RADIOCARBON CHRONOLOGY OF NAMAQUALAND MUDBELT SEDIMENTS - PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS

This paper presents the first radiocarbon-dated chronology of the mudb elt which occupies the continental shelf around southern Africa. The r esults confirm the Holocene age of the superficial deposits and sugges t that laminations in the sediments of the mudbelt off the Orange Rive r mouth are recent and terrestrially derived. Two anomalies are, howev er, apparent in the chronology. First, the surface sediments do not pr ovide recent or contemporary radiocarbon ages, as would be expected. S econd, the laminated sediments yield ages which are not in stratigraph ic sequence and appear to be clustered around the period 1000 to 1700 sri Possible reasons for these anomalies are discussed together with a lternative means of deriving a more accurate and reliable chronology f or the mudbelt sediments.