The Marine Radiocarbon Reservoir Effect in Tomales Bay, California

This paper examines the marine reservoir effect for Tomales Bay, a 25.5-km-long tidal estuary along the northern coast of California. We determined the regional ∆R through radiocarbon (14C) measurements of pre-1950 shells from a museum collection as well as archaeologically recovered shell samples f...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inRadiocarbon Vol. 60; no. 3; pp. 963 - 974
Main Authors Panich, Lee M, Schneider, Tsim D, Engel, Paul
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.06.2018
Subjects
Age
Archaeology
Carbon 14
Carbon dating
Charcoal
Climate change
Coasts
Creeks & streams
Estuaries
Historic buildings & sites
Historic sites
Museums
Precipitation
Railway construction
San Andreas Fault
Marin County California
Tomales Bay
United States > US
Pacific Ocean
California
Baja California Mexico
North America
radiocarbon
marine radiocarbon reservoir effect
Tomales Bay
California
coastal
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Summary:This paper examines the marine reservoir effect for Tomales Bay, a 25.5-km-long tidal estuary along the northern coast of California. We determined the regional ∆R through radiocarbon (14C) measurements of pre-1950 shells from a museum collection as well as archaeologically recovered shell samples from a historical railroad grade of known construction date. These results are compared against four sets of paired shell and bone samples from two local archaeological sites. Our results indicate little spatial variation along the inner bay, but the proposed ∆R value is lower than those previously reported for nearby areas along the Pacific Coast. We also note potential variability in regional ∆R of approximately 200 14C years for the late Holocene, and comparison with an older paired bone and shell sample points toward more significant temporal variation earlier in time.
ISSN:0033-8222
1945-5755
DOI:10.1017/RDC.2018.26