AMS ¹⁴C Dating of Varved Sediments from Lake Suigetsu, Central Japan and Atmospheric ¹⁴C Change During the Late Pleistocene

Abstract

We made accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) 14 C measurements on terrestrial macrofossils from the Late Pleistocene/Holocene of the annually laminated sediments of Lake Suigetsu (central Japan). The AMS 14 C dates of terrestrial macrofossils showed agreement between varve counting years and calibrated ages (tree rings and U/Th on coral) in the interval of 10.5 and ca. 11.5 ka cal bp. Beyond 11.5 ka cal bp, the age difference between 14 C and varve counting years gradually diminish, contradicting published data on corals dated by U/Th and 14 C.