Hostname: page-component-5b777bbd6c-ks5gx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-06-19T19:54:36.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Improving Antarctic Sediment 14C Dating Using Ramped Pyrolysis: An Example from the Hugo Island Trough

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2016

Brad E Rosenheim ,
Jennifer A Santoro ,
Madeleine Gunter  and
Eugene W Domack
Brad E Rosenheim*
Affiliation:
1Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
Jennifer A Santoro*
Affiliation:
2Department of Geosciences, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, USA
Madeleine Gunter*
Affiliation:
2Department of Geosciences, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, USA
Eugene W Domack
Affiliation:
2Department of Geosciences, Hamilton College, Clinton, New York, USA
*
Corresponding author. Email: brosenhe@tulane.edu.
3Presently at Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
4Presently at Department of Anthropology, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia, USA.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

To improve the chronology of sediments containing information about Holocene ice shelf and oceanic dynamics in the vicinity of the Antarctic Peninsula, we compare bulk acid-insoluble radiocarbon dating to ramped pyrolysis 14C dating in a sediment core containing ample organic material. This core spans the last 12,000 yr of open-shelf sedimentation in the Bellingshausen Sea, western Antarctic Peninsula. By estimating the spectrum of 14C ages within a given core horizon, the ramped pyrolysis 14C method separates organic carbon relative to thermal stability, isolating younger parts of the mixture from older ones and providing an estimate of the geological uncertainty inherent in a bulk 14C age. Employing the ramped pyrolysis 14C method to this core demonstrates variable bulk 14C age bias and increasing age spectrum downcore, neither of which can be associated with major changes in lithology of the core. The chronology of the sediment core using the youngest ages from the ramped pyrolysis technique allows for correlation between nearby Palmer Deep sediments and these sediments from the Hugo Island Trough.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 1 , 2013 , pp. 115 - 126
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

Andrews, JT, Domack, EW, Cunningham, WL, Leventer, A, Licht, KJ, Jull, AJT, DeMaster, DJ, Jennings, AE. 1999. Problems and possible solutions concerning radiocarbon dating of surface marine sediments, Ross Sea, Antarctica. Quaternary Research 52(2):206–1.Google Scholar
DeMaster, DJ, Ragueneau, O, Nittrouer, CA. 1996. Preservation efficiencies and accumulation rates for biogenic silica and organic C, N, and P in high-latitude sediments: the Ross Sea. Journal of Geophysical Research 101(C8):18,501–18.Google Scholar
Domack, EW, Mashiotta, TA, Burkley, LA, Ishman, SE. 1993. 300 year cyclicity in organic matter preservation in Antarctic fjord sediments. In: Kenntt, JP, Warnke, DA, editors. The Antarctic Paleoenvironment: A Perspective on Global Change (Part 2). Washington, DC: American Geophysical Union. p 265–7.Google Scholar
Domack, EW, Ishman, SE, Stein, AB, McClennen, CE, Jull, AJT. 1995. Late Holocene advance of the Müller Ice Shelf, Antarctic Peninsula: sedimentological, geochemical and palaeontological evidence. Antarctic Science 7(2):159–7.Google Scholar
Domack, EW, Leventer, A, Dunbar, RB, Taylor, FW, Brachfeld, S, Sjunneskog, C, Party, OLS. 2001. Chronology of the Palmer Deep site, Antarctic Peninsula: a Holocene palaeoenvironmental reference for the circum-Antarctic. The Holocene 11(1):1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Domack, EW, Duran, D, Leventer, A, Ishman, S, Doane, S, McCallum, S, Amblas, D, Ring, J, Gilbert, R, Prentice, M. 2005. Stability of the Larsen B ice shelf on the Antarctic Peninsula during the Holocene epoch. Nature 436(7501):681–5.Google Scholar
Domack, EW, Amblàs, D, Gilbert, R, Brachfeld, S, Camerlenghi, A, Rebesco, M, Canals, M, Urgeles, R. 2006. Subglacial morphology and glacial evolution of the Palmer deep outlet system, Antarctic Peninsula. Geomorphology 75(1–2):125–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Licht, KJ, Cunningham, WL, Andrews, JT, Domack, EW, Jennings, AE. 1998. Establishing chronologies from acid-insoluble organic 14C dates on Antarctic (Ross Sea) and Arctic (North Atlantic) marine sediments. Polar Research 17(2):203–1.Google Scholar
Mackintosh, A, Golledge, N, Domack, EW, Dunbar, RB, Leventer, A, White, D, Pollard, D, DeConto, R, Fink, D, Zhwartz, D, Gore, D, Lavoie, C. 2011. Retreat of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the last glacial termination. Nature Geoscience 4(3):195–202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGeehin, J, Burr, GS, Jull, AJT, Reines, D, Gosse, J, Davis, PT, Muhs, D, Southon, J. 2001. Stepped-combustion 14C dating of sediment: a comparison with established techniques. Radiocarbon 43(2A):255–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGeehin, J, Burr, GS, Hodgins, G, Bennett, SJ, Robbins, JA, Morehead, N, Markewich, H. 2004. Stepped-combustion 14C dating of bomb carbon in lake sediment. Radiocarbon 46(2):893–900.Google Scholar
Michalchuk, BR, Anderson, JB, Wellner, JS, Manley, PL, Majewski, W, Bohaty, SM. 2009. Holocene climate and glacial history of the northeaster Antarctic Peninsula: the marine sedimentary record from a long SHALDRIL core. Quaternary Science Reviews 28(27–28):3049–65.Google Scholar
Milliken, KT, Anderson, JB, Wellner, JS, Bohaty, SM, Manley, PL. 2009. High-resolution Holocene climate record from Maxwell Bay, South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. Geological Society of America Bulletin 121(11-12):1711–25.Google Scholar
Mosola, AB, Anderson, JB. 2006. Expansion and rapid retreat of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet in eastern Ross Sea: possible consequence of over-extended ice streams? Quaternary Science Reviews 25(17–18):2177–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pudsey, CJ, Barker, PF, Larter, RD. 1994. Ice sheet retreat from the Antarctic Peninsula shelf. Continental Shelf Research 14:1647–75.Google Scholar
Rosenheim, BE, Day, MB, Domack, EW, Schrum, H, Benthien, A, Hayes, JM. 2008. Antarctic sediment chronology by programmed-temperature pyrolysis; methodology and data treatment. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 9(4):Q04005, doi: 10.1029/2007GC001816 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shevenell, AE, Domack, EW, Kernan, GM. 1996. Record of Holocene paleoclimate change along the Antarctic Peninsula: evidence from glacial marine sediments, Lallemand Fjord. In: Banks, MR, Brown, MJ, editors. The Climate of the Southern Ocean. Hobart: Royal Society of Tasmania. p 55–64.Google Scholar
Shevenell, AE, Ingalls, AE, Domack, EW, Kelly, C. 2011. Holocene Southern Ocean surface temperature variability west of the Antarctic Peninsula. Nature 470(7333):250–4.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Polach, HA. 1977. Discussion: reporting of 14C data. Radiocarbon 19(3)355–6.Google Scholar
van Beek, P, Reyss, J-L, Paterne, M, Gersonde, R, van der Loeff, M Rutgers, Kuhn, G. 2002. 226Ra in barite: absolute dating of Holocene Southern Ocean sediments and reconstruction of sea-surface reservoir ages. Geology 30(8):731–4.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, H, Hackley, KC, Panno, SV, Coleman, DD, Liu, JCL, Brown, J. 2003. Pyrolysis-combustion 14C dating of soil organic matter. Quaternary Research 60(3):348–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weber, ME, Clark, PU, Ricken, W, Mitrovica, JX, Hostetler, SW, Kuhn, G. 2011. Interhemispheric ice-sheet synchronicity during the Last Glacial Maximum. Science 334(6060):1265–9.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed