On selecting bulk fjord sediment samples for radiocarbon dating in Fildes Peninsula, Antarctica

We performed AMS 14C dating on 20 bulk sediments of a sediment core collected from Grande Valley, on Fildes Peninsula, Antarctica, a typical fjord environment during the Holocene period. However, the ages of samples along the sediment core were not in chronological order as they should be. To overcome the difficulty in obtaining a reliable chronology, we selected five samples based on their lithological characteristics and grain size distributions of the sediments and used their dates to build a chronology of the sediment core. The validity of the chronology was confirmed by comparing the inferred geochemical and geophysical parameters with previous studies. The criteria we used to select samples can be generalized and applied to pre-select dating samples for radiocarbon dating, especially for those formed in a complex environment and influenced by old carbon sources and glacier activities. Finally, we successfully applied this method to the selection of bulk sediment dating samples in a sediment core collected in Arctic, which testifies to the its effectiveness.