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The Swedish Time Scale: A Potential Calibration Tool for the Radiocarbon Time Scale During the Late Weichselian

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Barbara Wohlfarth ,
Svante Björck  and
Göran Possnert
Barbara Wohlfarth
Affiliation:
Department of Quaternary Geology, Lund University, Tornavägen 13, S-22363 Lund, Sweden
Svante Björck
Affiliation:
Geological Institute, Copenhagen University, ⊘ster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen, Denmark
Göran Possnert
Affiliation:
The Svedberg Laboratory, Uppsala University, Box 533, S-75121 Uppsala, Sweden
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Abstract

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The Swedish Time Scale (STS) is a ca. 13,300-yr-long varve chronology that has been established for the Swedish east coast from >1000 overlapping clay-varve diagrams. We describe the present state of the STS and illustrate the application of this worldwide unique varve chronology for AMS radiocarbon measurements. The results are compared to other 14C-dated calendar-year chronologies: dendrochronology, laminated lake sediments and U/Th. Our data set agrees with the oldest part of the dendrochronological calibration curve, and with AMS 14C-dated lake lamination data and U/Th on corals down to ca. 12 ka calendar years bp. Further back in time, the AMS-dated part of the STS partly compares well with lake lamination chronologies and shows that the difference between 14C and calendar years decreases rapidly between 12,600 and 12,800 calendar years bp. Such a development seems to contrast with U/Th measurements on corals. We suggest that the cause for the divergence among three supposed calendar-year chronologies lies in the fact that the data points on the marine 14C-U/Th curve are more widely spaced in time than the tightly grouped set of terrestrial AMS 14C dates, and thus are not able to reflect short-term changes in atmospheric 14C. Therefore, we argue that the use of the pre-Holocene part of the calibration program is premature and inadvisable.

Type
III. Calibration of the 14C Time Scale
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , 1995 , pp. 347 - 359
Copyright
Copyright © the Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona 

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