Do peatlands or lakes provide the most comprehensive distal tephra records

Quaternary Science Reviews 139 (2016) 110e128

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Do peatlands or lakes provide the most comprehensive distal tephra records? E.J. Watson a, *, G.T. Swindles a, I.T. Lawson b, I.P. Savov c a

School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK Department of Geography and Sustainable Development, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, KY16 9AL, UK c School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK b

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Article history: Received 10 December 2015 Received in revised form 24 February 2016 Accepted 9 March 2016 Available online 22 March 2016

Despite the widespread application of tephra studies for dating and correlation of stratigraphic sequences (‘tephrochronology’), questions remain over the reliability and replicability of tephra records from lake sediments and peats, particularly in sites >1000 km from source volcanoes. To address this, we examine the tephrostratigraphy of four pairs of lake and peatland sites in close proximity to one another (