TY - JOUR
T1 - Sequential radiocarbon measurement of bulk peat for high-precision dating of tsunami deposits
AU - Ishizawa, Takashi
AU - Goto, Kazuhisa
AU - Yokoyama, Yusuke
AU - Miyairi, Yosuke
AU - Sawada, Chikako
AU - Nishimura, Yuichi
AU - Sugawara, Daisuke
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank the Associate Editor Thomas Higham and two anonymous reviews for their valuable comments. We are also grateful to the local government of Urahoro town for allowing us to conduct field surveys. This research is a part of Nuclear Regulation Authority commission project. This research was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI (JP26247085, JP15KK0151), and was partly supported through the Program for Leading Graduate Schools, “Inter-Graduate School Doctoral Degree Program on Global Safety,” by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. We thank G. Nagano and Y. Nakamura for their help in the field.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 Elsevier B.V.
PY - 2017/8
Y1 - 2017/8
N2 - Dates of tsunami deposits have been used to estimate paleotsunami recurrence intervals in areas affected by these natural events. The depositional age of tsunami deposits is commonly constrained by the radiocarbon (14C) dating of sediments above and below the geological event. However, because of calibration curve fluctuations, the depositional age sometimes has a wide error range. In this study, we conducted millimeter-scale high-resolution radiocarbon measurements of tsunami deposits at Urahoro in southern Hokkaido, Japan. The site faces the Pacific Ocean along the Kuril Trench. Eight event deposits were identified within peat at this site. We took sequential measurements for 14C dating using bulk peat samples. The results were validated based on comparison with the absolute and radiometric ages of tephra layers. Dating results were further constrained by stratigraphic order using statistical methods. We constrained the depositional age of the paleotsunami deposits better using this method than we did when using conventional methods. We proposed an efficient measurement strategy with respect to the radiocarbon calibration curve. This method is also applicable for other deposits formed by any natural hazard if bulk peat is obtainable so it can contribute to better hazard assessment worldwide.
AB - Dates of tsunami deposits have been used to estimate paleotsunami recurrence intervals in areas affected by these natural events. The depositional age of tsunami deposits is commonly constrained by the radiocarbon (14C) dating of sediments above and below the geological event. However, because of calibration curve fluctuations, the depositional age sometimes has a wide error range. In this study, we conducted millimeter-scale high-resolution radiocarbon measurements of tsunami deposits at Urahoro in southern Hokkaido, Japan. The site faces the Pacific Ocean along the Kuril Trench. Eight event deposits were identified within peat at this site. We took sequential measurements for 14C dating using bulk peat samples. The results were validated based on comparison with the absolute and radiometric ages of tephra layers. Dating results were further constrained by stratigraphic order using statistical methods. We constrained the depositional age of the paleotsunami deposits better using this method than we did when using conventional methods. We proposed an efficient measurement strategy with respect to the radiocarbon calibration curve. This method is also applicable for other deposits formed by any natural hazard if bulk peat is obtainable so it can contribute to better hazard assessment worldwide.
KW - Kuril trench
KW - Radiocarbon dating
KW - Tsunami deposit
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U2 - 10.1016/j.quageo.2017.05.003
DO - 10.1016/j.quageo.2017.05.003
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85019383420
SN - 1871-1014
VL - 41
SP - 202
EP - 210
JO - Quaternary Geochronology
JF - Quaternary Geochronology
ER -