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Development of Accurate and Reliable 14C Chronologies for Loess Deposits: Application to the Loess Sequence of Nussloch (Rhine Valley, Germany)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Christine Hatté
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR1572 CEA/CNRS, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France. Email: [email protected].
Luiz Carlos Pessenda
Affiliation:
CENA, Universidade de Sao Paulo, 13400-970 Piracicaba, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Andreas Lang
Affiliation:
Geographische Institute der Universität Bonn. Meckenheimer Allee 166, D-53115 Bonn, Germany
Martine Paterne
Affiliation:
Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, UMR1572 CEA/CNRS, F-91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cedex, France. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

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Due to very high accumulation rates, loess sequences are best suited archives for the continental paleoclimate of glacial periods. Accurate chronologies cannot be easily established by radiocarbon-dating, because of the lack of organic macrorests, the only material for reliable 14C dating so far. A chemical protocol is reported to extract the organic matter of loess (organic carbon content lower than 0.1% by weight) for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14C dating. Sediments were taken from the loess sequence of Nussloch, for which a large dataset of luminescence ages (TL, IRSL/OSL) is available. The 14C chronology of the organic matter extracted from loess is in good agreement with the corresponding luminescence ages. It allows high resolution correlations with climatic proxy signals (magnetic susceptibility, malacological assemblages, δ13C on organic matter, etc.) derived from the loess sequence and global environmental proxy records.

Type
I. Our ‘Dry’ Environment: Above Sea Level
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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