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Planktonic Foram Dates from the Indonesian Arc: Marine 14C Reservoir Ages and a Mythical AD 535 Eruption of Krakatau

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2016

John Southon ,
Mahyar Mohtadi  and
Ricardo De Pol-Holz
John Southon*
Affiliation:
Earth System Science Department, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA
Mahyar Mohtadi
Affiliation:
MARUM, University of Bremen, Loebener Str., 28359 Bremen, Germany
Ricardo De Pol-Holz
Affiliation:
Department of Oceanography, Universidad de Concepción, Casilla 160-C, Concepción, Chile
*
Corresponding author. Email: jsouthon@uci.edu.
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Abstract

The Indonesian Arc represents the subduction of the Indian-Australian plate beneath Asia. It has been the scene of catastrophic tectonic activity, including the recent 2004 M=9.1 Aceh earthquake and resulting Indian Ocean tsunami. We have dated planktonic forams associated with historic tephras (Tambora, 1815 and Krakatau, 1883) in marine sediment cores to determine radiocarbon reservoir ages for 2 locations along the arc. Our best estimates for 19th century regional reservoir corrections (ΔR) are +90 ± 40 yr for surface-dwelling species and +220 ± 40 yr for mixed planktic assemblages containing some upper thermocline species, but scatter in the data suggests that past surface reservoir ages may have varied by about ±100 yr. We used the results of this study to investigate a proposed very large AD 535 eruption at or near Krakatau. We find no evidence for ash from such an eruption, and although this is negative evidence, we consider it sufficiently strong to rule out any possibility that one took place.

Type
Radiocarbon Reservoir Effects
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 55 , Issue 3: Proceedings of the 21st International Radiocarbon Conference (Part 2 of 2) , 2013 , pp. 1164 - 1172
Copyright
Copyright © 2013 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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