Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-vfjqv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T08:30:25.431Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Radiocarbon Reservoir Ages in the Gulf of California: Roles of Upwelling and Flow from the Colorado River

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Glenn A. Goodfriend  and
Karl W. Flessa
Glenn A. Goodfriend
Affiliation:
Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington, 5251 Broad Branch Rd., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20015 USA
Karl W. Flessa
Affiliation:
Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 USA
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

We measured apparent radiocarbon ages of live-collected, pre-bomb mollusk shells from the northern and central Gulf of California to determine the source of the reservoir ages and the reservoir age correction offsets for calibrating 14C dates of fossil samples. Reservoir ages average 860 yr in the northern Gulf and 725 yr in the central Gulf. The corresponding ∆R values (the deviation from typical worldwide values) are 540 yr and 395 yr, respectively, with variabilities (SD) of 90 and 110 yr. This variability significantly limits the precision of calibrated 14C ages. The apparent 14C age of Colorado River water (as measured in a freshwater mussel, collected in the 1890s, before diversion of river flow) is not sufficiently high (1420 yr) to account for the high reservoir ages in the Gulf. The lack of a relation between the stable isotope composition of Gulf mollusks and their reservoir ages is further evidence that the Colorado River does not make a significant contribution to Gulf reservoir ages. Upwelling of old, deep Pacific-derived water appears to be the cause of the large reservoir ages.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , 1997 , pp. 139 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

References

Berger, R., Taylor, R. E. and Libby, W. F. 1966 Radiocarbon content of marine shells from the California and Mexican west coast. Science 153: 864–866.Google Scholar
Bien, G. S., Rakestraw, N. W. and Suess, H. E. 1963 Radiocarbon dating of deep water of the Pacific and Indian Ocean. Bulletin de l'Institut Océanographique de Monaco 61(1278): 1–16.Google Scholar
Bouey, P. D. and Basgall, M. E. 1991 Archaeological patterns along the south central coast, Point Piedras Blancas, San Luis Obispo County, California: Archaeological test evaluation of sites CA-SLO-264, SLO-266, SLO-267, SLO-268, SLO-1226, and SLO-1227. California Dept. of Transportation, rep. no. 05-SLO-1. Reprint by Coyote Press, Salinas, California.Google Scholar
Druffel, E. M. 1987 Bomb radiocarbon in the Pacific: Annual and seasonal timescale variations. Journal of Marine Research 45: 667–698.Google Scholar
Druffel, E. R. M. 1997 Post-bomb radiocarbon records of surface corals from the tropical Atlantic Ocean. Radiocarbon 38: 563–572.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flessa, K. W., Cutler, A. H. and Meldahl, K. H. 1993 Time and taphonomy: Quantitative estimates of time-averaging and stratigraphic disorder in a shallow marine habitat. Paleobiology 19: 266–286.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fradkin, P. L. 1984 A River No More: The Colorado River and the West . Tucson, University of Arizona Press: 360 p.Google Scholar
Heier-Nielsen, S., Heinemeier, J., Nielsen, H. L and Rud, N. 1995 Recent reservoir ages for Danish fjords and marine waters. Radiocarbon 37: 875–882.Google Scholar
Hubbs, C. L., Bien, G. S. and Suess, H. E. 1965 La Jolla natural radiocarbon measurements IV. Radiocarbon 7: 66–117.Google Scholar
Ingram, B. L. and Southon, J. R. 1997 Reservoir ages in eastern Pacific coastal and estuarine waters. Radiocarbon 38(3): 573–582.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Keith, M. L., Anderson, G. M., and Eichler, R. 1964 Carbon and oxygen isotopic composition of mollusk shells from marine and fresh-water environments. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 28: 1757–1786.Google Scholar
Little, E. A. 1993 Radiocarbon age calibration at archaeological sites of coastal Massachusetts and vicinity. Journal of Archaeological Science 20: 457–471.Google Scholar
Mangerud, J. and Gulliksen, S. 1975 Apparent radiocarbon ages of recent marine shells from Norway, Spitsbergen, and Arctic Canada. Quaternary Research 5: 263–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Robinson, S. W. and Thompson, G. 1981 Radiocarbon corrections for marine shell dates with application to southern Pacific Northwest Coast prehistory. Syesis 14: 45–57.Google Scholar
Roden, G. I. 1964 Oceanographic aspects of Gulf of California. In van Andel, T. H. and Shor, G. G. Jr., eds., Marine Geology of the Gulf of California . Tulsa, American Association of Petroleum Geologists: 30–58.Google Scholar
Southon, J. R. and Baumgartner, T. A. 1996 A long-term record of upwelling from the Santa Barbara Basin, southern California. Abstracts of the 7th International AMS Conference. Radiocarbon 38(1): 114.Google Scholar
Steinbeck, J. 1986 The Log from the Sea of Cortez . 1951. Reprint, New York, Penguin Books: 282 p.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. and Becker, B. 1993 High-precision decadal calibration of the radiocarbon time scale, ad 1950–6000 bc. In Stuiver, M., Long, A. and Kra, R. S., eds., Calibration 1993. Radiocarbon 35(1): 35–65.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. and Braziunas, T. F. 1993 Modeling atmospheric 14C influences and 14C ages of marine samples to 10,000 bc. In Stuiver, M., Long, A. and Kra, R. S., eds., Calibration 1993. Radiocarbon 35(1): 137–189.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. and Reimer, P. J. 1993 Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. In Stuiver, M., Long, A. and Kra, R. S., eds., Calibration 1993. Radiocarbon 35(1): 215–230.Google Scholar
Stuiver, M. Pearson, G. W. and Braziunas, T. F. 1986 Radiocarbon age calibration of marine samples back to 9000 cal yr bp. In Stuiver, M. and Kra, R. S., eds., Proceedings of the 12th International 14C Conference, Radiocarbon 28(2B): 980–1021.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. E. and Berger, R. 1967 Radiocarbon content of marine shells from the Pacific coasts of Central and South America. Science 158: 1180–1182.Google Scholar
Thompson, R. W. 1968 Tidal Flat Sedimentation on the Colorado River Delta, Northwestern Gulf of California . Geological Society of America Memoir 107. Boulder, Colorado, Geological Society of America: 133 p.Google Scholar
Weidman, C. R. and Jones, G. A. 1993 A shell-derived time history of bomb 14C on Georges Bank and its Labrador Sea implications. Journal of Geophysical Research 98(C8): 14,577–14,588.CrossRefGoogle Scholar