Application of oxygen isotopic dendrochronology to Earth Science: Its potentials and challenges

Dendrochronology has been mainly used in archaeology, but also applied to Earth Science, such as dating of past earthquake and volcanic eruption by analyzing of woods excavated from landslide or pyroclastic layers. However, there are several challenges in previous dendrochronology. (1) It is necessary to establish regional standard ring width chronology (master chronology) as long as possible for dating of woods from various periods. (2) Because climate sensitivity of tree-ring width depends on tree species, it is necessary to make master chronology for each species separately. (3) To fix accurate years of geological events, it is necessary to analyze buried woods with bark. In this presentation, I will show how oxygen isotope ratios in tree-ring cellulose can solve those challenges for applying dendrochronology to Earth Science.