Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-fbnjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-18T12:13:41.314Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Anomalous Radiocarbon Ages from a Holocene Detrital Organic Lens in Alaska and their Implications for Radiocarbon Dating and Paleoenvironmental Reconstructions in the Arctic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert E. Nelson ,
L. David Carter  and
Stephen W. Robinson
Robert E. Nelson
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, Colby College, Waterville, Maine 04901-4799
L. David Carter
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 4200 University Drive, Anchorage, Alaska, 99508-4667
Stephen W. Robinson
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey, 345 Middlefield Road, Menlo Park, California, 94025
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Eleven radiocarbon age determinations clearly show that a lens of Holocene fluvial organic debris on the Alaskan Arctic Coastal Plain contains mostly pre-Holocene organic material. Radio-carbon ages of identified plant macrofossils indicate the material was deposited about 9000 to 9500 yr B.P. Radiocarbon analyses of bulk samples from this deposit, however, range from 13,300 to 30,300 yr B.P. Most of the old organic matter seems to be in the smaller size fractions in the deposit, particularly in the fraction between 0.25 and 0.5 mm, but all size fractions are contaminated. Particular caution must be exercised in submitting bulk samples for radiocarbon dating from areas where conditions favor redeposition of isotopically “dead” carbon.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , January 1988 , pp. 66 - 71
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1983 Baker, V.R., Pickup, G., Polach, H.A., Desert palaeofloods in central Australia. Nature (London). 301 502-504.Google Scholar
1967 Barnes, F.F., Coal resources of the Cape Lisburne-Colville River Region, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 1242-E. .Google Scholar
1984 Betancourt, J.L., Long, A., Donahue, D.J., Jull, A.J.T., Zabel, T.H., Pre-Columbian age for North American Corispermum L. (Chenopodiaceae) confirmed by accelerator radiocarbon dating. Nature (London). 311 653-655.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1978 Blong, R.J., Gillespie, R., Fluvially transported charcoal gives erroneous 14/C ages for recent deposits. Nature (London). 271 739-741.Google Scholar
1966 Brosge, W.P., Whittington, C.L., Geology of the Umiat-Maybe Creek Region, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 303-H. .Google Scholar
1984 Carter, L.D., Forester, R.M., Nelson, R.E., Mid-Wisconsin through early Holocene changes in seasonal climate in northern Alaska. Program and Abstracts, 8th Biennial Meeting. American Quaternary Association20-22.Google Scholar
1982 Clayton, L., Moran, S.R., Chronology of Late Wisconsinan glaciation in middle North America. Quaternary Science Reviews. 1 55-82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1981 Hopkins, D.M., Smith, P.A., Matthews, J.V. Jr., Dated wood from Alaska and the Yukon: Implications for forest refugia in Beringia. Quaternary Research. 15 217-249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1980 Murray, D.F., Balsam poplar in Arctic Alaska. Canadian Journal of Anthropology. 1 29-32.Google Scholar
1980 Namburdiri, E.M.V., Teller, J.T., Last, W.M., Pre-Quaternary microfossils: A guide to errors in radiocarbon dating. Geology. 8 123-126.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1978 Nelson, R.E., Final report on pollen from borehole PB-2. Appendix IV-A to: Offshore perma-frost studies, Beaufort Sea, by D. M. Hopkins and R. W. Hartz. Environmental Assessment of the Alaskan Continental Shelf, Annual Reports of Principal Investigators for the Year Ending March, 1978. Vol. XVI Outer Continental Shelf Environmental Assessment Program, Boulder, CO, 102-111, Hazards.Google Scholar
1982 Nelson, R.E., Late Quaternary Environments of the Western Arctic Slope of Alaska. Ph.D. dissertation. University of Washington, Seattle.Google Scholar
1987 Nelson, R.E., Carter, L.D., Paleoenvironmental analysis of insects and extralimital Populus from an early Holocene site on the Arctic slope of Alaska. Arctic and Alpine Research. 19 230-241.Google Scholar
1974 Olsson, I.U., Some problems in connection with the evaluation of C14 dates. Geologiska Foreningens i Stockholm Forhandlingar. 96 311-320.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
1983 Schell, D.M., Carbon-13 and Carbon-14 abundances in Alaskan aquatic organisms: Delayed production from peat in arctic food webs. Science. 219 1068-1071.Google Scholar
1987 Tankersley, K.B., Munson, C.A., Smith, D., Recognition of bituminous coal fragments in radiocarbon samples. American Antiquity. 52 313-330.Google Scholar
1965 Wahrhaftig, C., Physiographic divisions of Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 482. .Google Scholar