Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Age Determination Of Recent Cave Deposits Using Excess 210Pb - A New Technique, M. Baskaran, Thomas M. Iliffe

Environmental Science and Geology Faculty Research Publications

Cave deposits have been widely used as proxy recorders in deciphering palaeoclimate during the last glacial/interglacial maxima (∼ 120 ka) [Harmon et al., 1975; Atkinson et al., 1978; Goede and Harmon, 1983; Ayliffe and Veeh, 1989]. Palaeoclimatic studies of cave deposits for the past 1–1000 yr time scale require a precise dating technique, that until now has been lacking. Due to the multiple sources of carbon in speleothems, ¹⁴C dates obtained for recently deposited calcite are highly variable and thus, ¹⁴C dating techniques are not suitable to obtain speleothem ages for the past 1–1000 years.

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