Recycling of clastics in coastal areas inferred from quantitative analysis of reworked radiocarbon samples

Studies of the evolution of coastal lowlands since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) typically ignore radiocarbon data from sediment samples that have undergone reworking. However, these samples contain information on their sediment sources and the timing of their redeposition. We analyzed 738 radiocarbon dates obtained from shell and plant material in samples of post-LGM coastal sediment from north of Tokyo Bay, Japan. Of these samples, 245 (33%) were reworked. Furthermore, the percentage of reworked samples and their average age offsets increased with the depth of the water environment (terrestrial, 15% and 360 ± 250 years, respectively; intertidal, 26% and 470 ± 620 years; subtidal, 39% and 550 ± 630 years). Taking these radiocarbon samples as a proxy for clastic material, our results imply that channel erosion accounted for relatively little clastic removal in the terrestrial and intertidal environments over short timescales, whereas ~ 40% of clastics were removed by storm winnowing and transported in stepwise fashion to deeper water over longer timescales and ~ 60% in the subtidal environment were transported by floods directly from river mouths. These findings imply that radiocarbon ages from reworked samples can be used to quantify clastic recycling processes and their history in coastal areas.