Radiocarbon Dating Accuracy To Improve After Discovery Of 'Perfect' Sediment Cores In Japanese Lake

The radiocarbon dating accuracy will greatly improve after researchers discovered a new benchmark for the dating of organic materials - sediment cores in Japan's Lake Suigetsu

Radiocarbon dating readings will be more accurate henceforth thanks to a new discovery made by researchers. A new benchmark for the dating of organic materials - sediment cores in Japan's Lake Suigets has been discovered.

A statement released by the University explained how the researchers went about their findings:

"To construct a radiocarbon record from Lake Suigetsu, professor Ramsey and his colleagues measured radiocarbon from terrestrial plant fragments spaced throughout the core. The research team also counted the light and dark layers throughout the glacial period to place the radiocarbon measurements in time. Many of the layers were too fine to be distinguished by the naked eye, so the researchers used a microscope, as well as a method called X-ray fluorescence that identifies chemical changes along the core."

"In most cases the radiocarbon levels deduced from marine and other records have not been too far wrong. However, having a truly terrestrial record gives us better resolution and confidence in radiocarbon dating," professor Ramsey said. "It also allows us to look at the differences between the atmosphere and oceans, and study the implications for our understanding of the marine environment as part of the global carbon cycle."

"This record will not result in major revisions of dates. But, for example in prehistoric archaeology, there will be small shifts in chronology in the order of hundreds of years," professor Ramsey said. "Such changes can be very significant when you are trying to examine human responses to climate that are often dated by other methods, such as through layer counting from the Greenland ice cores. For the first time we have a more accurate calibrated time-scale, which will allow us to answer questions in archaeology that we have not had the resolution to address before."