Summary
This chapter offers a review of the current state of the art in tephro-chronology. This type of chronology building relies on chemically identifiable tephra deposits created by volcanic eruptions. Identifiable tephra can be spread over large areas and are often found on archaeological sites and in lake sediments, peat deposits and ice cores. Thus, tephras can be used to synchronize deposits at a variety of locations and if reliable dates can be obtained for them, tephrochronology can be used to help build chronologies in a range of disciplines. For many years, tephra have been used to provide spot dates at single sites, but much of the potential for 3D reconstructions and spatial analysis of pat terns of change through time have yet to be realized. The chapter discusses the potential for development of suitable formal chronology building tools and highlights the kinds of research problems that need to be tackled.
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Dugmore, A.J., Larsen, G., Newton, A.J. (2004). Tephrochronology and its Application to Late Quaternary Environmental Reconstruction, with Special Reference to the North Atlantic Islands. In: Buck, C.E., Millard, A.R. (eds) Tools for Constructing Chronologies. Lecture Notes in Statistics, vol 177. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0231-1_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-0231-1_8
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