Articles | Volume 7, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-7-459-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-7-459-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Carbonate 206Pb ∕ 238U problems and potential 207Pb ∕ 235U fixes
Dept. of Earth Sciences, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
Noah McLean
Dept. of Geology, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045, United States
Anton Vaks
Geological Survey of Israel, 9692100 Jerusalem, Israel
Tzahi Golan
Geological Survey of Israel, 9692100 Jerusalem, Israel
Sebastian F. M. Breitenbach
Dept. of Geography and Environmental Sciences, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8ST, UK
Randall Parrish
Dept. of Geography and Geosciences, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth, PO1 3QL, UK
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compositional data, which means that the relative abundances of 204Pb, 206Pb, 207Pb, and 238Pb are processed within a tetrahedral data space or
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Pieter Vermeesch
Geochronology, 3, 247–257, https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-3-247-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-3-247-2021, 2021
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This contribution presents a new reference material, ASH-15 flowstone with an age of 2.965 ± 0.011 Ma (95 % CI), to be used for in situ U–Pb dating of carbonate material. The new age analyses include the use of the EARTHTIME isotopic tracers and a large number of sub-samples (n = 37) with small aliquots (1–7 mg) each that are more representative of laser-ablation spot analysis. The new results could improve the propagated uncertainties on the final age with a minimal value of 0.4 %.
Laia Comas-Bru, Kira Rehfeld, Carla Roesch, Sahar Amirnezhad-Mozhdehi, Sandy P. Harrison, Kamolphat Atsawawaranunt, Syed Masood Ahmad, Yassine Ait Brahim, Andy Baker, Matthew Bosomworth, Sebastian F. M. Breitenbach, Yuval Burstyn, Andrea Columbu, Michael Deininger, Attila Demény, Bronwyn Dixon, Jens Fohlmeister, István Gábor Hatvani, Jun Hu, Nikita Kaushal, Zoltán Kern, Inga Labuhn, Franziska A. Lechleitner, Andrew Lorrey, Belen Martrat, Valdir Felipe Novello, Jessica Oster, Carlos Pérez-Mejías, Denis Scholz, Nick Scroxton, Nitesh Sinha, Brittany Marie Ward, Sophie Warken, Haiwei Zhang, and SISAL Working Group members
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2579–2606, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2579-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2579-2020, 2020
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This paper presents an updated version of the SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and Analysis) database. This new version contains isotopic data from 691 speleothem records from 294 cave sites and new age–depth models, including their uncertainties, for 512 speleothems.
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Short summary
U–Pb dating of cave sediments has provided important new time constraints on the evolution of cave-dwelling organisms (including early humans) and of Earth's climate during the past 5 Myr. This paper shows that the most common type of U–Pb dating, which uses 238U and 206Pb, can be inaccurate beyond ca. 2 Myr ago. It proposes an alternative type of U–Pb dating, using 235U and 207Pb, as a more accurate alternative.
U–Pb dating of cave sediments has provided important new time constraints on the evolution of...