For glacigenic sediments, Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating offers an opportunity to date the time of deposition of quartz and feldspar minerals that are ubiquitous within the sediment ...matrix, rather than relying upon the chance occurrence of organic material for radiocarbon dating. The OSL dating signal or charge accumulates in crystal defects of individual quartz and feldspar minerals through exposure to environmental radiation within their depositional setting. The OSL signal within individual grains can be reset or bleached through exposure to daylight during transportation processes. Thus OSL dating of sediments attempts to determine the time elapsed since burial. Glacigenic sediments present considerable challenges for OSL dating not only in terms of poor bleaching of the OSL signal during the transport and deposition cycle, but also poor quartz luminescence characteristics which are often related to sediment provenance, the nature of the bedrock or source material, and the freshly eroded nature of many such deposits. This paper reviews luminescence dating techniques as applied to glaciofluvial sediments and explores the challenges that such deposits present to the technique. Successful application of OSL techniques can be judged in a number of ways: comparison with the ‘independent’ chronologies is prevalent in the literature, but recently the movement towards measurement of large numbers of small aliquots and single grains allows a more robust assessment of luminescence properties and behaviour for individual samples and ultimately more precise luminescence ages to be determined. For glaciofluvial sediments in particular, it is important to investigate the depositional sub-environment of each sample in relation to the chance of sufficient bleaching during transport and deposition. A lithofacies-based approach to sampling for optically stimulated luminescence dating of these sediments is suggested whereby hypothetically well-bleached deposits are targeted after a detailed investigation into possible environments of deposition. This approach, together with small aliquot/single-grain analysis methodologies should further enhance the likelihood of obtaining a sufficiently bleached sample for OSL dating.
ABSTRACT
The BRITICE‐CHRONO Project has generated a suite of recently published radiocarbon ages from deglacial sequences offshore in the Celtic and Irish seas and terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide and ...optically stimulated luminescence ages from adjacent onshore sites. All published data are integrated here with new geochronological data from Wales in a revised Bayesian analysis that enables reconstruction of ice retreat dynamics across the basin. Patterns and changes in the pace of deglaciation are conditioned more by topographic constraints and internal ice dynamics than by external controls. The data indicate a major but rapid and very short‐lived extensive thin ice advance of the Irish Sea Ice Stream (ISIS) more than 300 km south of St George's Channel to a marine calving margin at the shelf break at 25.5 ka; this may have been preceded by extensive ice accumulation plugging the constriction of St George's Channel. The release event between 25 and 26 ka is interpreted to have stimulated fast ice streaming and diverted ice to the west in the northern Irish Sea into the main axis of the marine ISIS away from terrestrial ice terminating in the English Midlands, a process initiating ice stagnation and the formation of an extensive dead ice landscape in the Midlands.
Severe droughts have affected much of Europe over the last 40 years. A limitation to current understanding of droughts is based around drought characteristics (e.g. frequency, severity and duration) ...as there are limited long series (>100 years) with well documented severe droughts. This is further complicated with future climate projections, and the potential implications that these will have on drought characteristics. This paper presents reconstructed drought series from 1697, 1726 and 1767 to 2011 for three sites in southeast England. Precipitation and temperature series are reconstructed to generate long drought series using the self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index, enabling determination of drought characteristics. The reconstructions identify multiple drought-rich periods, 1730–1760 and 1890-present, with an increasing tendency towards more severe droughts during the latter period. Prolonged rainfall deficiencies are found to be the primary cause of severe droughts, with rising temperatures increasing soil moisture deficit, therefore intensifying drought conditions. Cycles at the 6–10 year period identify a sub-decadal to decadal signal during drought-rich periods. Analysis of the spatial variability of droughts finds that whilst severe events are predominantly regionally coherent, there are notable variations in severity and duration between sites, which are attributed to localised rainfall variability. This study extends the temporal range of previous drought studies and places recent drought events in a longer context improving upon existing ‘benchmark’ drought analyses in southeast England; with far-reaching implications for local, national and continental scale reduction of drought vulnerability and risk.
In recent years luminescence dating has increasingly been applied to date glaciofluvial sediments, but uncertainties about the degree of bleaching of the luminescence signal at deposition make dating ...of such sediments challenging. Here we test a new approach for luminescence dating of glaciofluvial sediments, based on the analysis of rock cores drilled from granite cobbles, and compare the luminescence ages generated against independent age control.
Luminescence measurements from rock slices in cobble-sized clasts can be used to reconstruct the extent of bleaching, thereby giving greater confidence in the ages produced. This study illustrates that another important advantage of using cobbles is that at depths of 2 mm or more below the cobble surface >90% of the total dose rate arises from the cobble itself, making the dose rate insensitive to the water content of the sediment matrix. Ordinarily, uncertainties in estimating water content during burial are one of the largest sources of uncertainty in luminescence dating methods, and hence reducing the reliance upon the dose rate could be particularly advantageous for glacial deposits, where water contents can potentially be large and highly variable.
Measurements of cobbles from Orrisdale Head, Isle of Man, demonstrate that the luminescence signal was completely bleached to depths of up to 12 mm into the cobble. Sampling of orientated cobbles from lithofacies diagnostic of bar-top environments was used to maximise the chances of exposure to sunlight. The upper-faces of these orientated cobble surfaces appear to be bleached to a greater depth than the lowermost faces. Data from 45 rock slices from these cobbles were tightly clustered, yielding a mean age of 20.7 ± 0.3 ka that is in agreement with independent age control. One of the well-bleached cobbles shows evidence of two discrete exposure events, potentially recording both the advance at 26.2 ± 0.8 ka, and retreat at 20.7 ± 0.3 ka, of the Irish Sea Ice Stream.
•First study to date glaciofluvial sediments using luminescence from cobbles.•Luminescence profile with depth reveals extent of signal resetting on deposition.•Fading-corrected IRSL50 ages from cobbles agree with independent age control.•One cobble potentially shows the advance and retreat of the Irish Sea ice stream.•Provides a high-precision method of dating heterogeneously-bleached samples.
Present-day lake water phosphorus (P) enrichment and accelerated P cycling are changes superimposed on a dynamic Holocene history of landscape development following glaciation, changes in climate, ...and long-term low-intensity human activity. Knowledge of the history of long-term P dynamics is essential for understanding present-day landscape P export and for managing both terrestrial and aquatic environments. This study is the first attempt to constrain the timing and magnitude of terrestrial changes in Holocene P dynamics across the Northern Hemisphere using lake sediment records.
This paper investigates the role of intervening transport processes on lake sediment records of the atmospherically deposited radionuclides
210
Pb and
137
Cs. Brotherswater is of particular interest ...to this issue in that its large catchment/lake area ratio and short water residence time are likely to amplify the influence of these processes, both from the catchment and through the water column. Brotherswater is also unique in being the site of two earlier multicore studies that, together with the present study, span a period of 4 decades. Measurements of fallout radionuclides were made on soil cores, suspended sediments and sediment cores, and the results combined with those from earlier studies to construct mass balances for
210
Pb and
137
Cs in Brotherswater. The results showed that catchment inputs accounted for 63% of
210
Pb entering the lake. Further, just 47% of
210
Pb entering the water column was delivered to the sediment record. For comparison, in an earlier study at nearby Blelham Tarn with a relatively smaller catchment but longer water residence time it was shown that 47% of
210
Pb inputs were delivered via the catchment, 75% of which were delivered to the sediment record. Results from both sites suggest that
210
Pb is predominantly transported on fine particulates with a mean particle size of 3–4 μm. Their relatively slow removal from the water column allows them to be transported relatively uniformly throughout the lake and may help account for the fact that simple
210
Pb dating models are relatively reliable in spite of the complexities of the transport processes. Mass balance calculations for
137
Cs are more complicated because of the variable fallout record. Measurements of
137
Cs in the input stream and water column showed that catchment inputs are still significant 30 years after the last significant fallout (Chernobyl). Modelled results showed that catchment inputs delayed the date of peak inputs of weapons test fallout to the lake though by no more than 2 years. Although the results presented here are primarily concerned with fallout radionuclides and their reliability for dating, they also have implications for the use of sediment archives in reconstructing historical records of other atmospherically deposited substances such as trace metals or persistent organic pollutants.
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