Guilderson Thomas P.

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Guilderson
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Thomas P.
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  • Article
    Bioturbation artifacts in zero-age sediments
    (American Geophysical Union, 2009-12-15) Keigwin, Lloyd D. ; Guilderson, Thomas P.
    Most seafloor sediments are dated with radiocarbon, and the sediment is assumed to be zero-age (modern) when the signal of atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons is present (Fraction modern (Fm) > 1). Using a simple mass balance, we show that even with Fm > 1, half of the planktonic foraminifera at the seafloor can be centuries old, because of bioturbation. This calculation, and data from four core sites in the western North Atlantic indicate that, first, during some part of the Little Ice Age (LIA) there may have been more Antarctic Bottom Water than today in the deep western North Atlantic. Alternatively, bioturbation may have introduced much older benthic foraminifera into surface sediments. Second, paleo-based warming of Sargasso Sea surface waters since the LIA must lag the actual warming because of bioturbation of older and colder foraminifera.
  • Article
    The Intcal20 Northern Hemisphere radiocarbon age calibration curve (0-55 cal kBP)
    (Cambridge University Press, 2020-08-12) Reimer, Paula J. ; Austin, William E. N. ; Bard, Edouard ; Bayliss, Alex ; Blackwell, Paul G. ; Bronk Ramsey, Christopher ; Butzin, Martin ; Cheng, Hai ; Edwards, R. Lawrence ; Friedrich, Michael ; Grootes, Pieter M. ; Guilderson, Thomas P. ; Hajdas, Irka ; Heaton, Timothy J. ; Hogg, Alan G. ; Hughen, Konrad A. ; Kromer, Bernd ; Manning, Sturt W. ; Muscheler, Raimund ; Palmer, Jonathan G. ; Pearson, Charlotte ; van der Plicht, Johannes ; Reimer, Ron W. ; Richards, David A. ; Scott, E. Marian ; Southon, John R. ; Turney, Christian S. M. ; Wacker, Lukas ; Adolphi, Florian ; Büntgen, Ulf ; Capano, Manuela ; Fahrni, Simon M. ; Fogtmann-Schulz, Alexandra ; Friedrich, Ronny ; Köhler, Peter ; Kudsk, Sabrina ; Miyake, Fusa ; Olsen, Jesper ; Reinig, Frederick ; Sakamoto, Minoru ; Sookdeo, Adam ; Talamo, Sahra
    Radiocarbon (14C) ages cannot provide absolutely dated chronologies for archaeological or paleoenvironmental studies directly but must be converted to calendar age equivalents using a calibration curve compensating for fluctuations in atmospheric 14C concentration. Although calibration curves are constructed from independently dated archives, they invariably require revision as new data become available and our understanding of the Earth system improves. In this volume the international 14C calibration curves for both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, as well as for the ocean surface layer, have been updated to include a wealth of new data and extended to 55,000 cal BP. Based on tree rings, IntCal20 now extends as a fully atmospheric record to ca. 13,900 cal BP. For the older part of the timescale, IntCal20 comprises statistically integrated evidence from floating tree-ring chronologies, lacustrine and marine sediments, speleothems, and corals. We utilized improved evaluation of the timescales and location variable 14C offsets from the atmosphere (reservoir age, dead carbon fraction) for each dataset. New statistical methods have refined the structure of the calibration curves while maintaining a robust treatment of uncertainties in the 14C ages, the calendar ages and other corrections. The inclusion of modeled marine reservoir ages derived from a three-dimensional ocean circulation model has allowed us to apply more appropriate reservoir corrections to the marine 14C data rather than the previous use of constant regional offsets from the atmosphere. Here we provide an overview of the new and revised datasets and the associated methods used for the construction of the IntCal20 curve and explore potential regional offsets for tree-ring data. We discuss the main differences with respect to the previous calibration curve, IntCal13, and some of the implications for archaeology and geosciences ranging from the recent past to the time of the extinction of the Neanderthals.
  • Article
    Global ocean radiocarbon programs
    (Cambridge University Press, 2022-04-21) McNichol, Ann P. ; Key, Robert M. ; Guilderson, Thomas P.
    The importance of studying the radiocarbon content of dissolved inorganic carbon (DI14C) in the oceans has been recognized for decades. Starting with the GEOSECS program in the 1970s, 14C sampling has been a part of most global survey programs. Early results were used to study air-sea gas exchange while the more recent results are critical for helping calibrate ocean general circulation models used to study the effects of climate change. Here we summarize the major programs and discuss some of the important insights the results are starting to provide.