Radiocarbon ages of sorted circles on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica

Abstract

Lichen and moss colonize the surface of glacial debris left after deglaciation. Transformation of unsorted debris into a sorted circle causes early plant remains to be preserved in the fine-grained centre encircled by a coarse, clastic border. Systematic radiocarbon dating of plant remains from the sorted stone circles on King George Island, South Shetland Islands, West Antarctica, yielded ages between 290–4710 ¹⁴C yrs BP. The oldest age obtained from a large stone circle approximated the regional deglaciation age recorded in marine and lacustrine sediment cores. Most of the ages, however, underestimate the time of deglaciation due to the continual addition of younger plant remains, changes in soil motion, and the diverse vegetation history. Despite its current limitations as a terrestrial proxy for regional deglaciation, further systematic dating and careful interpretation based on surface processes may improve the usefulness of sorted circles in reconstructing the glacial and periglacial history of polar terrestrial environments.