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14C Dating of Laminated Sediments from Loch Ness, Scotland

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

M. C. Cooper ,
P.E. O'Sullivan ,
D. D. Harkness ,
E. M. Lawson ,
D. Bull ,
A. E. S. Kemp ,
Sylvia M. Peglar ,
Nina M. Matthews ,
R. I. Jones  and
A. J. Shine
M. C. Cooper
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, United Kingdom
P.E. O'Sullivan*
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Plymouth, Plymouth PL4 8AA, United Kingdom
D. D. Harkness
Affiliation:
NERC Radiocarbon Laboratory, East Kilbride, Glasgow G75 0QF, Scotland
E. M. Lawson
Affiliation:
Antares Mass Spectrometry Facility (ANSTO), PMB 1, Menai, NSW 2234, Australia
D. Bull
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
A. E. S. Kemp
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Sylvia M. Peglar
Affiliation:
Botanical Institute, University of Bergen, Allégaten 41, N-5007 Bergen, Norway
Nina M. Matthews
Affiliation:
Science Centre, Cornwall College, Pool, Redruth, TR15 3RD, Cornwall, United Kingdom
R. I. Jones
Affiliation:
Institute of Environmental and Biological Sciences, Lancaster University, Lancaster, LA1 4YQ, United Kingdom
A. J. Shine
Affiliation:
Loch Ness Project, Loch Ness Centre, Drumnadrochit, Inverness IV3 6TU, Scotland
*
2Author to whom correspondence should be addressed
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Abstract

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Radiometric and AMS radiocarbon dating of a 6-m sediment core from Loch Ness, Scotland, indicates that it represents perhaps the very end of the Late Pleistocene, and the first ca. 7500 yr of the Holocene. Counts of laminations observed in the Holocene section of the core suggest that they are present in sufficient number to constitute annual laminations (varves), an hypothesis consistent with the pollen record, which contains a sequence of zones representative of the Early, Middle and part of the Late Holocene regional vegetation history. On the basis of BSEM and X-ray studies of sediments, and modern seston trap data, the laminations are believed to be produced by winter floods, which introduce increased silt loading into the Loch. Sediment for the rest of the year is mostly composed of clay-sized material. This hypothesis is being further tested, however, by continuing sedimentological and microfossil studies.

Time-depth relations for the core based on calibrated 14C dates and lamination counts, respectively, illustrate the close correspondence between the two sets of data. The latter are therefore now being used to develop a varve chronology for the Holocene for Loch Ness. This will then in turn be used for further chronological studies, and for investigations of palaeoclimatic variations over the eastern North Atlantic, to which the signal of lamination thickness in the sediments is thought to be particularly sensitive. They may also eventually be used for calibration studies, employing 14C dating of specific carbon compounds, or groups of compounds extracted from the sediment using modern organic geochemical methods.

Type
Part 2: Applications
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 40 , Issue 2: 16th International Radiocarbon Conference June 16-20, 1997 Part 2: Applications, Conference Editors: Willem G. Mook Johannes van der Plicht , 1997 , pp. 781 - 793
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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