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14C Calibration in the Southern Hemisphere and the Date of the Last Taupo Eruption: Evidence from Tree-Ring Sequences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

R. J. Sparks ,
W. H. Melhuish ,
J.W. A. McKee ,
John Ogden ,
J. G. Palmer  and
B. P. J. Molloy
R. J. Sparks
Affiliation:
Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Ltd., P.O. Box 31–312, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
W. H. Melhuish
Affiliation:
Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Ltd., P.O. Box 31–312, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
J.W. A. McKee
Affiliation:
Rafter Radiocarbon Laboratory, Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Ltd., P.O. Box 31–312, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
John Ogden
Affiliation:
School of Environmental and Marine Science, Tamaki Campus, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand
J. G. Palmer
Affiliation:
Department of Plant Science, Lincoln University, P.O. Box 84, Lincoln, New Zealand
B. P. J. Molloy
Affiliation:
Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, P.O. Box 69, Lincoln, New Zealand
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Abstract

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Tree rings from a section of Prumnopitys taxifolia (matai) covering the period ad 1335–1745 have been radiocarbon dated and used to generate a 14C calibration curve for southern hemisphere wood. Comparison of this curve with calibration data for northern hemisphere wood does not show a systematic difference between 14C ages measured in the northern and southern hemispheres. A floating chronology covering 270 yr and terminating at the last Taupo (New Zealand) eruption, derived from a sequence of 10-yr samples of tree rings from Phyllocladus trichomanoides (celery pine, or tanekaha), is also consistent with the absence of a systematic north-south difference, and together with the matai data, fixes the date of the Taupo eruption at ad 232 ± 15.

Type
I. 14C in the Reconstruction of Past Environments
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , 1995 , pp. 155 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © the Department of Geosciences, The University of Arizona 

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