• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.33 no.3
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• pp.447-454
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• 1998

As a widespread tephra erupted 24 to 25 KA, Aira-Tn Ash, or AT, provides an invaluable datum for stratigraphic study of late Pleistocene in Northeast Asia. AT can be identified from their tonal characteristic and morphology (the so­called bubble-wail feature), as well as typical refractive index. First reported in 1983, its presence was confirmed from many palaeolithic deposits distributed throughout Korea. It forces us to reconsider the age of prominent Pleistocene deposits. At the famous archaeological site of Chon-gok-ni, presence of AT lends a firm support that sedimentation and deposition of lithic assemblage were in fact a late Upper Pleistocene event, thus, throwing a new question at archaeologists to explain why such archaic-looking tools were continued to be made. Discovery of AT at Chongdongjin is more surprising, since the coastal terrace has been regarded by many as an early Lower Pleistocene eustatic feature. It implies strongly that we need to devise a new scheme for Quaternary stratigraphy. In the absence of reliable datum and marker for Quaternary research, efforts must be given to search for and identify AT and other widespread tephras.