New Study Improves Radiocarbon DatingA new study on sediments from Japan’s Lake Suigetsu is allowing
New Study Improves Radiocarbon DatingA new study on sediments from Japan’s Lake Suigetsu is allowing scientists to make more accurate radiocarbon dating measurements.The study, part of an international effort to study past climate and environmental change, led by Professor Takeshi Nakagawa of Newcastle University and Professor Christopher Ramsey of the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit, is using well preserved sediment cores from the lake that have been undisturbed for tens of thousands of years.Radiocarbon is continuously produced in the upper atmosphere; leading to near constant levels that plants and animals take in. When this plant/animal dies, the radiocarbon is no longer being absorbed and decays at a known rate, giving scientists the ability to date this organic material.The Lake Suigetsu sediments allowed the scientists to extend the record of atmospheric radiocarbon to 52,800 years, beating the previous tree ring dates of 12,593 years, by some 40,000 years.-AWSources/Further Readinghttp://esciencenews.com/articles/2012/10/18/time.capsule.japanese.lake.sediment.advances.radiocarbon.dating.older.objectshttp://phys.org/news/2012-10-time-capsule-japanese-lake-sediment-radiocarbon.htmlhttp://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/10/121018141834.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29Image Credit: Richard Staff -- source link
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