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Abstract: This paper summarises the results of tephrochronological investigations into a suite of central and southern European records, which include: Rotmeer, southern Germany; Soppensee and Rotsee, central Swiss Plateau; Lago di Lavarone and Lago Piccolo di Avigliana, Italian southern Alpine foreland. These sites provide records of palaeoenvironmental changes for the Last Glacial to Interglacial Transition (LGIT) at the boundary between North Atlantic and Mediterranean climatic influences. Chemical characterisation of glass shards in volcanic ash layers indicates that multiple volcanic sources have contributed to the central European tephra record. Amongst other volcanic markers, the Laacher See Tephra, originating from the Eifel region of Germany c. 12.9 ± 0.1 ka, and the Vedde Ash from Iceland c. 12.1 ± 0.1 ka, are found co-located within the sediments of Rotmeer, Soppensee, Rotsee and Lago Piccolo di Avigliana. These key horizons, which bracket the onset of the Younger Dryas stadial, provide precise calendrically-dated tie points around which a detailed picture of the timing of local and regional environmental transitions can be constructed. Using the co-located tephra layers the re-colonisation of Northern Italian catchment areas by Quercus is shown to occur just prior to the deposition of the Laacher See Tephra layer, whereas to the North of the Alps Quercus and other thermophilous trees do not reappear until several centuries after the deposition of the Vedde Ash. Furthermore, the discovery of the Vedde Ash in Lago Piccolo di Avigliana and Lago di Lavarone is indicative of atmospheric transport of polar air into southern Europe during the Younger Dryas stadial, matching evidence proposed for such transport of polar air during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The Vedde Ash is the most important volcanic event marker layer for the correlation of Late Quaternary palaeoenvironmental archives in Europe and the North Atlantic. First defined from its type site localities near Ålesund, Western Norway, the Vedde Ash has now been traced across much of northern and central Europe, into northwest Russia, within North Atlantic marine sediments and into the Greenland ice cores. The Vedde Ash is thought to derive from an eruption of the Katla volcano in Iceland that occurred midway through the Younger Dryas/Greenland Stadial 1 (GS-1), ∼12.1ka BP. Visible and cryptotephra deposits of the Vedde Ash have been found in numerous stratified sites with robust chronologies, which allow its age to be constrained and its dispersal to be mapped. The eruption must have been highly explosive, however few proximal outcrops have been confirmed and this crucial ash layer remains almost exclusively distally-described and characterised using major element glass compositions. The widespread distribution, stratigraphic associations and consistent major element glass chemistry have led the Quaternary tephrochronological community to see the Vedde Ash as a robust and unique chronological marker layer for the Last Glacial to Interglacial Transition (∼10–18ka BP). Here we present new glass analyses of the Vedde Ash from multiple sites around the dispersal area, using a full suite of compositional analysis, including for the first time, single-grain trace element data. These data demonstrate the strong compositional coherence of Vedde Ash deposits. However, comparison with major, minor, and trace element compositional data from several other distally-described Icelandic tephras reveals that both before and after the Younger Dryas chronozone, there were eruptions that generated widespread tephra layers that have comparable glass shard compositions to the Vedde Ash. This implies that these numerous events not only hail from the same volcanic system, but that the melts share similar crystallisation trends and mixing patterns prior to eruption. It seems therefore that composition alone is insufficient for the correlation of some widespread tephra layers: good stratigraphic information and/or robust dating control are also essential. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The first part of this paper presents a review of the problems that constrain the reliability of radiocarbon-based age models with particular focus on those used to underpin marine records. The reasons why radiocarbon data-sets need to be much more comprehensive than has been the norm hitherto, and why age models should be based on calibrated data only, are outlined. The complexity of the probability structure of calibrated radiocarbon data and the advantages of a Bayesian statistical approach for constructing calibrated age models are illustrated. The second part of the paper tests the potential for reducing the uncertainties that constrain radiocarbon-based age models using tephrostratigraphy. Fine (distal) ash layers of Holocene age preserved in Adriatic prodelta sediments are analysed geochemically and compared to tephras preserved in the Lago Grande di Monticchio site in southern Italy. The Monticchio tephras have been dated both by radiocarbon and varve chronology. The importance of basing such comparisons on standardised geochemical and robust statistical procedures is stressed. In this instance, both the Adriatic and Monticchio geochemical measurements are based on wavelength dispersive spectrometry, while discriminant function analysis is employed for statistical comparisons. Using this approach, the ages of some of the Adriatic marine ash layers could be estimated in Monticchio varve years, circumventing some of the uncertainty of radiocarbon-based age models introduced by marine reservoir effects. Fine (distal) ash layers are more widespread and better preserved in Mediterranean marine sequences than realised hitherto and may offer much wider potential for refining the dating and correlation of Mediterranean marine sequences as well as marine-land correlations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Tephrochronology, a key tool in the correlation of Quaternary sequences, relies on the extraction of tephra shards from sediments for visual identification and high-precision geochemical comparison. A prerequisite for the reliable correlation of tephra layers is that the geochemical composition of glass shards remains unaltered by natural processes (e.g. chemical exchange in the sedimentary environment) and/or by laboratory analytical procedures. However, natural glasses, particularly when in the form of small shards with a high surface to volume ratio, are prone to chemical alteration in both acidic and basic environments. Current techniques for the extraction of distal tephra from sediments involve the ‘cleaning’ of samples in precisely such environments and at elevated temperatures. The acid phase of the ‘cleaning’ process risks alteration of the geochemical signature of the shards, while the basic phase leads to considerable sample loss through dissolution of the silica network. Here, we illustrate the degree of alteration and loss to which distal tephras may be prone, and introduce a less destructive procedure for their extraction. This method is based on stepped heavy liquid flotation and which results in samples of sufficient quality for analysis while preserving their geochemical integrity. In trials, this method out-performed chemical extraction procedures in terms of the number of shards recovered and has resulted in the detection of new tephra layers with low shard concentrations. The implications of this study are highly significant because (i) the current database of distal tephra records and their corresponding geochemical signatures may require refinement and (ii) the record of distal tephras may be incomplete due to sample loss induced by corrosive laboratory procedures. It is therefore vital that less corrosive laboratory procedures are developed to make the detection and classification of distal glass tephra more secure. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]