Physics
Scientific paper
May 1959
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1959gecoa..16...15b&link_type=abstract
Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, vol. 16, Issue 1-3, pp.15-38
Physics
9
Scientific paper
The processes controlling the radiocarbon concentration in the dissolved bicarbonate of fresh-water systems have been investigated in order to allow more precise estimates to be made of the initial C 14 / C 12 ratio in materials formed in such systems in the past. Two factors control this ratio: (a) the relative amounts of silicate and carbonate minerals dissolved by the system and (b) the rate of exchange of CO 2 across the water-air interface. Measurements on samples collected from the Great Basin yield information on both of these factors. As would be expected, the initial C 14 / C 12 ratio of the bicarbonate in streams flowing over igneous rocks is close to that in atmospheric CO 2 . The CO 2 exchange rates across the surfaces of Mono, Walker, Pyramid and Great Salt Lakes are similar. The results suggest that the exchange rate for lakes is within the range of from 2 to 15 moles/m 2 per year. These values are consistent with published estimates for the average exchange rate for the oceans. Whereas these data allow the C 14 / C 12 ratio in samples formed in ancient Lake Lahonton to be estimated within ±5 per cent, the error for random fresh-water samples is probably as great as ±20 per cent. Thus it appears that whereas considerable uncertainty must be attached to radiocarbon ages on random fresh-water materials, where detailed studies such as the above are made the uncertainty can be reduced to the level of the laboratory error.
Broecker Wallace S.
Walton Andrew
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