Radiocarbon dating of urban secondary carbonate deposit: site effect and implication for chronology

Edwige Pons-Branchu (1, 2) , Ingrid Caffy (1, 3) , Emmanuelle Delque-Količ (1, 3) , Jean-Pascal Dumoulin (1, 3) , Emmanuel Dumont (4) , Sarah Madikita (1) , Gilles Bultez (5) , Daniella Malnar (5) , Gael Monvoisin (6) , Jules Querleux (7) , Matthieu Fernandez (1, 8) , Nadine Tisnérat Laborde (1, 2) , Philippe Branchu (4)

1 LSCE - Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement [Gif-sur-Yvette]
2 GEOTRAC - Géochrononologie Traceurs Archéométrie
3 LMC14 - UMS 2572 - Laboratoire de mesure du carbone 14
4 Cerema - Centre d'Etudes et d'Expertise sur les Risques, l'Environnement, la Mobilité et l'Aménagement
5 GIP-CRCV - Centre de recherche du château de Versailles
6 GEOPS - Géosciences Paris Saclay
7 Inspection Générale des Carrières
8 HT2S - Histoire des technosciences en société

In urban environments, diachronic evolution of water quality can be reconstructed using geochemical analysis of urban secondary carbonate deposits (USCDs), from urban underground structures, similar to speleothems from natural caves. The use of the radiocarbon bomb peak to build their precise chronology was recently tested in two Paris-area urban sites (France). In this study, new samples from contrasted environments in the Paris region were sampled in order to test the sites’ effects on the radiocarbon signal recorded: under wood, under a fountain, in underground aqueducts, in the south and north of Paris. We compared the post-bomb atmospheric radiocarbon record with the one measured at the top of USCDs, and estimated the dead carbon proportion (DCP), between 0 and 40%. USCDs fed by water with a rapid transfer through thin soil (Versailles fountain) had the lowest DCP ( 14 C very close to atmospheric one). Highest DCP were found for USCD from deep underground quarry under urban wood, and intermediate ones for USCDs fed by the waters of perched aquifers. These data support the use of radiocarbon as chronometer for USCDs in contrasted urban contexts, and show that it can be used to determine carbon transport and sources, an important parameter for pollution reconstruction.

Mots clés: bomb peak; fountains; radiocarbon; secondary carbonate deposits; speleothems; urban undergrounds

Domaines: Sciences de l'environnement

Edwige Pons-Branchu, Ingrid Caffy, Emmanuelle Delque-Količ, Jean-Pascal Dumoulin, Emmanuel Dumont, et al.. Radiocarbon dating of urban secondary carbonate deposit: site effect and implication for chronology: Case study of Paris and Versailles Palace fountains. Radiocarbon, 2022, 64 (6), pp.1323-1332. ⟨10.1017/RDC.2022.78⟩. ⟨hal-03918048⟩