HR: 0830h
AN: B11C-0707    [PDF]
TI: Tree Rings and Volcanic Eruptions: Reviewing the Potential of Dendrochemistry for the Absolute Dating of Past Volcanism
AU: * Pearson, C
EM: c.l.pearson@rdg.ac.uk
AF: School of Human and Environmental Sciences, The University of Reading, Whiteknights,, Reading, RG6 6AB United Kingdom
AU: Manning, S W
EM: s.w.manning@rdg.ac.uk
AF: School of Human and Environmental Sciences, The University of Reading, Whiteknights,, Reading, RG6 6AB United Kingdom
AU: Coleman, M
EM: m.l.coleman@rdg.ac.uk
AF: School of Human and Environmental Sciences, The University of Reading, Whiteknights,, Reading, RG6 6AB United Kingdom
AU: Jarvis, K
EM: KU05389@kingston.ac.uk
AF: NERC ICP Facility, School of Earth Sciences & Geography, Kingston University, Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2EE United Kingdom
AB: Investigations of volcanic impact on human society and the environment are presently restrained by a lack of secure absolute dates for eruptions prior to the last few hundred years. The degree of impact and recovery, and the scope of any sociological repercussions, can only be fully explored if working from a precise, known, starting point and against a secure absolute timescale. A potential means to high resolution dating for the majority of the Holocene lies with globally available, absolutely dated tree ring chronologies. Many of these have been shown to record short term climatic alterations in periods following volcanic eruptions of known or approximate date. This argument however, has been based on an apparent correlation between the dates of specific tree ring growth anomalies and the dates of a number of eruptions in the recent historical period. The statistical correlation is less than decisive and the exact volcano-climate-tree growth linkage is by no means universally agreed. It has been suggested that a potential means to solve this problem and to attach absolute dates to volcanic eruptions via tree rings may lie in the chemistry of the annual woody increment. This paper assesses the potential of conventional Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) versus laser ablation ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS) in terms of exploring this research objective. It also reviews the prospects for a dendrochemical resolution to the problem of attributing an absolute date to the volcanic eruptions of prehistory.
DE: 0370 Volcanic effects (8409)
DE: 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805)
DE: 4221 Dendrochronology
DE: 4825 Geochemistry
DE: 4875 Trace elements
SC: Biogeosciences [B]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting