Lake Sediments

Sharing my new discovery – aquatic plants are (sometimes) suitable for radiocarbon dating!

Daniel Schillereff December 4, 2014

Radiocarbon dating is probably the most well-known chronological technique regularly employed by archaeologists, geomorphologists and researchers analysing sediment cores. Palaeolimnologists (those who study lake sediments) hoping to determine the age of a sample extracted from a long sediment core traditionally seek terrestrial plant macrofossils (fragments of organic matter visible without a microscope), as these are …[Read More]

A much shorter review of flood stratigraphies in lake sediments

Daniel Schillereff August 8, 2014

Earlier this year my PhD supervisors and I (Daniel) had a paper accepted for publication in Earth-Science Reviews entitled ‘Flood stratigraphies in lake sediments: A review’ (Schillereff et al., 2014). It’s been fairly popular in terms of downloads but it occurred to me the other day that many of those prospective readers may be put …[Read More]

From mud to moai statue: lake sediments reveal new insights into Easter Island colonization

Daniel Schillereff December 17, 2013

The small landmass of Easter Island (164 km2), the southeasterly point of Polynesia in the Pacific Ocean, has achieved iconic status in the world today as people wonder how its colonisation was physically possible by settlers journeying through the vast ocean in tiny boats, how and why the enormous moai s were constructed and, most …[Read More]