Quaternary Dating Methods

by Mike Walker

Overview

This introductory textbook introduces the basics of dating, the range of techniques available and the strengths and limitations of each of the principal methods.

Coverage includes:

• the concept of time in Quaternary Science and related fields
• the history of dating from lithostratigraphy and biostratigraphy
• the development and application of radiometric methods
• different methods in dating: radiometric dating, incremental dating, relative dating and age equivalence

Presented in a clear and straightforward manner with the minimum of technical detail, this text is a great introduction for both students and practitioners in the Earth, Environmental and Archaeological Sciences.

Praise from the reviews:

"This book is a must for any Quaternary scientist." SOUTH AFRICAN GEOGRAPHICAL JOURNAL, September 2006

“…very well organized, clearly and straightforwardly written and provides a good overview on the wide field of Quaternary dating methods…” JOURNAL OF QUATERNARY SCIENCE, January 2007

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781118700099
Publisher:	Wiley
Publication date:	04/30/2013
Sold by:	JOHN WILEY & SONS
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	8 MB

About the Author

Mike Walker is a highly experienced, script writer of drama and documentary for film, radio and television. He has won several Sony Awards for Best Play as well as a Royal Television Society Gold Medal and other awards including ones from the Society of Authors and Writers Guild. He has also written several novels and non-fiction works and teaches creative writing at Morley College London.

Read an Excerpt

Quaternary Dating Methods

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By Mike Walker

John Wiley & Sons

Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 0-470-86926-7

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Chapter One

Dating Methods and the Quaternary

Whatever withdraws us from the power of our senses; whatever makes the past, the distant or the future, predominate over the present, advances us in the dignity of thinking beings. Samuel Johnson

1.1 Introduction

The Quaternary is the most recent period of the geological record. Spanning the last 2.5 million years or so of geological time and including the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs, it is often considered to be synonymous with the 'Ice Age'. Indeed, for much of the Quaternary, the earth's land surface has been covered by greatly expanded ice sheets and glaciers, and temperatures during these glacial periods were significantly lower than those of the present. But the Quaternary has also seen episodes, albeit much shorter in duration, of markedly warmer conditions, and in these interglacials the temperatures in the mid- and high-latitude regions may have exceeded those of the present day. Indeed, rather than being a period of unremitting cold, the hallmark of the Quaternary is the repeated oscillation of the earth's global climate system between glacial and interglacial states.

Establishing the timing of these climatic changes, and of their effects on the earth's environment, is a key element in Quaternary research. Whether it is to date a particular climatic episode, to estimate the rate of operation of past geological or geomorphological processes, or to determine the age of an artefact or cultural assemblage, we need to be able to establish a chronology of events. The aim of this book is to describe, evaluate and exemplify the different dating techniques that are applicable within the field of Quaternary science. It is not, however, a dating manual. Rather, it is a book that is written from the perspective of the user community as opposed to that of the laboratory expert. It is, above all, a book that lays emphasis on the practical side of Quaternary dating, for the principal focus is on examples or case studies. To paraphrase the words of the actor John Cleese, it is intended to show just what Quaternary dating can do for us!

In this chapter, we examine the development of ideas relating to geological time and, in particular, to Quaternary dating. We then move on to consider the ways in which the quality of a date can be evaluated, and to discuss some basic principles of radioactive decay as these apply to Quaternary dating. Finally, we return to the Quaternary with a brief overview of the Quaternary stratigraphic record, and of Quaternary nomenclature and terminology. These sections provide important background information, and both a chronological and stratigraphic context for the remainder of the book.

1.2 The Development of Quaternary Dating

Early approaches to dating the past were closely associated with attempts to establish the age of the earth. Some of the oldest writings on this topic are to be found in the classical literature where the leitmotif of much of the Greek writings is the concept of an infinite time, equivalent in many ways to modern day requirements for steady-state theories of the universe (Tinkler, 1985). This position contrasts markedly with that in post-Renaissance Europe where biblical thinking placed the creation of the world around 6000 years ago, and when the end of the universe was predicted within a few hundred years. This restricted chronology for earth history derives from the biblical researches of James Ussher, Archbishop of Armagh, who in 1654 published his considered conclusion, based on Old Testament genealogical sources, that the earth was created on Sunday 23 October 4004 BC, with 'man and other living creatures' appearing on the following Friday. Another momentous event in the Old Testament, the 'great flood', occurred 1656 years after the creation, between 2349 and 2348 BC.

In his magisterial review of the history of earth science, Davies (1969) has observed that although modern researchers have tended to scoff at Ussher's chronology he was, in fact, no fanatical fundamentalist but rather a brilliant and highly respected scholar of his day. It is perhaps for this reason that his chronology had such a pervasive influence on scientific thought, although it is perhaps less clear to modern geologists why it still forms a cornerstone of contemporary creationist 'science'! During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, however, with the development of uniformitarianist thinking in geology, the pendulum began to swing once more towards longer timescales for the formation of the earth and for the longevity of operation of geological processes, a view encapsulated by James Hutton's famous observation in his Theory of the Earth (1788) that '... we find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end'.

The difficulty was, of course, that pre-twentieth-century scientists had no bases for determining the passage of geological time. One of the earliest attempts to tackle the problem was William McClay's work in 1790 on the retreat of the Niagara Falls escarpment, which led him to propose an age of 55 440 years for the earth (Tinkler, 1985). Others tried a different tack. The nineteenth-century scientist John Joly, for example, calculated the quantity of sodium salt in the world's oceans, as well as the amount added every year from rock erosion, and arrived at a figure of 100 million years for the age of the earth. Increasingly, however, came an awareness that even this extended time frame was simply not long enough to account for the entire history of the earth and, moreover, for organic evolution, a view that was underscored by the publication of Darwin's seminal work Origin of Species in 1859. Further challenges to the Ussher timescale and to its successors came from the field of archaeology, with noted antiquarians such as John Evans (and his geological colleague Joseph Prestwich) arguing, on the basis of finds of ancient handaxes, for a protracted period of human occupation extending into a period of antiquity'.... remote beyond any of which we have hitherto found traces' (Renfrew, 1973).

It was into this atmosphere of chronological uncertainty that Louis Agassiz introduced his revolutionary idea of a 'Great Ice Period', which arguably marks the birth of modern Quaternary science. This notion, first propounded in 1837, was initially received with a degree of scepticism by the geological establishment, but the idea not only of a single glaciation but, indeed, of multiple glaciations rapidly gained ground. By the beginning of the twentieth century, most geologists were subscribing to the view that four major glacial episodes had affected the landscapes of both Europe and North America, although the basis for dating these events remained uncertain. An early attempt at establishing a glacial-interglacial chronology was made by the German geologist Albrecht Penck, using the depth of weathering and 'intensity of erosion' in the northern Alpine region of Europe to estimate the duration of interglacial periods. On this basis, an age of 60 000 years was assigned to the Last Interglacial and 240 000 years to the Penultimate Interglacial, the duration of the Quaternary being estimated at 600 000 years (Penck and Bruckner, 1909). An alternative approach using the astronomical timescale based on observed variations in the earth's orbit and axis again arrived at a similar figure, although if older glaciations recorded in the Alpine region were included, the time span of the Quaternary was extended to around 1 million years (Zeuner, 1959). This figure has since been widely quoted and, for the first half of the twentieth century at least, was generally regarded as the best estimate of age for the Quaternary.

At about the time that the Quaternary glacial chronology was being worked out for the European Alps, the first attempts were being made to develop a timescale for the last deglaciation, using laminated or layered sediment sequences which were interpreted as reflecting annual sedimentation cycles. These are known as varves, and are still employed as a basis for Quaternary chronology at the present day (section 5.3). Some of the earliest studies were made on the sediments in Swiss lakes and produced estimates of between 16 000 and 20 000 years since the last glacial maximum (Zeuner, 1959), results that are not markedly different from those derived from more recent dating programmes. The seminal work on varved sequences, however, was carried out in Scandinavia where Gerard de Geer (Figure 1.1) developed the world's first high-resolution deglacial chronology in relation to the wasting Fennoscandian ice sheet (section 5.3.3.1). This approach was subsequently applied in North America to date glacial retreat along parts of the southern margin of the last (Laurentide) ice sheet (Antevs, 1931).

The early years of the twentieth century saw the development of another dating technique which is still widely used in Quaternary science, namely dendrochronology or tree-ring dating (section 5.2). Research on tree rings has a long history, and the relationship between tree rings and climate (a field of study known as dendroclimatology) has intrigued scientists since the Middle Ages. Indeed, some of the earliest writings on this subject can be found in the papers of Leonardo da Vinci (Stallings, 1937). The basics of modern dendrochronology, however, were formulated by the American astronomer Andrew Douglass, who was the first to link simple dendrochronological principles to historical research and to climatology (Schweingruber, 1988). Together with Edmund Schulmann, he founded the world-famous Laboratory for Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona in 1937. In Europe, it was not until the end of the 1930s that dendrochronology began to gain a foothold, largely through the work of the German botanist, Bruno Huber. His research laid the foundation for the modern school of German dendrochronology which has remained at the forefront of tree-ring research in Europe to the present day.

The most significant advance in Quaternary chronology, however, came during and immediately after the Second World War, with the discovery that the decay of certain radioactive elements could form a basis for dating. Although measurements had been made more than 30 years earlier on radioactive minerals of supposedly Pleistocene age (Holmes, 1915), it was the pioneering work of Willard Libby and his colleagues that led to the development of radiocarbon dating, and to the establishment of the world's first radiocarbon dating laboratory at the University of Chicago in 1948. During the 1950s and 1960s, other radiometric methods were developed that built on technological advances (increasingly sophisticated instrumentation) and an increasing understanding of the nuclear decay process. These included uranium-series and potassium-argon dating (Chapter 3), while a growing appreciation of the effects on minerals and other materials of exposure to radiation led to the development of another family of techniques which includes thermoluminescence, fission track and electron spin resonance dating (Chapter 4). In the late 1960s and 1970s, advances in molecular biology enabled post-mortem changes in protein structures to be used as a basis for dating (amino acid geochronology), while remarkable developments in coring technology led to the recovery of long-core sequences from ocean sediments and from polar ice sheets, out of which came the first marine and ice-core chronologies. The last two decades of the twentieth century have been characterised by a series of technological innovations that led not only to a further expansion in the range of Quaternary dating techniques, but also to significant improvements in analytical precision. A major advance was the development of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), which not only revolutionised radiocarbon dating (Chapter 2), but also made possible the technique of cosmogenic nuclide dating (section 3.4). The last decade has also witnessed the creation of the high-resolution chronologies from the GRIP and GISP2 Greenland ice cores, and from the Vostok and EPICA cores in Antarctica (section 5.5).

These various developments and innovations mean that Quaternary scientists now have at their disposal a portfolio of dating methods that could not have been dreamed of only a generation ago, and which are capable of dating events on timescales ranging from single years to millions of years. The year 2004 sees the 350th anniversary of the publication of the second edition of Ussher's ground-breaking volume on the age of the earth. How he would have reconciled the recent advances in Quaternary dating technology with his 6000-year estimate for the age of the earth is difficult to imagine!

1.3 Precision and Accuracy in Dating

Before going further, it is important to say something about how we can judge the quality of an age determination. Two principal criteria reflect the quality of a date, namely accuracy and precision, and these apply not only to dates on Quaternary events, but to all age determinations made within the earth, environmental and archaeological sciences. For dating practitioners and for interpreting dates, it is important to understand the meaning and significance of these terms. Accuracy refers to the degree of correspondence between the true age of a sample and that obtained by the dating process. In other words, it refers to the degree of bias in an age measurement. Precision relates to the statistical uncertainty that is associated with any physical or chemical analysis that is used as a basis for determining age. As we shall see, all dating methods have their own distinctive set of problems, and hence each age measurement will have an element of uncertainty associated with it. These uncertainties tend to be expressed in statistical terms and provide us with an indication of the level of precision of each age determination (Chapter 2).

An example of the distinction between accuracy and precision in the context of a dated sequence is shown in Figure 1.2. In sample A, there is close agreement in terms of mean age between the four dated samples, and the standard errors (indicated by the range bars) are small; however, the dates are 2000-2500 years younger than the 'true age'. These dates are therefore precise, but inaccurate. In sample B, the reverse obtains; the dates cluster around the true age but have wide error bars. Hence they are accurate but imprecise. In sample C, however, the dates are of similar age and have narrow error bars. These age determinations are both accurate and precise, which is the optimal situation in dating.

1.4 Atomic Structure, Radioactivity and Radiometric Dating

Radiometric dating methods form a significant component of the Quaternary scientist's dating portfolio. Indeed, half of the chapters in this book that deal specifically with dating methods are concerned with radiometric dating. All radiometric techniques are based on the fact that certain naturally occurring elements are unstable and undergo spontaneous changes in their structure and organisation in order to achieve more stable atomic forms. This process, known as radioactive decay, is time-dependent, and if the rate of decay for a given element can be determined, then the ages of the host rocks and fossils can be established.

(Continues...)

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Table of Contents

Preface xv

1 Dating Methods and the Quaternary 1

1.1 Introduction 1

1.2 The Development of Quaternary Dating 2

1.3 Precision and Accuracy in Dating 5

1.4 Atomic Structure, Radioactivity and Radiometric Dating 7

1.5 The Quaternary: Stratigraphic Framework and Terminology 9

1.6 The Scope and Content of the Book 12

Notes 15

2 Radiometric Dating 1: Radiocarbon Dating 17

2.1 Introduction 17

2.2 Basic Principles 18

2.3 Radiocarbon Measurement 19

2.3.1 Beta Counting 20

2.3.2 Accelerator Mass Spectrometry 20

2.3.3 Extending the Radiocarbon Timescale 23

2.3.4 Laboratory Intercomparisons 24

2.4 Sources of Error in Radiocarbon Dating 24

2.4.1 Contamination 24

2.4.2 Isotopic Fractionation 25

2.4.3 Marine Reservoir Effects 26

2.4.4 Long-Term Variations in ¹⁴C Production 27

2.5 Some Problematic Dating Materials 29

2.5.1 Lake Sediments 29

2.5.2 Shell 30

2.5.3 Bone 31

2.5.4 Soil 31

2.6 Calibration of the Radiocarbon Timescale 32

2.6.1 Dendrochronological Calibration 32

2.6.2 The INTCAL Calibration 32

2.6.3 Extending the Radiocarbon Calibration Curve 34

2.6.4 Bayesian Analysis and Radiocarbon Calibration 35

2.6.5 Wiggle-Match Dating 37

2.7 Applications of Radiocarbon Dating 37

2.7.1 Radiocarbon Dating: Some Routine Applications 37

2.7.1.1 Dating of plant macrofossils: Lateglacial cereal cultivation in the valley of the Euphrates 38

2.7.1.2 Dating of charcoal: a Holocene palaeoenvironmental record from western Germany 38

2.7.1.3 Dating of peat: a Holocene palaeoclimatic record from northern England 41

2.7.1.4 Dating of organic lake mud: a multi-proxy palaeoenvironmental record from Lake Rutundu, East Africa 41

2.7.1.5 Dating of marine micropalaeontological records: an example of a problem from the North Atlantic 43

2.7.1.6 Dating of marine shell: a Holocene aeolianite from Mexico 45

2.7.1.7 Dating of bone: the earliest humans in the Americas 47

2.7.2 Radiocarbon Dating of Other Materials 47

2.7.2.1 Dating of textiles: the ‘Shroud of Turin’ 48

2.7.2.2 Dating of old documents: the Vinland Map 49

2.7.2.3 Dating of lime mortar: medieval churches in Finland 51

2.7.2.4 Dating of hair: radiocarbon dates and DNA from individual animal hairs 51

2.7.2.5 Dating of iron artefacts: the Himeji nail and the Damascus sword 52

2.7.2.6 Dating of pottery: the earliest pottery in Japan 52

2.7.2.7 Dating of rock art: Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain and France 53

Notes 54

3 Radiometric Dating 2: Dating Using Long-Lived and Short-Lived Radioactive Isotopes 57

3.1 Introduction 57

3.2 Argon-Isotope Dating 58

3.2.1 Principles of Potassium–Argon Dating 58

3.2.2 Principles of Argon–Argon Dating 59

3.2.3 Some Assumptions and Problems Associated with Potassium–Argon and Argon–Argon Dating 59

3.2.4 Some Applications of Potassium–Argon and Argon–Argon Dating 61

3.2.4.1 Potassium–argon and argon–argon dating of the dispersal of Early Pleistocene hominids 62

3.2.4.2 ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating of anatomically modern Homo sapiens from Ethiopia 62

3.2.4.3 ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating of historical materials: the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 65

3.2.4.4 ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating and geological provenancing of a stone axe from Stonehenge, England 66

3.3 Uranium-Series Dating 66

3.3.1 Principles of U-Series Dating 67

3.3.2 Some Problems Associated with U-Series Dating 69

3.3.3 Some Applications of U-Series Dating 71

3.3.3.1 Dating the Last Interglacial high sea-level stand in Hawaii 71

3.3.3.2 Dating of early hominid remains from China 72

3.3.3.3 Dating of a speleothem from northern Norway 74

3.3.3.4 Dating of fluvial terraces in Wyoming, USA 74

3.4 Cosmogenic Nuclide Dating 77

3.4.1 Principles of Cosmogenic Nuclide (CN) Dating 77

3.4.2 Sources of Error in CN Dating 79

3.4.3 Some Applications of CN Dating 80

3.4.3.1 Cosmogenic dating of two Late Pleistocene glacial advances in Alaska 80

3.4.3.2 Cosmogenic dating of the Salpausselkä I formation in Finland 82

3.4.3.3 Cosmogenic dating of Holocene landsliding, The Storr, Isle of Skye, Scotland 82

3.4.3.4 Cosmogenic dating of alluvial deposits, Ajo Mountains, southern Arizona, USA 84

3.5 Dating Using Short-Lived Isotopes 84

3.5.1 Lead-210 (²¹⁰Pb) 85

3.5.2 Caesium-137 (¹³⁷Cs) 86

3.5.3 Silicon-32 (³²Si) 86

3.5.4 Some Problems in Using Short-Lived Isotopes 87

3.5.5 Some Dating Applications Using Short-Lived Isotopes 87

3.5.5.1 Dating a record of human impact in a lake sequence in northern England 88

3.5.5.2 Dating a 500-year lake sediment/temperature record from Baffin Island, Canada 88

3.5.5.3 ³²Si dating of marine sediments from Bangladesh 91

Notes 92

4 Radiometric Dating 3: Radiation Exposure Dating 93

4.1 Introduction 93

4.2 Luminescence Dating 94

4.2.1 Thermoluminescence (TL) 94

4.2.2 Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) 96

4.2.3 Sources of Error in Luminescence Dating 99

4.2.4 Some Applications of Luminescence Dating 100

4.2.4.1 TL dating of Early Iron Age iron smelting in Ghana 100

4.2.4.2 TL and AMS radiocarbon dating of pottery from the Russian Far East 101

4.2.4.3 TL dating of burnt flint from a cave site in France 102

4.2.4.4 TL dating of the first humans in South America 103

4.2.4.5 OSL dating of young coastal dunes in the northern Netherlands 104

4.2.4.6 OSL dating of dune sands from Blombos Cave, South Africa: single and multiple grain data 104

4.2.4.7 OSL dating of fluvial deposits in the lower Mississippi Valley, USA 107

4.2.4.8 OSL dating of marine deposits in Denmark 108

4.3 Electron Spin Resonance Dating 109

4.3.1 Principles of ESR Dating 109

4.3.2 Sources of Error in ESR Dating 110

4.3.3 Some Applications of ESR Dating 110

4.3.3.1 ESR dating of teeth from the Hoxnian Interglacial type locality, England 111

4.3.3.2 ESR dating of mollusc shells from the Northern Caucasus and the earliest humans in eastern Europe 112

4.3.3.3 ESR dating of Holocene coral: an experimental approach 113

4.3.3.4 ESR dating of quartz: the Toba super-eruption 113

4.4 Fission Track Dating 114

4.4.1 Principles of Fission Track Dating 115

4.4.2 Some Problems Associated with Fission Track Dating 116

4.4.3 Some Applications of Fission Track Dating 116

4.4.3.1 Fission track dating of glacial events in Argentina 116

4.4.3.2 Fission track dating of a Middle Pleistocene fossiliferous sequence from central Italy 117

4.4.3.3 Dating of obsidian in the Andes, South America, and the sourcing of artefacts 117

Notes 119

5 Dating Using Annually Banded Records 121

5.1 Introduction 121

5.2 Dendrochronology 122

5.2.1 Principles of Dendrochronology 122

5.2.2 Problems Associated with Dendrochronology 123

5.2.3 Dendrochronological Series 125

5.2.4 Applications of Dendrochronology 127

5.2.4.1 Dating a 2000-year temperature record for the northern hemisphere 128

5.2.4.2 Dating historical precipitation records 128

5.2.4.3 Dating volcanic events 129

5.2.4.4 Dating archaeological evidence 130

5.3 Varve Chronology 132

5.3.1 The Nature of Varved Sediments 133

5.3.2 Sources of Error in Varve Chronologies 135

5.3.3 Applications of Varve Chronologies 136

5.3.3.1 Dating regional patterns of deglaciation in Scandinavia 136

5.3.3.2 Dating prehistoric land-use changes 136

5.3.3.3 Dating long-term climatic and environmental changes 139

5.3.3.4 Varve sequences and the radiocarbon timescale 140

5.4 Lichenometry 141

5.4.1 Principles of Lichenometric Dating 142

5.4.2 Problems Associated with Lichenometric Dating 142

5.4.3 Lichenometry and Late Holocene Environments 143

5.4.3.1 Dating post-Little Ice Age glacier recession in Norway 144

5.4.3.2 Dating rock glaciers and Little Ice Age moraines in the Sierra Nevada, western USA 144

5.4.3.3 Dating Late Holocene rockfall activity on a Norwegian talus slope 146

5.4.3.4 Dating archaeological features on raised shorelines in northern Sweden 147

5.5 Annual Layers in Glacier Ice 148

5.5.1 Ice-Core Chronologies 149

5.5.2 Errors in Ice-Core Chronologies 150

5.5.3 Ice Cores and the Quaternary Palaeoenvironmental Record 151

5.5.3.1 Dating climatic instability as revealed in the Greenland ice cores 151

5.5.3.2 Dating rapid climate change: the end of the Younger Dryas in Greenland 152

5.5.3.3 Dating long-term variations in atmospheric Greenhouse Trace Gases 154

5.5.3.4 Dating human impact on climate as reflected in ice-core records 155

5.6 Other Media Dated by Annual Banding 156

5.6.1 Speleothems 156

5.6.1.1 Dating a proxy record for twentieth-century precipitation from Poole’s Cavern, England 156

5.6.1.2 Dating climate variability in central China over the last 1270 years 157

5.6.2 Corals 158

5.6.2.1 Dating a 420-year-coral-based palaeoenvironmental record from the southwestern Pacific 158

5.6.2.2 Dating a 240-year palaeoprecipitation record from Florida, USA 158

5.6.3 Molluscs 160

5.6.3.1 The development of a sclerochronology using the long-lived bivalve Arctica islandica 160

5.6.3.2 The development of a ‘clam-ring’ master chronology from a short-lived bivalve mollusc and its palaeoenvironmental significance 162

Notes 162

6 Relative Dating Methods 165

6.1 Introduction 165

6.2 Rock Surface Weathering 166

6.2.1 Surface Weathering Features 166

6.2.2 Problems in Using Surface Weathering Features to Establish Relative Chronologies 167

6.2.3 Applications of Surface Weathering Dating 168

6.2.3.1 Relative dating of Holocene glacier fluctuations in the Nepal Himalaya 168

6.2.3.2 Relative dating of periglacial trimlines in northwest Scotland 168

6.2.3.3 Relative dating of archaeological features by Lake Superior, Canada 170

6.3 Obsidian Hydration Dating 172

6.3.1 The Hydration Layer 173

6.3.2 Problems with Obsidian Hydration Dating 173

6.3.3 Some Applications of Obsidian Hydration Dating 174

6.3.3.1 Dating of a Pleistocene age site, Manus Island, Papua New Guinea 174

6.3.3.2 Dating of fluvially reworked sediment in Montana, USA 176

6.4 Pedogenesis 176

6.4.1 Soil Development Indices 176

6.4.2 Problems in Using Pedogenesis as a Basis for Dating 177

6.4.3 Some Applications of Dating Based on Pedogenesis 178

6.4.3.1 Relative dating of moraines in the Sierra Nevada, California 178

6.4.3.2 Dating glacial events in southeastern Peru 178

6.5 Relative Dating of Fossil Bone 180

6.5.1 Post-Burial Changes in Fossil Bone 181

6.5.2 Problems in the Relative Dating of Bone 181

6.5.3 Some Applications of the Relative Dating of Bone 182

6.5.3.1 Fluoride dating of mastodon bone from an early palaeoindian site, eastern USA 182

6.5.3.2 Chemical dating of animal bones from Sweden 182

6.6 Amino Acid Geochronology 184

6.6.1 Proteins and Amino Acids 185

6.6.2 Amino Acid Diagenesis 186

6.6.3 Problems with Amino Acid Geochronology 187

6.6.4 Applications of Amino Acid Geochronology 188

6.6.4.1 Dating and correlation of the last interglacial shoreline (~MOI substage 5e) in Australia using aminostratigraphy 189

6.6.4.2 Quaternary aminostratigraphy in northwestern France based on non-marine molluscs 189

6.6.4.3 Dating the earliest modern humans in southern Africa using amino acid ratios in ostrich eggshell 191

6.6.4.4 Dating sea-level change in the Bahamas over the last half million years 192

Notes 195

7 Techniques for Establishing Age Equivalence 197

7.1 Introduction 197

7.2 Oxygen Isotope Chronostratigraphy 198

7.2.1 Marine Oxygen Isotope Stages 199

7.2.2 Dating the Marine Oxygen Isotope Record 199

7.2.3 Problems with the Marine Oxygen Isotope Record 201

7.3 Tephrochronology 202

7.3.1 Tephras in Quaternary Sediments 202

7.3.2 Dating of Tephra Horizons 204

7.3.3 Problems with Tephrochronology 205

7.3.4 Applications of Tephrochronology 207

7.3.4.1 Dating the first human impact in New Zealand using tephrochronology 207

7.3.4.2 Dating and correlating events in the North Atlantic region during the Last Glacial–Interglacial transition using tephrochronology 209

7.3.4.3 Dating Middle Pleistocene artefacts and cultural traditions in East Africa using tephrostratigraphy 209

7.3.4.4 Dating Early and Middle Pleistocene glaciations in Yukon by tephrochronology 211

7.4 Palaeomagnetism 213

7.4.1 The Earth’s Magnetic Field 214

7.4.2 The Palaeomagnetic Record in Rocks and Sediments 215

7.4.3 Magnetostratigraphy 216

7.4.3.1 Polarity changes and the palaeomagnetic timescale 216

7.4.3.2 Secular variations 216

7.4.3.3 Mineral magnetic potential 219

7.4.4 Some Problems with Palaeomagnetic Dating 220

7.4.5 Applications of Palaeomagnetic Dating 221

7.4.5.1 Dating lake sediments using palaeosecular variations 221

7.4.5.2 Palaeomagnetic correlations between Scandinavian Ice Sheet fluctuations and Greenland ice-core records 222

7.4.5.3 Palaeomagnetic dating of the earliest humans in Europe 223

7.4.5.4 Palaeomagnetic dating of the Sterkfontein hominid, South Africa 224

7.5 Palaeosols 225

7.5.1 The Nature of Palaeosols 227

7.5.2 Palaeosols as Soil-Stratigraphic Units 228

7.5.3 Some Problems with Using Palaeosols to Establish Age Equivalence 229

7.5.4 Applications of Palaeosols in the Establishment of Age Equivalence 230

7.5.4.1 Buried palaeosols on the Avonmouth Level, southwest England: stratigraphic markers in Holocene intertidal sediments 230

7.5.4.2 The Valley Farm and Barham Soils: key stratigraphic marker horizons in southeast England 231

7.5.4.3 Correlation between the Chinese loess–palaeosol sequence and the deep-ocean core record for the past 2.5 million years 233

Notes 235

8 Dating the Future 237

8.1 Introduction 237

8.2 Radiometric Dating 237

8.3 Annually Banded Records 240

8.4 Age Equivalence 242

8.5 Biomolecular Dating 243

Notes 244

References 245

Index 279

Editorial Reviews

"This book is a must for any Quaternary scientist." (South African Geographical Journal, September 2006)

"…very well organized, clearly and straightforwardly written and provides a good overview on the wide field of Quaternary dating methods…"(Journal of Quaternary Science, January 2007)

From the Publisher