Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T08:51:20.730Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Using the 14C Bomb Pulse to Date Young Speleothems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Ed Hodge ,
Janece McDonald ,
Matthew Fischer ,
Dale Redwood ,
Quan Hua ,
Vladimir Levchenko ,
Russell Drysdale ,
Chris Waring  and
David Fink
Ed Hodge
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia.
Janece McDonald*
Affiliation:
Environmental and Climate Change Research Group, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
Matthew Fischer
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia.
Dale Redwood
Affiliation:
Environmental and Climate Change Research Group, University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW 2308, Australia.
Quan Hua
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia.
Vladimir Levchenko
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia.
Russell Drysdale
Affiliation:
Department of Resource Management and Geography, University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia.
Chris Waring
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia.
David Fink
Affiliation:
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO), Kirrawee DC, NSW 2232, Australia.
*
Corresponding author: Email: janece.mcdonald@newcastle.edu.au.
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Three modern speleothems were sampled at high resolution for radiocarbon analysis to identify their bomb-pulse signatures and to construct chronologies. Each speleothem exhibited a different 14C response, presumed to be related to site characteristics such as vegetation, temperature, rainfall, depth below the surface, and water pathway through the aquifer. Peak 14C activity for WM4 is 134.1 pMC, the highest cited thus far in the literature and suggestive of a lower inertia at this site. Dead carbon fractions for each stalagmite were calculated and found to be relatively similar for the 3 speleothems and lower than those derived from Northern Hemisphere speleothems. An inverse modeling technique based on the work of Genty and Massault (1999) was used to estimate soil carbon residence times. For each speleothem, mean soil 14C reservoir ages differed greatly between the 3 sites, ranging from 2–6.5 to 32–46 yr.

Type
Soils and Sediments
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , 2011 , pp. 345 - 357
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Baker, A, Smart, PL, Edwards, RL, Richards, DA. 1993. Annual growth banding in a cave stalagmite. Nature 364(6437):518–20.Google Scholar
Baskaran, M, Illiffe, TM. 1993. Age determination of recent cave deposits using excess 210Pb – a new technique. Geophysical Research Letters 20(7):603–6.Google Scholar
Fairchild, IJ, Smith, CL, Baker, A, Fuller, L, Spötl, C, Mattey, D, McDermott, F, EIMF. 2006. Modification and preservation of environmental signals in speleothems. Earth-Science Reviews 75(1–4):105–53.Google Scholar
Fink, D, Hotchkis, M, Hua, Q, Jacobsen, G, Smith, AM, Zoppi, U, Child, D, Mifsud, C, van der Gaast, H, Williams, A, Williams, M. 2004. The ANTARES AMS facility at ANSTO. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 223–224:109–15.Google Scholar
Gagan, MK, Chivas, AR, Isdale, PJ. 1994. High-resolution isotopic records from corals using ocean temperature and mass spawning chronometers. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 121(3–4):549–58.Google Scholar
Genty, D, Massault, M. 1997. Bomb 14C recorded in laminated speleothems: calculation of dead carbon proportion. Radiocarbon 39(1):33–48.Google Scholar
Genty, D, Massault, M. 1999. Carbon transfer dynamics from bomb-14C and δ13C time series of a laminated stalagmite from SW France—modelling and comparison with other stalagmite records. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 63(10):1537–48.Google Scholar
Genty, D, Quinif, Y. 1996. Annually laminated sequences in the internal structure of some Belgian stalagmites; importance for paleoclimatology. Journal of Sedimentary Research 66(1):275–88.Google Scholar
Genty, D, Vokal, B, Obelic, B, Massault, M. 1998. Bomb 14C time history recorded in two modern stalagmites—importance for soil organic matter dynamics and bomb 14C distribution over continents. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 160(3–4):795–809.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genty, D, Baker, A, Massault, M, Proctor, C, Gilmour, M, Pons-Branchu, E, Hamelin, B. 2001. Dead carbon in stalagmites: carbonate bedrock paleodissolution vs. ageing of soil organic matter. Implications for 13C variations in speleothems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 65(20):3443–57.Google Scholar
Geyh, MA. 2005. 14C dating – still a challenge for users? Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie Supplement 139:63–86.Google Scholar
Hua, Q. 2009. Radiocarbon: a chronological tool for the recent past. Quaternary Geochronology 4(5):378–90.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Barbetti, M. 2004. Review of tropospheric bomb 14C data for carbon cycle modeling and age calibration. Radiocarbon 46(3):1273–98.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Barbetti, M, Jacobsen, G, Zoppi, U, Lawson, EM. 2000. Bomb radiocarbon in annual tree rings from Thailand and Australia. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 172(1–4):359–65.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Jacobsen, GE, Zoppi, U, Lawson, EM, Williams, AA, Smith, AM, McGann, MJ. 2001. Progress in radiocarbon target preparation at the ANTARES AMS Centre. Radiocarbon 43(2A):275–82.Google Scholar
Hua, Q, Barbetti, M, Zoppi, U, Chapman, DM, Thomson, B. 2003. Bomb radiocarbon in tree rings from northern New South Wales, Australia: implications for dendrochronology, atmospheric transport, and air-sea exchange of CO2 . Radiocarbon 45(3):431–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jennings, JN, James, JM, Montgomery, NR. 1982. The development of the landscape. Sydney Speleological Society Occasional Paper 8:45–64.Google Scholar
Mattey, D, Lowry, D, Duffet, J, Fisher, R, Hodge, E, Frisia, S. 2008. A 53 year seasonally resolved oxygen and carbon isotope record from a modern Gibraltar speleothem: reconstructed drip water and relationship to local precipitation. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 269(1–2):80–95.Google Scholar
McDermott, F. 2004. Palaeo-climate reconstruction from stable isotope variations in speleothems: a review. Quaternary Science Reviews 23(7–8):901–18.Google Scholar
McDonald, J. 2005. Climate controls on trace element variability in cave drip waters and calcite: a modern study from two karst systems in SE Australia [unpublished PhD thesis]. Callaghan: The University of Newcastle.Google Scholar
Press, WH, Teukolsky, SA, Vetterling, WT, Flannery, BP. 2007. Minimization or maximization of functions (Chapter 10). In: Numerical Recipes: The Art of Scientific Computing. 3rd edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p 487–562.Google Scholar
Richards, DA, Dorale, JA. 2003. Uranium-series chronology and environmental applications of speleothems. Uranium-Series Geochemistry 52(1):407–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, MS, Smart, PL, Baker, A. 1998. Annual trace element variations in a Holocene speleothem. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 154(1–4):237–46.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M, Braziunas, TF. 1998. Anthropogenic and solar components of hemispheric 14C. Geophysical Research Letters 25(3):329–32.Google Scholar
Tooth, AF, Fairchild, IJ. 2003. Soil and karst aquifer hydrological controls on the geochemical evolution of speleothem-forming drip waters, Crag Cave, southwest Ireland. Journal of Hydrology 273(1–4):51–68.Google Scholar
Trumbore, SE. 1993. Comparison of carbon dynamics in tropical and temperate soils using radiocarbon measurements. Global Biogeochemistry Cycles 7(2):275–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Verdon-Kidd, DC, Kiem, AS. 2009. Nature and causes of protracted droughts in southeast Australia: comparison between the Federation, WWII, and Big Dry droughts. Geophysical Research Letters 36, L22707, doi:10.1029/2009GL041067.Google Scholar
Vogel, JC, Marais, M. 1971. Pretoria radiocarbon dates I. Radiocarbon 13(2):378–94.CrossRefGoogle Scholar