Abstract
The Vedde Ash, originating from the Katla central volcano, Iceland, and taken to be dispersed across the North Atlantic and Europe at ~ 12 ka BP, is widely used as a geochronological marker. However, distal tephra layers with compositions like the Vedde Ash but of younger ages question the reliability of Vedde-like tephra layers as robust age control. Vedde-like tephra layers are rare in Icelandic sedimentary sequences and, where present, lack firm age control. Providing well-constrained local records of Early Holocene Katla layers is therefore critical to assess uncertainties related to the use of the Vedde Ash. Here we report three visible and stratigraphically separated Early Holocene Katla tephra layers from Torfdalsvatn, a lake in north Iceland, each with chemistry similar to the Vedde Ash. Using high-resolution 14C chronologies, we provide ages (± 1σ) for these tephra layers of 11,315 ± 180, 11,295 ± 195, and 11,170 ± 195 cal a BP. These observations reinforce that multiple explosive eruptions of Katla occurred over a 1000-year interval in the Early Holocene and challenge the precision of some paleoclimate records using the Vedde Ash as a geochronometer where age control is equivocal. This may lead to a re-evaluation of age models for some Early Holocene North Atlantic records.
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Acknowledgements
We kindly thank Þorsteinn Jónsson and Sveinbjörn Steinþórsson for lake coring assistance, Yarrow Axford for providing imagery of core 04-TORF-01, and Darrell Kaufman and Jordon Bright for performing 14C analyses. We appreciate the constructive feedback from the editor (John Smellie), Alessio Di Roberto, Paul Zander, and one anonymous reviewer who contributed to improving the overall clarity of the manuscript.
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This project has been supported by the Icelandic Center for Research (RANNÍS) through Grant-of-Excellences #022160002–04, #70272011–13, and #141573051–3 awarded to ÁG and GHM as well as through the University of Iceland Research Fund awarded to ÁG. DJH acknowledges support from RANNÍS Doctoral Student Grant #163431051 and NSF ARCSS #1836981, and CRF acknowledges support from the Doctoral Grant of the University of Iceland.
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DJH, TT, ÁG, and GHM conceived the research; ÁG and GHM funded the research; ÁG, GHM, and CF acquired the lake sediment core; DJH and TT performed electron microprobe analyses; DJH performed age modeling and wrote the manuscript with contributions from all co-authors.
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Harning, D.J., Thordarson, T., Geirsdóttir, Á. et al. Repeated Early Holocene eruptions of Katla, Iceland, limit the temporal resolution of the Vedde Ash. Bull Volcanol 86, 2 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-023-01690-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00445-023-01690-9