Tephrochronology: Origin, Characterisation, and Co mpositional Features of Tephra Deposits

This book meets this surge in development and application of Quaternary tephrochronology at the global scale. Lowe recently completed a review paper recently in which he examined the basis of tephrochrononology as a central stratigraphic and geochronological tool for Quaternary studies (Lowe, 2011). Topics included principles of tephrochronology, defining isochrons, tephra nomenclature, mapping and correlating tephras from proximal to distal locations at metre- to sub-millimetre-scale, cryptotephras, mineralogical and geochemical fingerprinting methods, statistical correlation techniques, and developments and applications in dating including the use of flexible depositional age-modelling techniques based on Bayesian statistics. Together with reference to wide-ranging examples and the identification of key recent advances in tephrochronology, such as the development of new geo-analytical approaches that enable individual small glass shards to be analysed near-routinely for major, trace, and rare-earth elements, potential problems such as miscorrelation, erroneous-age transfer, and tephra reworking and taphonomy (especially relating to cryptotephras) were also examined, the first time such problems have been openly discussed in detail. Some of the challenges and opportunities for future tephrochronological studies were identified. These and other topics thus provide a foundation for the book on tephras/tephrochronology.