Characterization of organic matter in marine sediments to estimate age offset of bulk radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating of Arctic marine sediment is often challenging due to the low availability of calcareous fossils. Consequently, bulk organic matter dating has at times been used to establish sediment core chronologies. Yet, radiocarbon dates based on bulk organic matter often appear to deviate va...
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ftethz:oai:www.research-collection.ethz.ch:20.500.11850/517088 2023-05-15T14:29:02+02:00 Characterization of organic matter in marine sediments to estimate age offset of bulk radiocarbon dating Hansen, Katrine Elnegaard Giraudeau, Jacques Limoges, Audrey Massé, Guillaume Rudra, Arka Wacker, Lukas Sanei, Hamed Pearce, Christof Seidenkrantz, Marit-Solveig 2022-02 application/application/pdf https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/517088 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000517088 en eng Elsevier info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1016/j.quageo.2021.101242 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000718163600004 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/517088 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000517088 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International CC-BY-NC-ND Quaternary Geochronology, 67 Radiocarbon dating Organic pyrolysis Holocene Marine sediments Age offset Bulk organic matter info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion 2022 ftethz https://doi.org/20.500.11850/517088 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000517088 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2021.101242 2022-04-25T14:37:41Z Radiocarbon dating of Arctic marine sediment is often challenging due to the low availability of calcareous fossils. Consequently, bulk organic matter dating has at times been used to establish sediment core chronologies. Yet, radiocarbon dates based on bulk organic matter often appear to deviate vastly from dates based on fossils, mainly caused by input of allochthounous carbon, including terrigenous organic matter. In this study, we aim to examine the link between the composition of the bulk organic matter and the age offsets between the bulk radiocarbon dates and those obtained from calcareous foraminiferal tests. All samples are taken from the marine sediment core AMD14-204C from offshore Upernavik (eastern Baffin Bay). The radiocarbon dates for bulk organic matter are on average similar to 3000 years older than the radiocarbon dates based on foraminifera, but with changing age offsets throughout the record. To investigate the cause of this age offset and its variations over time, we applied core scanning, X-ray Fluorescence analysis, stable isotopes, organic pyrolysis and microscopic organic petrology to examine the distribution and characterization of the organic matter. The results show that the older organic matter includes clastic input of reworked sedimentary rocks potentially originating from West Greenland and/or the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Changes in the input of contemporary marine algal produced organic matter versus both terrigenous input and reworked ancient organic matter appear to control the age offsets between the bulk and foraminifera dates. A low Hydrogen Index and low delta C-13(org) values together with a high Oxygen Index, indicative of high influence of terrigenous organic matter, seem to correspond to samples with the largest age offsets; 1000-2000 years greater than in other samples. To examine the cause of the variations in the age offsets, a new quantification of the autochthonous organic matter as a fraction of the TOC was calculated. This shows that samples with the largest age offsets contained the lowest fraction (as low as similar to 12%) of autochthonous organic matter in the TOC. ISSN:1871-1014 Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago Foraminifera* Greenland Upernavik ETH Zürich Research Collection Arctic Baffin Bay Canadian Arctic Archipelago Greenland |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
ETH Zürich Research Collection |
op_collection_id |
ftethz |
language |
English |
topic |
Radiocarbon dating Organic pyrolysis Holocene Marine sediments Age offset Bulk organic matter |
spellingShingle |
Radiocarbon dating Organic pyrolysis Holocene Marine sediments Age offset Bulk organic matter Hansen, Katrine Elnegaard Giraudeau, Jacques Limoges, Audrey Massé, Guillaume Rudra, Arka Wacker, Lukas Sanei, Hamed Pearce, Christof Seidenkrantz, Marit-Solveig Characterization of organic matter in marine sediments to estimate age offset of bulk radiocarbon dating |
topic_facet |
Radiocarbon dating Organic pyrolysis Holocene Marine sediments Age offset Bulk organic matter |
description |
Radiocarbon dating of Arctic marine sediment is often challenging due to the low availability of calcareous fossils. Consequently, bulk organic matter dating has at times been used to establish sediment core chronologies. Yet, radiocarbon dates based on bulk organic matter often appear to deviate vastly from dates based on fossils, mainly caused by input of allochthounous carbon, including terrigenous organic matter. In this study, we aim to examine the link between the composition of the bulk organic matter and the age offsets between the bulk radiocarbon dates and those obtained from calcareous foraminiferal tests. All samples are taken from the marine sediment core AMD14-204C from offshore Upernavik (eastern Baffin Bay). The radiocarbon dates for bulk organic matter are on average similar to 3000 years older than the radiocarbon dates based on foraminifera, but with changing age offsets throughout the record. To investigate the cause of this age offset and its variations over time, we applied core scanning, X-ray Fluorescence analysis, stable isotopes, organic pyrolysis and microscopic organic petrology to examine the distribution and characterization of the organic matter. The results show that the older organic matter includes clastic input of reworked sedimentary rocks potentially originating from West Greenland and/or the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Changes in the input of contemporary marine algal produced organic matter versus both terrigenous input and reworked ancient organic matter appear to control the age offsets between the bulk and foraminifera dates. A low Hydrogen Index and low delta C-13(org) values together with a high Oxygen Index, indicative of high influence of terrigenous organic matter, seem to correspond to samples with the largest age offsets; 1000-2000 years greater than in other samples. To examine the cause of the variations in the age offsets, a new quantification of the autochthonous organic matter as a fraction of the TOC was calculated. This shows that samples with the largest age offsets contained the lowest fraction (as low as similar to 12%) of autochthonous organic matter in the TOC. ISSN:1871-1014 |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hansen, Katrine Elnegaard Giraudeau, Jacques Limoges, Audrey Massé, Guillaume Rudra, Arka Wacker, Lukas Sanei, Hamed Pearce, Christof Seidenkrantz, Marit-Solveig |
author_facet |
Hansen, Katrine Elnegaard Giraudeau, Jacques Limoges, Audrey Massé, Guillaume Rudra, Arka Wacker, Lukas Sanei, Hamed Pearce, Christof Seidenkrantz, Marit-Solveig |
author_sort |
Hansen, Katrine Elnegaard |
title |
Characterization of organic matter in marine sediments to estimate age offset of bulk radiocarbon dating |
title_short |
Characterization of organic matter in marine sediments to estimate age offset of bulk radiocarbon dating |
title_full |
Characterization of organic matter in marine sediments to estimate age offset of bulk radiocarbon dating |
title_fullStr |
Characterization of organic matter in marine sediments to estimate age offset of bulk radiocarbon dating |
title_full_unstemmed |
Characterization of organic matter in marine sediments to estimate age offset of bulk radiocarbon dating |
title_sort |
characterization of organic matter in marine sediments to estimate age offset of bulk radiocarbon dating |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/517088 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000517088 |
geographic |
Arctic Baffin Bay Canadian Arctic Archipelago Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Baffin Bay Canadian Arctic Archipelago Greenland |
genre |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago Foraminifera* Greenland Upernavik |
genre_facet |
Arctic Archipelago Arctic Baffin Bay Baffin Bay Baffin Canadian Arctic Archipelago Foraminifera* Greenland Upernavik |
op_source |
Quaternary Geochronology, 67 |
op_relation |
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1016/j.quageo.2021.101242 info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/wos/000718163600004 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/517088 doi:10.3929/ethz-b-000517088 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/20.500.11850/517088 https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000517088 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2021.101242 |
_version_ |
1766303135288000512 |