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Title: The importance of radiocarbon dates and tephra for developing chronologies of Holocene environmental changes from lake sediments, North Far East

Journal Article · · Russian Journal of Pacific Geology
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [4]
  1. Far East Branch Russian Academy of Sciences, Magadan (Russia). Northeast Interdisciplinary Science Research Inst.
  2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States). Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
  3. Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States). Earth and Space Sciences and Quaternary Research Center
  4. Far East Russian Academy of Sciences, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky (Russia). Inst. of Volcanology and Seismology

One problem with developing continuous chronologies of paleoenvironmental change in northern areas of the Far East using 14C is the low organic content in lake sediments. However, Holocene age-models can be supplemented by widespread tephra deposits reported in the Magadan region. The best documented of these tephras has been correlated to the KO tephra from southern Kamchatka dated to 7600 BP. Though a key chronostratigraphic marker, no detailed compendium of the distribution of this tephra and its associated 14C dates has been available from sites in the northern Far East. We provide such a summary. Known locally as the Elikchan tephra, lake cores indicate an ash fall that extended ~1800 km north of the Kamchatkan caldera with a ~500 km wide trajectory in the Magadan region. Other Holocene tephras preserved in lake sediments have poorer age control and possibly date to ~2500 BP, ~2700 BP and ~6000 BP. These ashes seem to be restricted to coastal or near-coastal sites. Finally, a single record of a ~25,000 BP tephra has also been documented ~100 km to the northeast of Magadan.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
AC52-07NA27344
OSTI ID:
1326882
Report Number(s):
LLNL-JRNL-684337
Journal Information:
Russian Journal of Pacific Geology, Vol. 10, Issue 4; ISSN 1819-7140
Publisher:
Springer - Pleiades PublishingCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 8 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (20)

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