Abstract
USE of 210Pb dating is increasing rapidly and applications include studies of accelerated eutrophication in major lakes1, salt-marsh accretion2, the recent history of heavy metal pollution3 and accelerating soil erosion resulting from subsistence agriculture4. As dating models have increased in variety and complexity, it is important to compare models against precise and unambiguous independently derived time scales. In each area of application of 210Pb dating, the inferences drawn from the calculated age–depth curves and the estimates of changing flux rates are often highly dependent on the 210Pb dating model used. In this report 210Pb-derived estimates of lake sediment age and dry-mass sedimentation rates are compared with ages and rates calculated directly by counting annual laminations. The results support a model of 210Pb dating which assumes a constant net rate of supply (c.p.s.) of unsupported 210Pb to the sediment despite fluctuations in dry mass sedimentation rates. Our findings underline the need for empirical evaluation of alternative 210Pb dating models in the widest possible range of contexts. They also cast doubt on some published studies in which strongly ‘kinked’ profiles of unsupported 210Pb concentration have been interpreted within the framework of conventional constant initial concentration (c.i.c.) assumptions.
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APPLEBY, P., OLDFIELD, F., THOMPSON, R. et al. 210Pb dating of annually laminated lake sediments from Finland. Nature 280, 53–55 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/280053a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/280053a0
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