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Absolute Dating of Recent Sediments in the Cyclone-influenced Shelf Area Off Bangladesh: Comparison of Gamma Spectrometric (137Cs, 210Pb, 228Ra), Radiocarbon, and 32Si Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Axel Suckow ,
Uwe Morgenstern  and
Herrmann-Rudolf Kudrass
Axel Suckow*
Affiliation:
Institute for Joint Geoscientific Research (GGA), S3: Geochronology and Isotope Hydrology, Stilleweg 2, Hannover, Germany
Uwe Morgenstern
Affiliation:
Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences (GNS), Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Herrmann-Rudolf Kudrass
Affiliation:
Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), Germany
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

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A geochronological survey of the Bengal shelf area involved results from more than 20 sediment cores dated using gamma spectrometry and the nuclides 137Cs, 228Ra, 226Ra, and 210Pb. In some cores, which contained older sediments, 32Si and 14C were determined to examine the possibility to extrapolate the obtained chronologies to century and millennial scale. Geochronological work in this region is faced with problems of cyclone-induced sediment reworking, grain-size effects on fallout nuclides, scarcity of carbonates, unknown 14C reservoir effect and sedimentation rates that are too high to obtain sediment cores long enough to establish a chronology. Despite these problems, comparison between the results of the different dating methods provided the most reliable sediment balance to date for the submarine delta of the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system and indicated that on a time scale of several centuries at least 35% of the annual sediment load is deposited.

Type
II. Our ‘Wet’ Environment
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 43 , Issue 2B: Proceedings of the 17th International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 2 of 3), Conference Editors: Israel Carmi, Elisabetta Boaretto , 2001 , pp. 917 - 927
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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