Radiocarbon dating of deep-sea corals.

Deep-sea corals are a promising new archive of paleoclimate. Coupled radiocarbon and U-series dates allow (super 14) C to be used as a tracer of ocean circulation rate in the same manner as it is used in the modern ocean. Diagnetic alteration of coral skeletons on the seafloor requires a thorough cl...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Adkins, Jess F, Griffin, Shelia, Kashgarian, Michaele, Cheng, Hai, Druffel, E M, Boyle, E A, Edwards, R Lawrence, Shen, Chuan Chou
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Radiocarbon 2002
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Online Access:https://journals.uair.arizona.edu/index.php/radiocarbon/article/view/4127
Description
Summary:Deep-sea corals are a promising new archive of paleoclimate. Coupled radiocarbon and U-series dates allow (super 14) C to be used as a tracer of ocean circulation rate in the same manner as it is used in the modern ocean. Diagnetic alteration of coral skeletons on the seafloor requires a thorough cleaning of contaminating phases of carbon. In addition, 10% of the coral must be chemically leached prior to dissolution to remove adsorbed modern CO (sub 2) . A survey of modern samples from the full Delta (super 14) C gradient in the deep ocean demonstrates that the coralline CaCO (sub 3) records the radiocarbon value of the dissolved inorganic carbon.