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Radiocarbon Concentration in the Atmosphere: 8000-Year Record of Variations in Tree Rings: First Results of a USA Workshop

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Jeffrey Klein
Affiliation:
Department of Physics and Radiocarbon Laboratory, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104.
Juan Carlos Lerman
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Paul E Damon
Affiliation:
Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721
Timothy Linick
Affiliation:
Mt Soledad Radiocarbon Laboratory, University of California, San Diego, California 92037
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Abstract

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Radiocarbon dates calculated from the ratio of modern carbon-14 activity and sample activity and the half-life of carbon-14 need to be calibrated to compensate for temporal variations in the concentration of carbon-14 in the atmosphere. Development of a suitable calibration scheme has been an ongoing process of the last twenty years, ever since the discovery of variations in historical times of the atmospheric radiocarbon content which parallel climatic and solar phenomena (de Vries, 1958; 1959) and the recent depletion due to industrial effects (Suess, 1955).

Type
Calibration and Data Reporting
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science

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