Well GeHP detector calibration for environmental measurements using reference materials

International audience; A well-type detector installed in the Modane underground Laboratory (LSM) can combine both low background and high detection efficiency and it is well suited for the analysis of small amounts of environmental samples. Reference materials such as IAEA-447 (moss-soil), IAEA-RG-Th1 and IAEA-RG-U1 were used for the detector calibration, owing to a chemical composition close to those of the environmental samples. Nevertheless , the matrix effects and the true coincidence summing effects must be corrected from the full energy peak efficiency (FEPE). The FEPE was performed for a wide range of energy by a semi-empirical method using Monte Carlo simulation (MCNP6), intended f…

Impact of Holocene climate variability on lacustrine records and human settlements in South Greenland

Due to its sensitivity to climate changes, south Greenland is a particularly suitable area to study past global climate changes and their influence on locale Human settlements. A paleohydrological investigation was therefore carried out on two river-fed lakes: Lake Qallimiut and Little Kangerluluup, both located close to the Labrador Sea in the historic farming center of Greenland. Two sediment cores (QAL-2011 and LKG-2011), spanning the last four millennia, were retrieved and showed similar thin laminae, described by high magnetic susceptibility and density, high titanium and TOC / TN atomic ratio, and coarse grain size. They are also characterized either by inverse grading followed by nor…

Vegetation response to abrupt climate changes in Western Europe from 45 to 14.7k cal a BP: the Bergsee lacustrine record (Black Forest, Germany)

Cultural evolution and environmental change in Central Europe between 40 and 15 ka

The role of environmental change in the evolution of cultural traits is a topic of long-standing scientific debate with strongly contrasting views. Major obstacles for assessing environmental impacts on the evolution of material culture are the fragmentary nature of archaeological and – to a somewhat lesser extent – geoscientific archives and the insufficient chronological resolution of these archives and related proxy data. Together these aspects are causing difficulties in data synchronization. By no means does this paper attempt to solve these issues, but rather aims at shifting the focus from demonstrating strict chains of causes and events to describing roughly contemporaneous developm…