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Radiocarbon Calibration by Means of Mass Spectrometric 230Th/234U and 14C Ages of Corals: An Updated Database Including Samples from Barbados, Mururoa and Tahiti

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

Edouard Bard
Affiliation:
CEREGE, Université d'Aix-Marseille III, CNRS UMR-6536, Europôle de l'Arbois, BP80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence cdx 4, France
Maurice Arnold
Affiliation:
Centre des Faibles Radioactivités, CNRS-CEA, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cdx, France
Bruno Hamelin
Affiliation:
CEREGE, Université d'Aix-Marseille III, CNRS UMR-6536, Europôle de l'Arbois, BP80, 13545 Aix-en-Provence cdx 4, France
Nadine Tisnerat-Laborde
Affiliation:
Centre des Faibles Radioactivités, CNRS-CEA, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette cdx, France
Guy Cabioch
Affiliation:
ORSTOM, Laboratoire de Géodynamique, Villefranche-sur-Mer, France
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Abstract

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As first shown by Bard et al. (1990a), high-precision 230Th-234U ages can be used successfully to calibrate the radiocarbon time scale beyond the high-precision tree-ring calibration that now reaches 11,900 cal bp (Kromer and Spurk 1998). Using mass spectrometric techniques, we measured 14C and 230Th ages on new samples collected from boreholes drilled off the islands of Tahiti and Mururoa (French Polynesia) in order to complement the database previously obtained on Barbados corals (Bard et al. 1990a, 1993).

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Articles
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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