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Radiocarbon Dates from a Holocene Deposit in Southwestern Australia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

J R Dodson  and
Weijian Zhou
J R Dodson
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6907. Email: johnd@geog.uwa.edu.au
Weijian Zhou
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an 710054, Shaanxi Province, China
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Abstract

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A radiocarbon chronology has been developed using shell, bulk peat, and paired charcoal and pollen preparations from a peat and clay sequence in southwestern Australia. The results indicate the sequence is of Holocene age, and the mid-Holocene was a period of rapid sediment deposition. The earliest record is based on Bothriembyron sp. snail shell and there is a strong indication that the deposit had a stratigraphic hiatus between 9600 and 4700 BP. Modern shell of the snail has no ancient reservoir effect. The bulk peat ages were a little younger than associated AMS determinations on hand-picked charcoal and residues from pollen preparations. As a group, paired charcoal and pollen based dates were indistinguishable in age. This implies that the sedimentary charcoal shows no significant storage and transport time in the catchment before deposition. This is important when interpreting pollen records and sedimentary charcoal to reconstruct fire and vegetation dynamics and inter-relationships.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , 2000 , pp. 229 - 234
Copyright
Copyright © 2000 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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