Correcting for nucleogenic ^{36}Cl in cosmogenic ^{36}Cl dating of volcanic rocks from the Erciyes volcano, Central Turkey

Many radiometric methods are suitable for dating lava flows, but none is reliable for routine dating of lava flows younger than 10 ky. The cosmogenic ^{36}Cl method seems promising because it can be applied to any type of rock and laboratory and analytical work is easy and fast. But low cosmogenic ^{36}Cl inventory (after short exposure duration), combined with possible large non-cosmogenic component, makes this technique difficult to apply in a routine fashion. We applied the ^{36}Cl method to date a lava flow and the 14C technique to date the associated ash flow from the Erciyes (Argaeus) volcano, central Turkey. The average of three cosmogenic ^{36}Cl ages is 7.3 \mp 0.5 ky and the average of two radiocarbon ages is 9.5 \mp 0.3 ky (calibrated using Calib 5.0). The difference could be due to the overestimation of the calculated nucleogenic ^{36}Cl, which makes up almost one-third of the measured ^{36}Cl. If the nucleogenic component were set to zero, the average ^{36}Cl age would be 10.3 \mp 0.2 ky. Thus, the ^{36}Cl age should be in the range between 7.3 ky and 10.2 ky, which includes the 14C age near the upper end of the interval. Under the assumption that the 14C age is correct and that the nucleogenic ^{36}Cl has reached a secular equilibrium with the magma, the nucleogenic ^{36}Cl needed to reconcile the ^{36}Cl and 14C ages is only about one-fifth of that previously calculated. In order to investigate this disparity of ages and possible calculating errors of nucleogenic ^{36}Cl, we are analyzing rock samples from where we can directly measure nucleogenic component of ^{36}Cl. This work is important for developing better ways to estimate the nucleogenic ^{36}Cl, which will improve the accuracy of ^{36}Cl dating of young volcanic rocks.