Reconstructing past climates and earth system responses to climate and environmental change relies heavily on precise and accurate chronologies. Radiocarbon dating continues to play a vital role in providing chronological control over the last 50,000 years, but advances in recent years on a range of other geochronological techniques that are applicable to the Quaternary have made available a much wider diversity of methods.

In this session, contributions are particularly welcome that aim to (1) reduce, quantify and express dating uncertainties in any dating method, including high-resolution radiocarbon approaches, (2) use established geochronological methods to answer new questions, (3) use new methods to address longstanding issues, or (4) combine different chronometric techniques for improved results, including the analysis of chronological data sets with novel methods, such as Bayesian age-depth modelling. Applications may aim to understand long term landscape evolution, quantify rates of geomorphological processes, or provide chronologies for records of climate change.

The session also incorporates a group of papers on dating ice cores, including progress towards a new Antarctic deep core age scale.


Invited presentations will be given by:
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Frédéric Parrenin (LGGE, Grenoble, France) on the ongoing development of a new timescale for Antarctic ice cores
and
Steve Lund (University of Southern California, USA) on geochronologic applications of paleomagnetic records
and
Susan Ivy Ochs (ETH Zurich) on the deglaciation history in the Alps based on cosmogenic nuclides.