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230Th-234U and 14C Ages Obtained by Mass Spectrometry on Corals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Edouard Bard ,
Maurice Arnold ,
Richard G. Fairbanks  and
Bruno Hamelin
Edouard Bard
Affiliation:
Laboratoires de Géosciences et d'Environnement, Université d'Aix-Marseille III, 13397 Marseille, France Centre des Faibles Radioactivités, CNRS-CEA, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964 USA
Maurice Arnold
Affiliation:
Centre des Faibles Radioactivités, CNRS-CEA, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
Richard G. Fairbanks
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964 USA
Bruno Hamelin
Affiliation:
Laboratoires de Géosciences et d'Environnement, Université d'Aix-Marseille III, 13397 Marseille, France Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University, Palisades, New York 10964 USA
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In 1988, Fairbanks conducted a drilling expedition off the south coast of Barbados to recover submerged corals contemporaneous with the last deglaciation. Core recovery was excellent and >30 different samples were dated by conventional β-counting techniques (Fairbanks 1989). At about the same time, we developed, at Lamont, the thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) technique to obtain precise U-Th ages (Edwards 1988), and to compare them with the 14C estimates measured on the same samples. A surprising result was that the discrepancy between 14C and U-Th ages increased through time to ca. 3000–3500 yr at ca. 15,000 14C BP (Bard et al. 1990a). Because the three youngest samples yielded U-Th ages in agreement with their calibrated 14C ages, we concluded initially that the TIMS U-Th determinations were not only precise, but also accurate, and that the 14C vs. U-Th data set could be used for a first-order 14C calibration.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , 1993 , pp. 191 - 199
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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