Characterizing coral open-system behavior by high-precision U/Th dating: a case study in Sumba Island, Indonesia

Project Overview

Our knowledge of past sea-level change is largely relying on high-precision uranium/thorium disequilibrium dating on fossil corals. The gain or loss of U and Th nuclides apart from radioactive decay and ingrowth in corals, namely open-system behaviour, however, violates the radiometric dating assumptions and often gives wrong ages on samples. Here, we propose to set up a Faraday cup-based high-precision U/Th dating technique at EOS and apply a modified open-system U/Th age model to date fossil coral samples from Sumba Island, Indonesia. We aim to achieve a radiometrically-dated sea level record in the region over the past ~700,000 years.

Funding Sources

• Earth Observatory of Singapore

Project Years

2017, 2018, 2019