Towards radiocarbon dating of ice cores

Instruments and Methods Towards radiocarbon dating of ice cores

A recently developed dating method for glacier ice, based on the analysis of radiocarbon in carbonaceous aerosol particles, is thoroughly investigated. We discuss the potential of this method to achieve a reliable dating using examples from a midand a low-latitude ice core. Two series of samples from Colle Gnifetti (4450ma.s.l., Swiss Alps) and Nevado Illimani (6300ma.s.l., Bolivian Andes) demo...

Radiocarbon Dating.

Radiocarbon Dating of Ground Water

Radiocarbon dating of ground water is used in combination with the primary measurements of classical hydrological and chemical analyses. Radiocarbon dating will produce the best results when it involves multiple measurements or sequential sampling. The most useful data come from these comparisons and not from absolute ages. In the case of multiple measurements, the apparent ages of the ground w...

A Radiocarbon Perspective on Greenland Ice-core Chronologies: Can We Use Ice Cores for 14c Calibration?

Some of the most valuable paleoclimate archives yet recovered are the multi-proxy records from the Greenland GISP2 and GRIP ice cores. The crucial importance of these data arises in part from the strong correlations that exist between the Greenland δ18O records and isotopic or other proxies in numerous other Northern Hemisphere paleoclimate sequences. These correlations could, in principle, all...

Fifty Years of Radiocarbon Dating

The history of radiocarbon dating through the 20th century is presented, focusing on the work of Willard F. Libby, who introduced radiocarbon dating in 1949, and its application during the following 50 years. Topics include an explanation of radiocarbon dating, by which the age of organic matter can be determined; difficulties Libby encountered in developing processes for accurate measurements;...