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Accelerator-Measured 14C Activity in Tree Rings From the Vicinity of the First Atomic Bomb Test

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

S W Leavitt  and
Austin Long
S W Leavitt
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Wisconsin-Parkside Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141-2000
Austin Long
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of Wisconsin-Parkside Kenosha, Wisconsin 53141-2000
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Abstract

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Detonation of the first fission bomb at White Sands, New Mexico, on July 16, 1945, produced a tremendous neutron flux capable of creating tritium and radiocarbon byproducts. We sampled a 115-year-old pinyon (Pinus edulis) 10km east of the Trinity test site to determine 14C evidence of this event. The most likely mechanism for this enrichment in the 1945 tree ring would be fixation of 14CO2 produced at the blast site and carried with the fallout cloud over the pinyon site. Analysis of cellulose of the 1944 and 1945 rings shows δ13C values of −19.9 and −19.5, respectively, and 14C activity (fraction of modern uncorrected for δ13C) as 0.991 ± .005 and 0.991 ± .006, respectively. It is likely that the duration and/or concentration of the 14CO2 exposure was not sufficient to increase 14C activity expected for that year.

Type
III. Global 14C Variations
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 31 , Issue 3: June 20-25, 1988 Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia , 1989 , pp. 762 - 765
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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