A Global Compilation of U-series Dated Fossil Coral Sea-level Indicators for the Last Interglacial Period (MIS 5e)

Abstract

Abstract. This dataset is a comprehensive, global compilation of published uranium series (U-series) dated fossil coral records from ~150–110 thousand years ago, as well as associated elevation measurements and sample metadata. In total, 1312 U-series measurements from 994 unique coral colonies are included in the current version of the dataset, all of which have been normalized and recalculated using the same decay constant values. Two example geochemical screening criteria have been included to assist users with identifying altered fossil corals that display geochemical open-system behaviour, and the originally published interpretations on age quality have been preserved within the sample metadata. Additionally, a clear distinction has been made between coral colonies that are in primary growth position, which may be used for relative sea-level reconstructions and colonies that have been transported/reworked, which cannot be used for these purposes. Future research efforts involving fossil coral sea-level reconstructions should emphasize an integrated and holistic approach that combines careful assessment of U-series age quality with high-precision surveying techniques and detailed facies/stratigraphic observations. This database is available at http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4309796 (Chutcharavan and Dutton 2020).

Last interglacial sea-level proxies in East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean

“…(Hamelin et al, 1991;. This isotopic criterion is not always strictly applied since (1) there is much evidence that the [ 234 U / 238 U] ratio of seawater may have varied through time (see discussion in Chutcharavan et al, 2018) and (2) some models, assuming decay-dependent redistribution of 234 Th and 230 Th, were developed to correct for the "open-system" behavior highlighted by anomalous [ 234 U / 238 U] 0 ratios (Thompson et al, 2003;Villemant and Feuillet, 2003). Although these open-system ages are questionable, some of the ages reported here are calculated using such a model (Thompson et al, 2003).…”

“…While many earlier studies briefly refer to the methodology used, they often provide few, if any, analytical metadata. Within the database, we have accepted all 238 Th / U ages as reported by the original authors and have only reported recalculated ages from Chutcharavan and Dutton (2020) which utilize 234 U and 238 Th decay constants from Cheng et al (2013). Each chronological constraint has been rated using the common guidelines provided in the WALIS documentation (Table 5).…”

“…These are accompanied by 25 U-series ages determined using MC-ICPMS (Dutton et al, 2015). We have included recalculated ages from Chutcharavan and Dutton (2020) in the database, however because these are the only recalculated ages within our database, we refer to the originally reported ages from Dutton et al (2015) hereafter. Each sample was sub-sampled in triplicate, and ages have been inverse variance-weighted and averaged from the sub-samples (Dutton et al, 2015).…”

“…The exported spreadsheet for the East Africa and Western Indian Ocean (EAWIO) region is the subject of this paper and is available in open-access format here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4302244 (Version 1.03; Boyden et al, 2020). In addition, we have included 21 U-series ages compiled within WALIS by Chutcharavan and Dutton (2020).…”

A standardized database of Last interglacial (MIS 5e) sea-level indicators in Southeast Asia

“…For this database, we inserted a total of 105 U-series ages (of which one on a mollusk, the rest on corals), and eight ESR coral ages. Further 21 U-series coral ages were retrieved from the compilation of Chutcharavan and Dutton (2020), and assigned to RSL index points in our database. For each dated sample, we included information about whether or not the ages were originally accepted in the published studies and whether these are also cited/referred to in other studies or not.…”