Opening Address for the Symposium “High-Resolution Dating for Quaternary Research”

Abstract

This symposium aims to give overview and prospect for the high-resolution age determinations for Quaternary research. In order to understand global environmental changes of the past, or to predict the changes expected in the near future, one would like to know a detailed history of environmental changes through the high-resolution dating. The papers presented in the symposium are to be divided into two categories: 1) non-radiometric age determination for the recent past such as chronology of tree ring, archaeological evidence, ice-core and laminated lake sediments, and palaeontological chronology. 2) radiometric age determinations including AMS radiocarbon dating, wiggle matching, calibration of radiocarbon dating, U series, TL, ESR, FT and K-Ar dating methods.The most important subject currently discussed is to give the high-resolution age for the datum planes that are commonly used in the Quaternary research. Of them, the problem of the Younger Dryas age arises a very interesting and valuable chance for improving up the dating technique of such methods as dendrochronology, ice-core chronology, varve chronology, radiocarbon method, etc. Recent advances in orbital time scale have given high-resolution age controls for both climatically induced marine isotope and geomagnetism, resulting in a stimulation of high-resolution radiometric age determinations.