Limitations of 14C dates from buried soils in reconstructing glacier variations and Holocene climate.

Abstract

26 depth-controlled dates have been obtained from physico-chemically fractionated samples of the organic surface (FH) horizon of a humo-ferric podzol buried by the southern Norwegian glacier Haugabreen at its 'Little Ice Age' maximum limit. The 14C dates show an order of magnitude increase in age with depth from 485 to 4020 14C years BP over 14.5 cm. Although this age range suggests potential errors of the order of thousands of years, the age/depth gradient appears to provide a basis for quite accurate estimates of the date of soil burial and of moraine formation. - from Author