Age-Depth Model of Lake Soppensee (Switzerland) Based on the High-Resolution 14C Chronology Compared with Varve Chronology

Abstract

An age-depth model for laminated sediments of Lake Soppensee is constructed using radiocarbon ages of macrofossils and a depositional model of the OxCal v 4.1 program with the updated IntCal09 data set. The resulting calendar chronology is compared with the varve chronology that was built for this record in a previous study (Hajdas 1993); there is a very good agreement between the 2 approaches. This illustrates the potential of high-resolution 14C dating for construction of reliable, high-resolution calendar timescales for sedimentary records. Based on the age-depth model of this study, the Vasset/Killian tephra found in sediment of Soppensee dates to a calendar age of 9291?9412 cal BP (2-σ range) while the Lachersee tephra dates to 12,735-12,871 cal BP (2-? range). Precise dating of the Late Glacial boundaries is possible with this chronology but requires more precise correlation between proxies and records than typically practiced.