Marine sediments and snow from Ross Sea region (Antarctica) dating by Pb-210 method

摘要

Pb-210 is widely used to determine accumulation rates in order to obtain a time scale in environmental samples. The most accurate method uses the determination of Pb-210 via its grand-daughter Po-210 by alpha spectrometry. Unfortunately this method requires a complex wet-chemistry procedure to achieve the separation of Po-210 from its matrix. In this work a simplified procedure for the chemical separation of Po-210 is proposed and applied to three marine sediment cores and a 10 m snow core collected in Antarctica. The calculated sedimentation rates for marine sediments range from 0.053 to 0.071 cm y(-1). The mean annual accumulation rate for the snow is 16.6 cm y(-1) w.e.. A comparison with literature data in the same region is given. References: 15