Search

The Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) is the most sensitive technique, compared either to the Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP-MS) or Thermal Ionization (TI-MS) mass spectrometer, for the actinide (e.g. 236U, xPu isotopes) measurements. They are present in environmental samples at the ultra trace level since atmospheric tests of Nuclear Weapons (NWs) performed in the past, deliberate dumping of nuclear waste, nuclear fuel reprocessing, on a large scale, and operation of Nuclear Power Plants (NPPs), on a small scale, have led to the release of a wide range of radioactive nuclides in the environment. At the Center for Isotopic Research on Cultural and Environmental heritage (CIRCE) in Caserta, Italy, an upgraded actinide AMS system, based on a 3-MV pelletron tandem accelerator, has been developed and routinely operated. At CIRCE a charge state distribution as a function of terminal voltage, the beam emittance, measured in the 20° actinides dedicated beam line, as well as the energy and position validation of the U ions were performed in order to determine the best measurement conditions. A 236U/238U isotopic ratio background level of about 5×10-12 or 3×10-13, depending on the Time of Flight-Energy (TOF-E) configurations, as well as the spatial distribution of the 235U, 238U interferences ions and a 236U contamination mass of about 0.5fg have been determined.

On the South Island of New Zealand, large piedmont glaciers descended from an ice cap on the Southern Alps onto the coastal plain of the West Coast during the late Pleistocene. The series of moraine belts and outwash plains left by the Taramakau glacier a

A combination of state-of-the-art isotopic fingerprinting techniques and atmospheric transport modelling using real-time historical meteorological data has been used to demonstrate direct tropospheric transport of radioactive debris from specific nuclear

The Burrup Peninsula and surrounding Dampier Archipelago, in Western Australia, contain the world's largest known gallery of rock art engravings (petroglyphs), estimated to number up to 1 million images. The peninsula is also the site of major industrial

The Mt Giluwe shield volcano was the largest area glaciated in Papua New Guinea during the Pleistocene. Despite minimal cooling of the sea surface during the last glacial maximum, glaciers reached elevations as low as 3200 m. To investigate changes in the extent of ice through time we have re-mapped evidence for glaciation on the southwest flank of Mt Giluwe. We find that an ice cap has formed on the flanks of the mountain on at least three, and probably four, separate occasions. To constrain the ages of these glaciations we present 39 new cosmogenic 36Cl exposure ages complemented by new radiocarbon dates. Direct dating of the moraines identifies that the maximum extent of glaciation on the mountain was not during the last glacial maximum as previously thought. In conjunction with existing potassium/argon and radiocarbon dating, we recognise four distinct glacial periods between 293-306 ka (Gogon Glaciation), 136-158 ka (Mengane Glaciation), centred at 62 ka (Komia Glaciation) and from >20.3-11.5 ka (Tongo Glaciation). The temperature difference relative to the present during the Tongo Glaciation is likely to be of the order of at least 5 °C which is a minimum difference for the previous glaciations. During the Tongo Glaciation, ice was briefly at its maximum for less than 1000 years, but stayed near maximum levels for nearly 4000 years, until about 15.4 ka. Over the next 4000 years there was more rapid retreat with ice free conditions by the early Holocene.

We report 23 cosmogenic isotope exposure ages (10Be and 36Cl) relating to the maximum extent and deglaciation chronology of the Irish Sea Ice Stream (ISIS), which drained the SW sector of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet. These show that the ISIS failed to reach the Preseli Hills of North Pembrokeshire yet extended southwards to impinge on northern Isles of Scilly (50°N) during the last glacial maximum. Four samples from western Anglesey demonstrate deglaciation of the southern Irish Sea Basin by c. 20-18 ka, and two from the Llŷn Peninsula in northwest Wales, if valid, suggest deglaciation by c. 23-22 ka followed by gradual oscillatory northwards retreat of the ice margin for over 3000 years. An alternative interpretation of our data suggests that ice reached Scilly as late as 22-21 ka then retreated 450 km northwards within the following three millennia, possibly in response to sea level rise and/or intrinsic reorganisation within the last British-Irish Ice Sheet. Samples from upland source areas of the ISIS in NW England and SW Scotland produced exposure ages ≤14.3 ka, suggesting possible persistence of ice in such areas into the Lateglacial Interstade of 14.7-12.9 ka.

The latter part of the Last Glacial Interval (LGI; 60,000 to 11,700 years ago) experienced a range of climatic and environment extremes. To elucidate the mechanisms of these changes requires records of past variability that are precisely dated and correlated on the same absolute timescale. However, despite decades of research, it is still not possible to align most marine and terrestrial records of past change with ice-core records, largely because of ongoing uncertainties over the conversion of pre-Holocene14C ages on to a calendar timescale and uncertainties with in ice-core chronologies. As a result, it is equivocal whether climate changes in both hemispheres during the LGI led, lagged or were synchronous with one another. A decadally-resolved radiocarbon calibration is urgently required to test these models of the Earth system. Here we report radiocarbon measurements obtained from subfossil New Zealand kauri (Agathis australis) spanning a collective 3500 years dated between 25,000 and 45,000 years ago. The results are compared to the recently published international calibration curve IntCal09 and to the marine Cariaco Basin datasets. We show that kauri have considerable potential for development of a Southern Hemisphere component of a unified global calibration curve suite, and that tree-ring sequences can be superposed on other radiocarbon records to constrain atmospheric-marine offsets and precisely test the synchronicity of abrupt climate change.

A well-stratified succession of fossiliferous sediments occurs in Tight Entrance Cave, southwestern Australia. These infill deposits contain the remains of megafauna and have accumulated intermittently since the Middle Pleistocene: >137, 137-119 and 50-29 ka, according to the results of14C, U-Th, ESR and OSL dating techniques. Megafaunal species richness was highest in the latest part of the penultimate glacial maximum and during the subsequent last interglacial (137-119 ka), but remains are less abundant following an apparent ∼70 ka depositional hiatus in the sequence. Most megafaunal specimens from the upper (<44 ka) units are fragmentary, and reworking from older strata cannot yet be ruled out. However, one specimen of Simosthenurus occidentalis (a large extinct kangaroo), a pair of articulated dentaries showing no signs of secondary transportation, was found within a sedimentary layer deposited between 48 and 50 ka. This represents one of the youngest demonstrably in situ occurrences of an Australian megafaunal taxon. Crown

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Standard Reference Material (SRM) for seaweed was developed through an interlaboratory comparison with 24 participants from 16 countries. After evaluating different techniques to calculate certified values for the radionuclides, the median method was found to be the most representative technique. The certified values were provided for 13 radionuclides and information values were given for 15 more radionuclides. Results for the natural decay series showed disequilibrium in both the uranium and thorium series.

The degree to which palaeoclimatic changes in the Southern Hemisphere co-varied with events in the high latitude Northern Hemisphere during the Last Termination is a contentious issue, with conflicting evidence for the degree of 'teleconnection' between different regions of the Southern Hemisphere. The available hypotheses are difficult to test robustly, however, because there are few detailed palaeoclimatic records in the Southern Hemisphere. Here we present climatic reconstructions from the southwestern Pacific, a key region in the Southern Hemisphere because of the potentially important role it plays in global climate change. The reconstructions for the period 20-10 kyr BP were obtained from five sites along a transect from southern New Zealand, through Australia to Indonesia, supported by 125 calibrated 14C ages. Two periods of significant climatic change can be identified across the region at around 17 and 14.2 cal kyr BP, most probably associated with the onset of warming in the West Pacific Warm Pool and the collapse of Antarctic ice during Meltwater Pulse-1A, respectively. The severe geochronological constraints that inherently afflict age models based on radiocarbon dating and the lack of quantified climatic parameters make more detailed interpretations problematic, however. There is an urgent need to address the geochronological limitations, and to develop more precise and quantified estimates of the pronounced climate variations that clearly affected this region during the Last Termination.

The solubility of aluminium (Al) in many acidic soils is controlled by complexation reactions with soil organic matter. In such soils, Al solubility is theoretically a function of the pool size of "active" Al, i.e., the total amount of Al that equilibrates with the soil solution within a defined period of time. To date, no reliable measurements of "active" Al in soil materials exist. In this study, we determined the isotopically exchangeable pool of Al (EAl) as an operationally defined assessment of "active" Al in acidic mineral soils. The suitability of CuCl2 and pyrophosphate (Na4P2 O7) as extractants for "active" Al was also evaluated. Eleven samples, mostly from spodic B horizons, were spiked with carrier-free 26Al and equilibrated for different time periods (1-756 h). The size of the Al pool with which the 26Al tracer exchanged increased with time during the whole experimental period. Thus, contact time between solid and solution phases needs to be defined when assessing the "active" Al pool. Values of EAl obtained after 1 to 5 d of equilibration were equal to the amount of CuCl2 extractable Al, but considerably smaller than the Na4P2O7-extractable pool. Equilibration times greater than 5 d resulted in CuCl2 extractable Al concentrations that under-estimated the "active" Al pool. Three of the investigated samples were rich in imogolite-type materials (ITM). In these samples, 30-50 % of the added 26Al rapidly became associated with soil constituents in forms that could not be extracted by Na4P2 O7, indicating that a part of ITM may be in a dynamic state.

Pleistocene periglacial landforms are widespread in Australia and provide valuable information on past temperatures, but dating the time of their formation has proven difficult. To remedy this, we have explored the use of cosmogenic 36Cl for direct dating of periglacial deposits. We sampled six deposits in four locations in southeastern Australia, ranging from blockstreams and block slopes to former rock glaciers. Eighteen exposure ages reveal a concentration of periglacial activity during the last glacial maximum (LGM) between 16 and 23ka, with a population having a weighted mean age of 21.9±0.5ka. This age is shortly before the time of maximum ice advance during the LGM in southeastern Australia. Exposure dating of block deposits provides a way of extending the chronology of cold climate activity beyond glaciated regions.

Over the past 50 years, nuclear weapons' tests and releases from the nuclear industry have introduced anthropogenic plutonium into the environment. In the Arctic environment, the main source of plutonium is from the atmospheric weapons testing, but previous studies of plutonium in the Kara Sea have shown that, at certain sites, other releases can give rise to enhanced local concentrations. The present paper presents results from determination of plutonium concentrations and isotope ratios in the sediment samples collected during various expeditions to the Kara Sea, the Ob and Yenisey estuaries and their river systems. The data indicated a clear influence from a low240Pu:239Pu source in surface sediments collected from the Yenisey estuary, whereas plutonium in Ob estuary sediments is dominated by global fallout. The results also show an increase in plutonium concentration (from 0.003 to 11Bq/kg) and a decrease in240Pu:239Pu isotope ratio (from 0.16 to 0.05) going upstream from the Yenisey estuary towards the nuclear installation at Krashnoyarsk.

A technique for determining the radiocarbon age of both organic-carbon and carbonate-carbon in the eggshell of the large flightless birds Genyornis newtoni (now extinct) and Dromaius novaehollandiae (extant emu) is presented here. Stepped combustion (for

We present 21 radiocarbon dates on 19 charcoal samples from the sedimentary sequence preserved in Border Cave, South Africa. The background radiocarbon activity for charcoal from the cave was determined to be 0.050±0.018 percent modern carbon, from the a

Late Pleistocene glaciation of Australia was restricted to the Snowy Mountains and the Tasmanian highlands. Glaciers were most extensive in Tasmania where ice caps formed on the Central Plateau and West Coast Ranges, and systems of valley and cirque glaciers formed on surrounding mountains. To investigate the timing of maximum glacier advance during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), we dated boulders on 18 moraines in 8 glaciated areas using cosmogenic 36Cl and 10Be. We sampled moraines deposited by cirque and valley glaciers, in a range of climate types and lithologies over a 7° latitudinal and a 1430m altitudinal transect. Exposure ages for LGM moraine boulders group tightly in the range 17-20 ka. Boulders from the Hamilton moraine, often treated as the LGM type moraine, range in age from ∼190-350 ka, indicating that it was deposited well before the last glaciation. Collectively, the exposure ages show that southeastern Australia was glaciated briefly during and after the LGM, and deglaciated well before the Holocene. Ice retreated from the terminal moraines after the period of coldest sea-surface temperatures in the southwest Pacific Ocean. No evidence was found for readvance of glaciers during the Antarctic Cold Reversal or the Younger Dryas period.

This study presents the results of an extensive radiocarbon dating program at the Nauwalabila I site in northern Australia. The results show that the radiocarbon chronology at Nauwalabila is reliable to ∼ 130 cm depth, but below this depth coarse charco