New frontiers in dating of geological, paleoclimatic and anthropological applications using accelerator mass spectrometric measurements of 14C and 10Be in diverse samples

A wide range of climatic, geologic and archeological records can be characterized by measuring their 14C and 10Be concentrations, using the accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). These records are found not only in the traditional sampling sites such as lake sediments and ice cores, but also in diverse natural accumulates and biogeochemical products such as: loess/paleosol deposits, corals, speleothems, forest-fire horizons and weathered meteorites. The in-situ production of cosmogenic radionuclides in terrestrial materials provides several possibilities of determining their chronology. The purpose of this review is to highlight selected applications of AMS, which have bearing to our understanding of both chronology of archival materials, and learning about climatic changes in the past.