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Devising quality assurance procedures for assessment of legacy geochronological data relating to deglaciation of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet

Small, D; Clark, C.D; Chiverrell, R.C; Smedley, R.K; Bateman, M.D; Duller, G.A.T; Ely, J.C; Fabel, D; Medialdea, A; Moreton, S.G

Devising quality assurance procedures for assessment of legacy geochronological data relating to deglaciation of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet Thumbnail


Authors

C.D Clark

R.C Chiverrell

R.K Smedley

M.D Bateman

G.A.T Duller

J.C Ely

D Fabel

A Medialdea

S.G Moreton



Abstract

This contribution documents the process of assessing the quality of data within a compilation of legacy geochronological data relating to the last British-Irish Ice Sheet, a task undertaken as part of a larger community-based project (BRITICE-CHRONO) that aims to improve understanding of the ice sheet's deglacial evolution. As accurate reconstructions depend on the quality of the available data, some form of assessment is needed of the reliability and suitability of each given age(s) in our dataset. We outline the background considerations that informed the quality assurance procedures devised given our specific research question. We describe criteria that have been used to make an objective assessment of the likelihood that an age is influenced by the technique specific sources of geological uncertainty. When these criteria were applied to an existing database of all geochronological data relating to the last British-Irish Ice Sheet they resulted in a significant reduction in data considered suitable for synthesis. The assessed data set was used to test a Bayesian approach to age modelling ice stream retreat and we outline our procedure that allows us to minimise the influence of potentially erroneous data and maximise the accuracy of the resultant age models.

Citation

Small, D., Clark, C., Chiverrell, R., Smedley, R., Bateman, M., Duller, G., …Moreton, S. (2016). Devising quality assurance procedures for assessment of legacy geochronological data relating to deglaciation of the last British-Irish Ice Sheet. Earth-Science Reviews, 164, 232-250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.11.007

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 21, 2016
Online Publication Date Nov 30, 2016
Publication Date Nov 30, 2016
Deposit Date Aug 14, 2017
Publicly Available Date Sep 6, 2017
Journal Earth-Science Reviews
Print ISSN 0012-8252
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 164
Pages 232-250
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.11.007

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