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Radiocarbon Age of the Laacher See Tephra: 11,230 ± 40 BP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Irena Hajdas ,
Susan D. Ivy-Ochs ,
Georges Bonani ,
André F. Loiter ,
Bernd Zolitschka  and
Christian Schlüchter
Irena Hajdas
Affiliation:
Institut für Teilchenphysik, ETH-Hönggerberg, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG), überlandstrasse 133, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Susan D. Ivy-Ochs
Affiliation:
Institut für Teilchenphysik, ETH-Hönggerberg, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland Ingenieurgeologie, ETH-Hönggerberg
Georges Bonani
Affiliation:
Institut für Teilchenphysik, ETH-Hönggerberg, CH-8093 Zürich, Switzerland
André F. Loiter
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG), überlandstrasse 133, CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Bernd Zolitschka
Affiliation:
Fachbereich VI Geologie, Universität Trier, D-54286 Trier, Germany
Christian Schlüchter
Affiliation:
Geologisches Institut, Universität Bern, CH- 3012 Bern, Switzerland
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Abstract

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The Laacher Sec Tephra (LST) layer provides a unique and invaluable time marker in European sediments with increasing importance because it occurs just before the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) cold event. As the YD begins ca. 200 calendar years after the LST was deposited, accurate determination of the radiocarbon age of this ash layer will lead to a more accurate age assignment for the beginning of the YD. On the basis of 12 terrestrial plant macrofossil 14C ages derived from sediments from Soppensee, Holzmaar and Schlakenmehrener Maar, we found an age of at least 11,230 ± 40 bp for the LST event. This is ca. 200 yr older than the often reported age of 11,000 ± 50 bp (van den Bogaard and Schmincke 1985).

Type
I. 14C in the Reconstruction of Past Environments
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , 1995 , pp. 149 - 154
Copyright
Copyright © the Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona 

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