High-resolution stalagmite stratigraphy supports the Late Holocene tephrochronology of southernmost Patagonia
Kilian, Rolf
- 1Universitat Trier
- 2University of Gottingen
- 3Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain
- 4Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz
- 5University of Copenhagen
- 6Technical University of Munich
- 7Friedrich Schiller University of Jena
- 8Leibniz Institut fur Ostseeforschung Warnemunde
- 9
Journal
Communications Earth and Environment
ISSN
2662-4435
Open Access
gold
Volume
3
Volcanic ash layers are important markers for the chronostratigraphy of paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental archives at the southern tip of South America. However, this requires that tephras are well-dated. We report geochemical data from stalagmite MA1 formed in a non-karst cave near Mt. Burney volcano in southernmost Patagonia (similar to 53 degrees S). High-resolution LA-ICP-MS analyses, SEM imagery, EPMA data, and NanoSIMS enable to identify volcanogenic signals during the last 4.5 kyrs from sub-annual trace element variations and tephra particles in distinct laminae. Our new Th-230/U-chronology of MA1 provides precise dating of tephra from Mt. Burney (MB) and, probably, Aguilera (A) at 4,216 (+93)/(-193) yrs BP (MB2), 2,291 +/- 33 yrs BP (MB3), 853 (+41)/(-60) yrs BP (MB4) and 2,978 (+91)/(-104) yrs BP (A(1)). This unique high-resolution record holds potential to date further eruptions from Southern Andean volcanoes for the tephrochronology in this critical region, and potentially also large-volume explosive volcanism off South America.
Name
document.pdf
Type
Main Article
Size
5.96 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum
(MD5):2f4df6616ef872d117c0df2cc872de0f