A marine reservoir correction value (ΔR) for the palauan archipelago: Environmental and oceanographic considerations

Fiona Petchey; Geoffrey Clark

doi:10.1080/15564890903155935

A marine reservoir correction value (ΔR) for the palauan archipelago: Environmental and oceanographic considerations

Fiona Petchey^*, Geoffrey Clark

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper investigates the marine reservoir effect (ΔR) around Palau with specific focus on environmental and oceanographic causes of variation. Two new ΔR values of known-age, pre-AD 1950 Scaridae sp. fish bone from the lagoon, are compared to extant marine shell values from the western branch of the North Pacific Gyre. This review indicates thata ΔRvalueof75±68¹⁴ Cyrs for theoceanimmediatelysurrounding Palau best fits the available evidence, while a value of -52 ± 22 ¹⁴C yrs should be used for the southwest lagoon. Comparison of marine and charcoal samples from archaeological deposits on Ulong Island lend support to this regional open ocean marine reservoir value, but additional analysis is required to assess the stability of this value around the archipelago and over time. The analysis highlights that careful, informed selection of radiocarbon samples is essential to produce tight radiocarbon chronologies for Pacific archaeological sites.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	236-252
Number of pages	17
Journal	Journal of Island and Coastal Archaeology
Volume	5
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1080/15564890903155935
Publication status	Published - 2010

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title = "A marine reservoir correction value (ΔR) for the palauan archipelago: Environmental and oceanographic considerations",

abstract = "This paper investigates the marine reservoir effect (ΔR) around Palau with specific focus on environmental and oceanographic causes of variation. Two new ΔR values of known-age, pre-AD 1950 Scaridae sp. fish bone from the lagoon, are compared to extant marine shell values from the western branch of the North Pacific Gyre. This review indicates thata ΔRvalueof75±6814 Cyrs for theoceanimmediatelysurrounding Palau best fits the available evidence, while a value of -52 ± 22 14C yrs should be used for the southwest lagoon. Comparison of marine and charcoal samples from archaeological deposits on Ulong Island lend support to this regional open ocean marine reservoir value, but additional analysis is required to assess the stability of this value around the archipelago and over time. The analysis highlights that careful, informed selection of radiocarbon samples is essential to produce tight radiocarbon chronologies for Pacific archaeological sites.",

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N2 - This paper investigates the marine reservoir effect (ΔR) around Palau with specific focus on environmental and oceanographic causes of variation. Two new ΔR values of known-age, pre-AD 1950 Scaridae sp. fish bone from the lagoon, are compared to extant marine shell values from the western branch of the North Pacific Gyre. This review indicates thata ΔRvalueof75±6814 Cyrs for theoceanimmediatelysurrounding Palau best fits the available evidence, while a value of -52 ± 22 14C yrs should be used for the southwest lagoon. Comparison of marine and charcoal samples from archaeological deposits on Ulong Island lend support to this regional open ocean marine reservoir value, but additional analysis is required to assess the stability of this value around the archipelago and over time. The analysis highlights that careful, informed selection of radiocarbon samples is essential to produce tight radiocarbon chronologies for Pacific archaeological sites.

AB - This paper investigates the marine reservoir effect (ΔR) around Palau with specific focus on environmental and oceanographic causes of variation. Two new ΔR values of known-age, pre-AD 1950 Scaridae sp. fish bone from the lagoon, are compared to extant marine shell values from the western branch of the North Pacific Gyre. This review indicates thata ΔRvalueof75±6814 Cyrs for theoceanimmediatelysurrounding Palau best fits the available evidence, while a value of -52 ± 22 14C yrs should be used for the southwest lagoon. Comparison of marine and charcoal samples from archaeological deposits on Ulong Island lend support to this regional open ocean marine reservoir value, but additional analysis is required to assess the stability of this value around the archipelago and over time. The analysis highlights that careful, informed selection of radiocarbon samples is essential to produce tight radiocarbon chronologies for Pacific archaeological sites.

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A marine reservoir correction value (ΔR) for the palauan archipelago: Environmental and oceanographic considerations

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