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Chronology

About: Chronology is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 3078 publications have been published within this topic receiving 60882 citations. The topic is also known as: chronological.


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Journal ArticleDOI
02 Aug 1990-Nature
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present results bearing on the sea level record for the past 130,000 years; they conclude that the last deglaciation started 3, 000 years earlier than previously thought and confirm that there were two surges in melt water at about 11 kyr and 14 kyr BP (before present).
Abstract: THE study of the sea level record during the last glacial cycle has primarily proceeded indirectly by means of oxygen isotope measurements on foraminifera from deep-sea sediments1,2. The direct approach of dating sea level indicators stagnated during the past decade, mainly because the samples required to complete our knowledge of the past glaciations are below the present-day sea level3–7. Using the 14C ages of Acropora palmata samples collected by drilling offshore the island of Barbados, Fairbanks8 presented the first detailed chronology for the last deglaciation. This radiocarbon chronology is limited to the past 30 kyr because of the short half-life of 14C (5,730 yr); we must therefore rely on other dating methods to obtain information for the whole last glacial cycle. During the past four years 230Th–234U dating of corals by thermal-ionization mass spectrometry has been shown to be significantly more precise and accurate than the classical α counting method9–14. We have used this technique to measure U–Th ages in coral samples from the Barbados collection and from subaerially exposed outcrops (see also ref. 15). Here we present results bearing on the sea level record for the past 130,000 years; we conclude that the last deglaciation started 3,000 years earlier than previously thought and confirm that there were two surges in melt water8 at about 11 kyr and 14 kyr BP (before present).

825 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
20 Feb 2003-Nature
TL;DR: Carbon and oxygen isotope records from a stalagmite collected in southwest France which have been precisely dated using 234U/230Th ratios give evidence of drastic and rapid vegetation changes in western Europe, an important site in human cultural evolution.
Abstract: The signature of Dansgaard-Oeschger events--millennial-scale abrupt climate oscillations during the last glacial period--is well established in ice cores and marine records. But the effects of such events in continental settings are not as clear, and their absolute chronology is uncertain beyond the limit of (14)C dating and annual layer counting for marine records and ice cores, respectively. Here we present carbon and oxygen isotope records from a stalagmite collected in southwest France which have been precisely dated using 234U/230Th ratios. We find rapid climate oscillations coincident with the established Dansgaard-Oeschger events between 83,000 and 32,000 years ago in both isotope records. The oxygen isotope signature is similar to a record from Soreq cave, Israel, and deep-sea records, indicating the large spatial scale of the climate oscillations. The signal in the carbon isotopes gives evidence of drastic and rapid vegetation changes in western Europe, an important site in human cultural evolution. We also find evidence for a long phase of extremely cold climate in southwest France between 61.2 +/- 0.6 and 67.4 +/- 0.9 kyr ago.

599 citations

Book ChapterDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the crs (constant rate of 210Pb supply) model with independent dating evidence, and found that the Crs model provides a reasonably accurate chronology when the total 210 Pb contents of cores from neighbouring locations are comparable.
Abstract: The last few years have seen a dramatic growth in the use of 210Pb sediment dating. Despite this, considerable doubt still surrounds the nature of the processes by which 210Pb is deposited in lake sediments, and this has lead to a situation where there is a choice of dating models offering different interpretations of 210Pb data. In assessing 210Pb data it is therefore essential to first of all determine whether data is consistent with the assumptions of the dating model, and to then compare the 210Pb chronology with independent dating evidence. We have tested 210Pb data from a wide variety of sites, and our calculations indicate that the crs (constant rate of 210Pb supply) model provides a reasonably accurate chronology when the total 210Pb contents of cores from neighbouring locations are comparable.

594 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An empirically based and dramatically shortened chronology for the colonization of East Polynesia resolves longstanding paradoxes and offers a robust explanation for the remarkable uniformity of EastPolynesian culture, human biology, and language.
Abstract: The 15 archipelagos of East Polynesia, including New Zealand, Hawaii, and Rapa Nui, were the last habitable places on earth colonized by prehistoric humans. The timing and pattern of this colonization event has been poorly resolved, with chronologies varying by >1000 y, precluding understanding of cultural change and ecological impacts on these pristine ecosystems. In a meta-analysis of 1,434 radiocarbon dates from the region, reliable short-lived samples reveal that the colonization of East Polynesia occurred in two distinct phases: earliest in the Society Islands A.D. ∼1025–1120, four centuries later than previously assumed; then after 70–265 y, dispersal continued in one major pulse to all remaining islands A.D. ∼1190–1290. We show that previously supported longer chronologies have relied upon radiocarbon-dated materials with large sources of error, making them unsuitable for precise dating of recent events. Our empirically based and dramatically shortened chronology for the colonization of East Polynesia resolves longstanding paradoxes and offers a robust explanation for the remarkable uniformity of East Polynesian culture, human biology, and language. Models of human colonization, ecological change and historical linguistics for the region now require substantial revision.

455 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
2023468
20221,066
202198
202080
2019100
201887