An Arctic perspective on dating Mid-Late Pleistocene environmental history

• To better understand Pleistocene climatic changes in the Arctic, integrated palaeoenvironmental andpalaeoclimatic signals from a variety of marine and terrestrial geological records as well as geochronologicage control are required, not least for correlation to extra-Arctic records. In this paper we discuss,from an Arctic perspective, methods and correlation tools that are commonly used to date ArcticPleistocene marine and terrestrial events. We review the state of the art of Arctic geochronology, withfocus on factors that affect the possibility and quality of dating, and support this overview by examples ofapplication of modern dating methods to Arctic terrestrial and marine sequences.Event stratigraphy and numerical ages are important tools used in the Arctic to correlate fragmentedterrestrial records and to establish regional stratigraphic schemes. Age control is commonly provided byradiocarbon, luminescence or cosmogenic exposure ages. Arctic Ocean deep-sea sediment successionscan be correlated over large distances based on geochemical and physical property proxies for sedimentcomposition, patterns in palaeomagnetic records and, increasingly, biostratigraphic data. Many of theseproxies reveal cyclical patterns that provide a basis for astronomical tuning.Recent advances in dating technology, calibration and age modelling allow for measuring smallerquantities of material and to more precisely date previously undatable material (i.e. foraminifera for 14C,and single-grain luminescence). However, for much of the Pleistocene there are still limits to the resolutionof most dating methods. Consequently improving the accuracy and precision (analytical andgeological uncertainty) of dating methods through technological advances and better understanding ofprocesses are important tasks for the future. Another challenge is to better integrate marine andterrestrial records, which could be aided by targeting continental shelf and lake records, exploringproxies that occur in both settings, and by creating joint research networks that promote collaborationbetween marine and terrestrial geologists and modellers.

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Geologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Geology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Chronology

Arctic

sedimentology

paleoceanography

paleoclimate

Geology

geologi

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