Abstract
The 230Th dating (238U–234U–230Th dating method) has become one of the most important dating methods for Quaternary research. However, the 230Th/232Th ratio of 4.4 ± 2.2ⅹ10−6 is widely used for age correction in 230Th dating method. Here, we collected active speleothems with exactly known age and zero-year-old calcium carbonate from caves and dated them by 230Th dating. Our data indicated that the initial 230Th/232Th ratio can be one order of magnitude higher than the ratio of 4.4 ± 2.2 × 10−6. High initial 230Th/232Th ratio may result in false and comparatively old calculated age than the real age of young samples with low 238U concentration. So, the accurate initial 230Th/232Th ratio of active speleothem deposited in the same cave, instead of the general initial 230Th/232Th ratio, is essential for the precise age correction of young speleothem samples of low 238U concentration. Finally, we proposed a procedure to correlate modern observation and speleothem based paleoclimate reconstruction, on the basis of precise 230Th age which corrected by the true initial 230Th/232Th ratio.
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