Radiocarbon dating of marine carbonates

Abstract

Radiocarbon dating has widely been used to reconstruct chronologies for marine carbonates for the past 50 ka for studies in archaeology, earth sciences, paleoceanography, marine ecology, and Quaternary climate change. For example, radiocarbon-dated corals have been used to investigate changes in sea surface temperature and salinity, and variations in El Niño-Southern Oscillation through time. Radiocarbon dates on boring bivalves occurring in dislocated boulders and on mollusk shells associated with gravel deposits along coast lines have also been employed to constrain the timing of tsunami events. In addition, radiocarbon dating of cultural shells has been used for the study of human occupation and colonization of Pacific atolls. With the advent of AMS radiocarbon dating on micro-gram-sized samples, some radiocarbon applications are available (e.g., validation of fish ages by14C analysis of fish otoliths) or become more reliable (e.g.,14C-based chronologies for the study of reef island evolution). However, the dietary and habitat preferences of shellfish, the lagoonal and estuarine effects, and possible temporal variations in the marine reservoir effect should be carefully considered when dating marine samples.