Paleontological Research Institution
I have been interested in both science and history since childhood, and though I ended up specializing in science, I remained fascinated by the past. During the final year of my integrated chemistry degree at Oxford University, I was offered a one-off opportunity to work in an archaeology research lab, studying nitrogen isotopes to learn about the diet of Paleolithic humans. Within weeks, I knew it was exactly the type of research I wanted to do; being able to use chemistry to understand our past was a dream come true.
Amino Acid Geochronology is a relative, and sometimes absolute, dating in carbonate materials with time (geologic age of the sample) and temperature (long.
Research article 18 Nov Correspondence : Gabriel West gabriel. Amino acid racemization AAR geochronology is a powerful tool for dating Quaternary marine sediments across the globe, yet its application to Arctic Ocean sediments has been limited. Anomalous rates of AAR in foraminifera from the central Arctic were reported in previously published studies, indicating that either the rate of racemization is higher in this area, or inaccurate age models were used to constrain the sediment ages.
D and L isomers of the amino acids aspartic acid Asp and glutamic acid Glu were separated in samples of the planktic foraminifer Neogloboquadrina pachyderma and the benthic species Cassidulina neoteretis to quantify the extent of racemization. In total, subsamples were analysed, extending back to marine oxygen isotope stage MIS 7. Two previously published power functions, which relate the extent of racemization of Asp and Glu in foraminifera to sample age are revisited, and a comparison is made between the ages predicted by these calibrated age equations and independent geochronological constraints available for the cores.
Our analyses reveal an excellent match between ages predicted by a global compilation of racemization rates for N. These results generally support the rates of AAR determined for other cold bottom water sites and further highlight the anomalous nature of the purportedly high rate of racemization indicated by previous analyses of central Arctic sediments. Dating Quaternary marine sediments from the Arctic Ocean has been a long-standing problem, and a number of studies e. Backman et al. Assigning ages for the various lithostratigraphic units in Arctic Ocean sediments is, however, of paramount importance as the development of accurate age models is key to contextualize Arctic palaeoceanography within Earth’s climate system.