Radiocarbon age offsets of Plants and Shells in Holocene sediments from the Sukumo plain, Southwest Coast of Shikoku, Southwest Japan

Abstract

AbstractTo identify chronological changes in the marine reservoir effect in southwest Japan, the radiocarbon ages of eight pairs of marine shells and terrestrial plants were measured from the same horizons of one core of Holocene sediments. This core was obtained from the northern part of the Sukumo Plain in southwestern Shikoku Island, which faces the warm Kuroshio Current. The drilling site is located in an area of subsidence associated with the convergence of the Philippine Sea Plate and the Eurasian Plate. On analyses of lithology, molluscan assemblages, and radiocarbon dating, we interpreted, from oldest to youngest, nine units: basement rock, a braided river channel, a meandering river channel, an estuary, a transgressive inner bay, Kikai-Akahoya volcanic ash, a deltaic inner bay, a tidal flat, and artificial soil. Changes in the depositional environment were mainly associated with sea-level rise after the end of the last glaciation. The reservoir ages of the eight pairs, 330 ± 70 yr, were obtained from a transgressive inner bay to deltaic inner bay sediments, formed during 4100–9200 cal BP. The chronological change in the reservoir effect allows us to correlate the Sukumo Core sediments with previous results from southwestern Japan, the Korean Peninsula, and Taiwan Island.