The Unreliability of 14 C Dates Obtained from Buried Sandy Podzols

Abstract

A test for the reliability of 14 C dating of soil was made at two sites with buried, autochthonous, and in parts, allochthonous sandy podzols, dated either litho- and pedostratigraphically or palynologically. The differences between the age ranges obtained and the apparent mean residence times (AMRT) calculated from the 14 C content of alkaline extracts from fossil soil layers and horizons lean in organic matter exceed 10,000 years, corresponding to a maximum contamination with recent carbon of up to 50 %. The use of correction factors for the apparent mean residence times of podzols is not valid, not even for climate zones, because these values have a broad scatter for the same profile.