pages

123-131

Publication/Series

Paleoceanography

Volume

32

Issue

2

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

John Wiley & Sons Inc.

Topic

  • Geology
  • Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
  • Oceanography, Hydrology, Water Resources

Keywords

  • radiocarbon
  • bulk sediment
  • reservoir age
  • Baltic Sea
  • estuary
  • 14C

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0883-8305