Abstract

1. Radiocarbon dating of soils is reviewed with particular reference to the dating of palaeosols excavated from beneath late-Holocene (‘Little Ice Age’) end moraines in front of southern Norwegian glaciers. 2. The problems of soil dating are summarized, emphasizing the complex nature of soil organic matter and the importance of sample pretreatment. Details are given of the soil pretreatment procedures used in the Cardiff Radiocarbon Laboratory. 3. Estimates of the time elapsed since burial and the time since the onset of soil formation from buried humo-ferric podsols and brown soils are discussed. 4. The potential of soil age/depth gradients as a chronological framework for palaeoenvironmental studies in the alpine zone is stressed. Applications to the reconstruction of glacier and climatic variations, soil development and vegetation history, are outlined.

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