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Lead 210 and moss-increment dating of two Finnish Sphagnum hummocks

Nature volume 296, pages 429–431 (1982)Cite this article

Abstract

Peat materials are economically and ecologically valuable and so their dating is important. The lead isotope 210Pb (22.26±0.22 yr) has had great value in dating recent deposits1–8 of the past 150 yr. But the varying conditions in different water reservoirs, and the possibility that the mathematical models used in 210Pb-dating will give different results, call for additional chronological data. 14C-dating has major difficulties in this respect8–10 and dating with 137Cs and 239Pu is not reliable10–13. Previously 210Pb-dating has been tried on only seven peat cores from ombrotrophic mosses: four from Denmark14,15 and three from England and Ireland10. We present here a comparison of 210Pb results with moss-increment dates of selected peat material from Finland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics, Uppsala University, Uppsala, S-751 21, Sweden

    Farid El-Daoushy

  2. Department of Botany, University of Helsinki, SF-00170, Helsinki, 17, Finland

    Kimmo Tolonen

  3. Reactor Laboratory, Technical Research Centre of Finland, SF-02150, Espoo, 15, Finland

    Rolf Rosenberg

Authors
  1. Farid El-Daoushy
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  2. Kimmo Tolonen
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  3. Rolf Rosenberg
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El-Daoushy, F., Tolonen, K. & Rosenberg, R. Lead 210 and moss-increment dating of two Finnish Sphagnum hummocks. Nature 296, 429–431 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/296429a0

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