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Dating of Lake and Loess Sediments

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Juerg Beer
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG) CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
Michael Sturm
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Institute for Environmental Science and Technology (EAWAG) CH-8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland
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Abstract

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Lake and loess sediments represent archives that record important information about the iocal, regional and global climate conditions in the past. Lake sediments consist of autochthonous particles formed by biogeochemical processes within the lake and allochthonous particles brought into the lake from the catchment area. After deposition, the stratigraphy of the sediment can be altered by chemical, physical and biological processes. Under favored conditions, the sediment shows individual annual layers (varves), which can be used to date the sediment. Other dating methods are based on radioactive decay (14C, 210Pb) or on time markers such as tephra layers, deposits of natural catastrophes, e.g., floods, or radioactivity, e.g., emissions from a nuclear power plant.

Type
Papers from the Workshop on Pages Chronologies
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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