Poster: Moa as monitors of volcanogenic environment change

Richard N. Holdaway

Palaecol Research Ltd, P.O. Box 16 569, Hornby, Christchurch 8042, New Zealand
turnagra@gmail.com

Sequences of radiocarbon ages for habitat-specific moa taxa can reveal local environment change driven by single eruptions and during eruption sequences. Examples are given from radiocarbon ages for moa in deposits on the lower Whanganui River and in the Waitomo karst. These show that high resolution radiocarbon ages for key moa taxa can provide eruption dates that are unbiased by geologic carbon and other issues of contamination that arise in the conventional eruption dating of volcanic tephras in peat sequences.