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Dating Bulk Sediments from Limnic Deposits Using a Grain-Size Approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

Leo Rothacker ,
Alexander Dreves ,
Frank Sirocko ,
Pieter M Grootes  and
Marie-Josée Nadeau
Leo Rothacker
Affiliation:
Institute of Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg University, J-J Becher Weg 21, 55128 Mainz, Germany Leibniz Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Isotope Research, Christian Albrechts University, Max-Eyth-Str. 11-13, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Alexander Dreves
Affiliation:
Leibniz Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Isotope Research, Christian Albrechts University, Max-Eyth-Str. 11-13, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Frank Sirocko*
Affiliation:
Institute of Geosciences, Johannes Gutenberg University, J-J Becher Weg 21, 55128 Mainz, Germany
Pieter M Grootes
Affiliation:
Leibniz Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Isotope Research, Christian Albrechts University, Max-Eyth-Str. 11-13, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Marie-Josée Nadeau
Affiliation:
Leibniz Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Isotope Research, Christian Albrechts University, Max-Eyth-Str. 11-13, 24118 Kiel, Germany
*
3Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

Radiocarbon measurements on bulk subaqueous sediments typically provide ages significantly older than actual time of deposition. This is generally caused by the presence of reworked organic compounds, which are depleted in 14C. To explore this issue of age heterogeneity, we collected 4 organic-rich samples from varying depths in a lake sediment core at the Gemündener Maar (Eifel, Germany), a lake of volcanic origin. We divided each sample into 5 standard grain-size fractions: gravel, sand, silt, clay, and 1 fraction smaller than 0.45 μm. These were cleaned separately using a standard acid-alkali-acid treatment. The highly organic gravel-size fraction provided the youngest 14C ages of all grain-size fractions and seems to be associated most closely with the time of deposition. By contrast, the silt and clay fractions show significantly older ages. If the investigated limnic sediment layer does not contain any identifiable terrestrial macrofossils, extracting and measuring coarser grain-size fractions instead of measuring bulk sediment samples will provide a better approximation of the time of sedimentation.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 2: Proceedings of the 21st International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 1 of 2) , 2013 , pp. 943 - 950
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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