Comparison of 14C and 230Th/234U Dating of Speleothems from Submarine Caves in the Adriatic Sea (Croatia)

Abstract

Z metodama 14C oziroma U-Th smo datirali 16 sig iz sedmih podmorskih jam v Jadranu. Dve sigi smo datirali z obema metodama. Primernost metod za datacijo sig je različna zaradi različnih okoljskih pogojev, ki so vladali med izločanjem sige oziroma po zalitju jame. Obe metodi sta zanesljivi na dobro ohranjenih sigah. U-Th metoda je slabša, ko so karbonati onesnaženi z detritičnim materialom oz. preraščeni s plastjo morskega izvora . Vendar metoda U-Th z uporabo MC ICPMS analize, kjer potrebujemo le 100-300mg vzorca (namesto 30 g pri metodi 14C), omogoča boljšo časovno ločljivost datacij, kar je pri datiranju sig zelo pomembno.

Among the 16 speleothems that were collected from 7 submarine caves and pits for the purpose of 14C and U-Th dating and reconstructing sea-level changes, two speleothems were dated by both methods. Different environmental conditions during the speleothem deposition and after the submergence resulted with different appropriateness for speleothem dating by these techniques. Well preserved speleothems gave reliable results by both methods, while U-Th method showed disadvantage in the case of carbonates contaminated with detrital material, as well as in the case of carbonate from marine overgrowth that covers the speleothems. However, U-Th method using MC ICPMS technique which requires only 100-300 mg of sample per analysis (instead of ca. 30 g for 14C conventional method), offers better age resolution that is essential for speleothem dating.