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AMS 14C Dates and Major Element Composition of Glass Shards of Late Pleistocene Tephras on Tanegashima Island, Southern Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Mitsuru Okuno*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth System Science, Faculty of Science, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka 814-0180, Japan. Also: AIG Collaborative Research Institute for International Study on Eruptive History and Informatics, Fukuoka University, Fukuoka 814-0180, Japan
Masayuki Torii
Affiliation:
Kumamoto Gakuen University, Kumamoto 862-8680, Japan
Hideto Naruo
Affiliation:
Takeokadai Senior High School, Kagoshima 890-0022, Japan
Yoko Saito-Kokubu
Affiliation:
Tono Geoscience Center, Japan Atomic Energy Agency, 959-31 Jorinji, Izumi-cho, Toki, Gifu 509-5102, Japan
Tetsuo Kobayashi
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Kagoshima University, Kagoshima 890-0065, Japan
*
Corresponding author. Email: okuno@fukuoka-u.ac.jp
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Abstract

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Four late Pleistocene tephra layers—Tane I (Tn1), II (Tn2), III (Tn3), and IV (Tn4) in ascending order—are intercalated between widespread tephras, Kikai-Tozurahara (K-Tz: 95 ka) and Aira-Tn (AT: 30 cal kBP), on Tanegashima Island, in southern Japan. Paleolithic ruins such as the Yokomine C and Tatikiri archaeological sites were excavated from the loam layer between the Tn4 and Tn3 tephras. To refine the chronological framework on the island, we conducted accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating for 2 paleosol and 6 charcoal samples related with the late Pleistocene tephras and the Yokomine C archaeological site. The obtained 14C dates are consistent with the stratigraphy in calendar years, 33 cal kBP for Tn4, 40 cal kBP for Tn3, and >50 cal kBP for Tn2 and Tn1. The charcoal dates from Yokomine C, 32–38 cal kBP, not only constrain the age of Tn4 and Tn3 ashes, but also serve as a possible date for the site. We also measured the major element compositions of volcanic glass shards with EDS-EPMA to characterize these tephras. Although we could not find a possible correlative for Tn3 and Tn4 ashes using major element oxides of the glass shards, i.e. 75–76 wt% in SiO2, the glass chemistry obtained in this study will be valuable in correlating these tephras with their source volcanoes in the near future.

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Articles
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Copyright © 2012 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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