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The Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effect in Tomales Bay, California

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 March 2018

Lee M Panich ,
Tsim D Schneider  and
Paul Engel
Lee M Panich*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, California 95053USA
Tsim D Schneider
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Cruz, 1156 High StreetSanta Cruz, California 95064USA
Paul Engel
Affiliation:
Point Reyes National Seashore, 1 Bear Valley Road, Point Reyes Station, California 94956USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This paper examines the marine reservoir effect for Tomales Bay, a 25.5-km-long tidal estuary along the northern coast of California. We determined the regional ∆R through radiocarbon (14C) measurements of pre-1950 shells from a museum collection as well as archaeologically recovered shell samples from a historical railroad grade of known construction date. These results are compared against four sets of paired shell and bone samples from two local archaeological sites. Our results indicate little spatial variation along the inner bay, but the proposed ∆R value is lower than those previously reported for nearby areas along the Pacific Coast. We also note potential variability in regional ∆R of approximately 200 14C years for the late Holocene, and comparison with an older paired bone and shell sample points toward more significant temporal variation earlier in time.

Keywords

Californiacoastalmarine radiocarbon reservoir effectradiocarbonTomales Bay
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 60 , Issue 3 , June 2018 , pp. 963 - 974
Copyright
© 2018 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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