Can <i>in situ</i> cosmogenic ¹⁴C be used to assess the influence of clast recycling on exposure dating of ice retreat in Antarctica?

Cosmogenic nuclide exposure dating of glacial clasts is becoming a common and robust method for reconstructing the history of glaciers and ice sheets. In Antarctica, however, many samples exhibit cosmogenic nuclide ‘inheritance’ as a result of sediment recycling and exposure to cosmic radiation during previous ice free periods. In-situ cosmogenic &lt;sup&gt;14&lt;/sup&gt;C, in combination with longer lived nuclides such as &lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be, can be used to detect inheritance because the relatively short half-life of &lt;sup&gt;14&lt;/sup&gt;C means that in-situ 14C acquired in exposure during previous interglacials decays away while the sample locality is covered by ice during the subsequent glacial. Measurements of in-situ &lt;sup&gt;14&lt;/sup&gt;C in clasts from the last deglaciation of the Framnes Mountains in East Antarctica provide deglaciation ages that are concordant with existing &lt;sup&gt;26&lt;/sup&gt;Al and &lt;sup&gt;10&lt;/sup&gt;Be ages, suggesting that in this area, the younger population of erratics contain limited inheritance