Browsing by Author "Christl, M"

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    Beryllium isotopes as tracers of Lake Lisan (Last Glacial Dead Sea) hydrology and the Laschamp geomagnetic excursion
    (Elsevier Science BV, 2014-08-15) Belmaker, R; Stein, M; Beer, J; Christl, M; Fink, D; Lazar, B
    The content of the cosmogenic isotope Be-10 (t(1/2) = 1.39 Ma) in lacustrine sediments that deposit in lakes with a large watershed is susceptible to both climate and cosmogenic production rate variations. In order to distinguish between these two controls, we measured Be-10 and major elements in several sections of the annually laminated sediments of the Lake Lisan (the last Glacial precursor of the Dead Sea) that are composed of detrital sediments and primary (evaporitic) aragonites. The sections were selected to represent regional hydrology and climate as reflected by different lake configurations (level rise, drop and high-stands) and rapid change in the Be-10 production rate during the Laschamp geomagnetic excursion. Since the short-lived cosmogenic "sister" of Be-10, Be-7 (t(1/2) = 53.3 d) has virtually no recycled component, the recycled Be-10 in Lake Lisan detrital sediments was evaluated by measuring Be-7 in their modern equivalents: modern flood suspended matter, dust and mud cracks. Our results demonstrate that although the recycled Be-10 component is significant, secular variations in the Be-10 concentration in Lake Lisan sediments correlate with hydrological variations and geomagnetic excursions. During periods of moderate variations in Be-10 production rate, the Be-10 concentration in the Lisan detrital sediments positively correlates with lake level, Al + Fe content and the (Al + Fe)/(Ca + Mg) ratio. These correlations suggest that the Be-10 is adsorbed on the fine silicate component (probably clays) of the detrital laminae. The fine silicates together with carbonates were transported to Dead Sea drainage basin mainly as airborne dust that after a short residence time was washed into Lake Lisan as flood suspended matter. We suggest that preferential dissolution of carbonates in the flood suspended matter concentrated the residual fine component leading to the positive correlation between Be-10 and the (Al + Fe)/(Ca + Mg) ratio. During periods of increased water discharge more carbonates were dissolved and hence the Be-10 concentration in the detrital laminae increased. During periods of rapid increase in the Be-10 production rate (e.g. the Laschamp excursion), Be-10 showed a similar to 2 fold increase, beyond the above-mentioned correlations (lake levels and Al + Fe contents). This observation suggests that Lake Lisan can serve as a potential high-resolution archive of Be-10 production rate variations during periods of geomagnetic excursions. © 2014, Elsevier Ltd.
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    Development of a multi-method chronology spanning the last glacial interval from Orakei maar lake, Auckland, New Zealand
    (European Geosciences Union, 2020-12-15) Peti, L; Fitzsimmons, KE; Hopkins, JL; Nilsson, A; Fujioka, T; Fink, D; Mifsud, C; Christl, M; Muscheler, R; Augustinus, PC
    Northern New Zealand is an important location for understanding Last Glacial Interval (LGI) palaeoclimate dynamics, since it is influenced by both tropical and polar climate systems which have varied in relative strength and timing. Sediments from the Auckland Volcanic Field maar lakes preserve records of such large-scale climatic influences on regional palaeo-environment changes, as well as past volcanic eruptions. The sediment sequence infilling Orakei maar lake is continuous, laminated, and rapidly deposited, and it provides a high-resolution (sedimentation rate above ∼ 1 m kyr−1) archive from which to investigate the dynamic nature of the northern New Zealand climate system over the LGI. Here we present the chronological framework for the Orakei maar sediment sequence. Our chronology was developed using Bayesian age modelling of combined radiocarbon ages, tephrochronology of known-age rhyolitic tephra marker layers, 40Ar∕39Ar-dated eruption age of a local basaltic volcano, luminescence dating (using post-infrared–infrared stimulated luminescence, or pIR-IRSL), and the timing of the Laschamp palaeomagnetic excursion. We have integrated our absolute chronology with tuning of the relative palaeo-intensity record of the Earth's magnetic field to a global reference curve (PISO-1500). The maar-forming phreatomagmatic eruption of the Orakei maar is now dated to > 132 305 years (95 % confidence range: 131 430 to 133 180 years). Our new chronology facilitates high-resolution palaeo-environmental reconstruction for northern New Zealand spanning the last ca. 130 000 years for the first time as most NZ records that span all or parts of the LGI are fragmentary, low-resolution, and poorly dated. Providing this chronological framework for LGI climate events inferred from the Orakei sequence is of paramount importance in the context of identification of leads and lags in different components of the Southern Hemisphere climate system as well as identification of Northern Hemisphere climate signals. © Author(s) 2020 This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence.
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    Preliminary results of CoQtz-N: a quartz reference material for terrestrial in-situ cosmogenic 10Be and 26A1 measurements
    (Elsevier, 2019-10-01) Binnie, SA; Dewald, A; Heinze, S; Voronina, E; Hein, AS; Wittmann, H; von Blanckenburg, F; Hetzel, R; Christl, M; Schaller, M; Léanni, L; ASTER Team; Hippe, K; Vockenhuber, C; Ivy-Ochs, S; Maden, C; Fülöp, RH; Fink, D; Wilcken, KM; Fujioka, T; Fabel, D; Freeman, SPHT; Xu, S; Fifield, LK; Akçar, N; Spiegel, C; Dunai, TJ
    There is growing interest in geochronological applications of terrestrial in situ-produced cosmogenic nuclides, with the most commonly measured being 10Be and 26A1 in quartz. To extract and then separate these radionuclides from quartz and prepare them in the oxide form suitable for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) requires extensive and careful laboratory processing. Here we discuss the suitability of a crushed, sieved and etched, sub-aerially exposed vein quartz specimen (CoQtz-N) to act as a reference material for chemical laboratory preparation and AMS measurements. Splits of CoQtz-N were distributed to eleven target preparation laboratories. The CoQtz-N 10Be targets were then measured at seven different AMS facilities and five of the preparation laboratories had their 26A1 targets measured at four different AMS facilities. We show that CoQtz-N splits are sufficiently homogeneous with regard to nuclide concentrations, that it has been cleaned of any atmospheric derived (i.e. meteoric) 10Be and that it has low concentrations of the major elements that can interfere with Be and A1 extraction chemistry and AMS measurements. We derive preliminary concentrations for 10Be and 26Al in CoQtz-N as 2.53 ± 0.09 × 106 at/g and 15.6 ± 1.6 × 106 at/g, respectively, at the 95% confidence limit. © 2019 Elsevier B.V.
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    Reproducibility and accuracy of actinide AMS – lessons learned from precision studies for nuclear data
    (Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, 2021-11-17) Wallner, A; Christl, M; Hotchkis, MAC; Lippold, J; Froehlich, MB; Fifield, LK; Steier, P; Tims, SG; Winkler, SR
    Actinide detection has grown into an important discipline for environmental and geological sciences, for oceanography, e.g. as monitors of anthropogenic activities, but also in nuclear (astro)physics. Consequently, AMS measurements of actinides have become routine at many facilities. In particular, applications in nuclear (astro)physics continue to challenge the present limits in accuracy and abundance sensitivity of actinide detection. Presently, there is a major ongoing effort in experiment and theory to better understand cross sections at thermal and higher neutron energies. These activities are motivated by the urgent need for improved and highly accurate nuclear data for optimised designs of advanced reactor concepts, nuclear fusion reactors, or next generation nuclear power plants (Gen IV) and accelerator driven systems (ADS). One example is the cross-section value for 235U neutron-capture at thermal energies: serving as a so-called thermal constant, this quantity is believed to be known to better than 1%. Despite its importance, direct measurements are rare (only two older data exist for thermal energies) and exhibit large uncertainties, thus its knowledge is based on indirect information. For these applications, accurate actinide data are required, e.g. with uncertainties better than 2-3% for capture reactions. The combination of activation and subsequent AMS detection offers a powerful and complementary tool to measure these cross sections. However, this method had been applied only very recently for measurements on actinides. Importantly, adding an independent technique to established methods helps also to identify unrecognized systematic uncertainties in the existing nuclear database. Several uranium and thorium samples had been irradiated with neutrons of energies between sub-thermal and 22 MeV at seven different neutron-producing facilities. These samples were then analysed at different AMS facilities: at the Vienna Environmental Research Accelerator (VERA), at ANSTO’s ANTARES, at ETH’s TANDY and at HIAF (ANU). These facilities cover terminal voltages for actinide AMS between 0.3 and 4 MV. We present systematic investigations of nuclear data from a series of neutron-irradiated samples that were obtained by AMS. Long-lived reaction products that were measured include Th-229, Pa-231,233, U-233,236 and various Pu isotopes. Some irradiated samples were directly pressed into sample holders. Some samples were dissolved and spiked with well-known amounts of one or more reference isotopes, relative to which the radionuclides were quantified. To achieve the highest accuracy, we compared the results from repeated measurements at the different facilities. We also had to take into account the measurement reproducibility of the individual facilities; an uncertainty component that represents unknown uncertainties beyond counting statistics and other known systematic uncertainties. A comparison of these data provides the present limits in the measurement accuracy of heavy-ion AMS. © The Authors