The Most Important Records For Dating Old Objects Were Just Found In A Japanese Lake

TBI ^ | 10-18-2012 | Dina Spector

[blam]

The Most Important Records For Dating Old Objects Were Just Found In A Japanese Lake

Dina Spector
Oct. 18, 2012, 2:01 PM

Lake Suigetsu in Japan

For tens of thousands of years, leaf and twig fossils have remained undisturbed at the bottom of Lake Suigetsu in Japan.

By drilling into well-preserved layers of sediment and extracting cores containing those leaves and twigs, researchers have obtained some of the most accurate records of radiocarbon in the atmosphere yet.

These records give a precise estimation of how much radioactive carbon there was in the atmosphere in any given year, and could help increase the accuracy of how we estimate the age of fossils.

Radiocarbon, or Carbon 14, is what archaeologists and anthropologists use to figure out how old things are.

Carbon 14 is naturally produced in the atmosphere. Because carbon is an integral part of every living thing, all organisms, like animals and plants, take in carbon while they are alive. So, when they die, they contain the same amount of Carbon 14 as their environment.

Scientists know that Carbon 14 has a half-life of 5,730 years, meaning that in 5,730 years, half of the Carbon 14 in a sample will turn into normal, non-radioactive carbon.

24,700 year-old-leaf dated by radiocarbon

So, long after an organism dies, scientists can compare the amount of Carbon 14 in a sample to records of atmospheric radiocarbon in sediments of different ages.

They can then use this information to calculate how long ago something like a tree or a human stopped taking in radioactive carbon, which indicates when they stopped living. This kind of data can be used to, for example, estimate when modern humans arrived in Europe.

(snip)

[blam]

The research appears in the October 19 issue of the journal Science.

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[JoeProBono]

[dagogo redux]

Dating old objects?

Clinton: “You know, if I were a single man, I might ask that mummy out. That’s a good- looking mummy”.

Or, do they mean Laz hitting Helen Thomas?

[ducks and covers]

[library user]

Dating old objects?

Visit her profile at hxxp://match.com/crusty19thcenturychicklookingforfun

[gov_bean_ counter]

Somebody wants to date old objects???

Helen Thomas is probably available.

[Roccus]

These records give a precise estimation of how much radioactive carbon there was in the atmosphere in any given year

???

[TigersEye]

Because carbon is an integral part of every living thing, all organisms, like animals and plants, take in carbon while they are alive.

Would someone please tell the Glowbull Warming fruitcakes this basic high school science class fact!?! Their War on Carbon is as insane as a War on Oxygen.

[TigersEye]

Bill Clinton has dibs on any female mummies they find.

[DuncanWaring]

Or the War on Hydrogen Hydroxide.

[smokingfrog]

How do we know it hasn’t been disturbed — by earthquakes and such?

[TigersEye]

Hydrogen dioxide. Let’s not start anymore wars on life-sustaining chemicals.

[DuncanWaring]

Hydrogen dioxide would be "HO₂".

[TigersEye]

OK, well, we don't need a war on that. If it even exists.

But H2O would be dihydrogen monoxide wouldn't it?

There is a war on C12H22O11. Given its role in brain functioning that may give us another clue as to where liberals come up with this crap. lol

[count-your-change]

“tens of thousands of years..” sounds like a precise estimation just like “a near miss”.

[TigersEye]

By golly you were right. I didn't realize that hydrogen hydroxide was another name for dihydrogen monoxide. I'm afraid the war on it is already in full swing. Fortunately there is a group of evil capitalists, like us, who are fighting back.

DHMO

[DuncanWaring]

There are a lot of people who call it dihydrogen monoxide, but I think it’s actual chemical name, based on its molecular structure, would be hydrogen hydroxide (H-OH).

Or so I’ve been told.

[djf]

So now we’re going to date something by measuring radioactivity in Japan?

I don’t think so, Tim!

Jus kiddin. I mean they do have slightly elevated readings there these days...

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks blam. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[ApplegateRanch]

A war on oxygen isn't as insane as it sounds.

It is extremely destructive—hence the term “oxidation”. Engineers spend countless hours attempting to offset its effects on nearly anything they design & build. It costs billions of dollars per year to prevent its damaging effects, and at least ten times that to mitigate or repair its ravages.

Combined with relatively modest heat, it sustains combustion; the higher the concentration, the more violent the combustion, and the less heat it takes to begin.

There are documented cases of piles of old automobile tires spontaneously combusting just from the heat of reaction between the free oxygen present combining with the steel ‘cords’ in the tires, as they rust!

The toll of destroyed homes, businesses, and lost lives from free oxygen violently reacting with oily rags, just from the minuscule heat generated by the oil drying, is staggering!

Then there are underground coal seams that have spontaneous combusted due to the presence of —again!— OXYGEN, and have burned for decades; perhaps even centuries!

Between global warming, and any increase in free atmospheric oxygen, the entire earth will spontaneously combust!

It also is terribly inimical to life: The Oxygen Catastrophe nearly wiped out ALL life on Earth! It could happen again!

In moderately high concentrations, it leads to dehydration of lungs & mucous membranes, intoxication, and uncontrollable euphoria in man & animals; it even has deleterious effects on plants. At slightly higher concentrations, it leads to death of both plants and animals.

Oxygen is thus a dangerous (and, indeed, is so labeled when transported or stored!) unstable, and poisonous gas that must be closely monitored, controlled, and ultimately cleansed from the atmosphere.

When is the EPA going to do its job!?!