286-13 Environmental Information Inferred from the Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotopes of Live and Archaeological Turban Snails from Hengchun Peninsula, Southern Taiwan

See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Sclerochronological Archives from Rivers to the Sea: Documentation, Interpretation, and Utility

Wednesday, 8 October 2008: 11:15 AM
George R. Brown Convention Center, 330A

Horng-sheng Mii1, Feng-hsi Shih1 and Kuang-ti Li2, (1)Department of Earth Sciences, National Taiwan Normal Univ, Taipei, Taiwan
(2)Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract:
To examine whether the δ18O values of Turban snail shells and opercula reach the isotopic equilibrium with ambient seawater and to unravel the paleoenvironment of southern Taiwan in ~4,000 B.P., this study analyzed the isotopic compositions of eight live Turban snails (two Turbo setosus, five T. chrysostomus and one T. sparverius) collected from Hengchun Peninsula and five opercula of T. argyrostoma collected from Kenting site, Hengchun, southern Taiwan.

Mean δ13C values of modern snail shells and opercula are 1.46 ± 0.30‰; (1σ; N = 365) and 1.76 ± 0.44‰ (N = 481), respectively. Average δ18O values of modern snail shells and opercula are respectively -1.55 ± 0.51‰ and -1.40 ± 0.53‰. δ13C values of six modern opercula are 0.2 to 0.6‰ greater than those of associated shells. There is no significant difference in most of the δ18O values between opercula and associated shells except that the δ18O values of T. setosus opercula are 0.3‰ greater than those of associated shells. Based on the sea water temperature records (2003-2006; Central Weather Bureau, Taiwan) and the available δ18O of seawater records (1992-1995; 0.02‰ for summer and 0.37‰ SMOW for winter; Shen et al., 2007:EPSL, v. 237, p. 370), almost all of the δ18O values of modern Turban snail shells and opercula reach the apparently isotopic equilibrium with the seawater they lived in.

Mean δ18O value of the five archaeological T. argyrostoma opercula is -1.53 ± 0.58‰ (N = 266). Assuming the δ18O values of seawater of ~4,000 B.P. were similar to those of present, the calculated mean oxygen isotope temperature of ~4,000 B.P. was roughly 0.7 °C warmer than that of present. Mean δ13C values of the archaeological opercula (3.33 ± 0.49‰) are 1.57‰ greater than those of modern opercula suggesting that the hydrological condition was different from present.

See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Sclerochronological Archives from Rivers to the Sea: Documentation, Interpretation, and Utility