🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Apr.8.19.08.07.1992.26174@ruhets.rutgers.edu>, bweiner@ruhets.rutgers.edu (Benjamin Weiner) writes:
|> According to my Nuc. Phys. book, one must be careful to compare
|> C14 ratio to atmospheric C14 ratio of ~ 1940-50, as since then
|> atmospheric nuclear tests have put sufficient C14 into the air
|> to screw things up.
|> 
|> Kind of sad, don't you think?  Although possibly future
|> archaeologists will be able to deduce our weapons capabilities
|> from spikes in C14 (or thorium, or whatever) abundance ...
|> 
|> - Ben Weiner
|> 
|> If there ARE future archaeologists ...


On the other hand, the bomb-pulse C-14 makes a wonderful tracer for chemical oceanographers.  
By measuring the concentration of C-14 in seawater as a function of position (lat, long, and 
depth), one can "watch" the penetration of surface waters into the deeper oceans and map out 
circulation patterns.  

In addition, the decline in atmospheric C-14 since the end of large-scale atmospheric 
testing provides a measure of CO2 exchange rate between the atmosphere and oceans...an 
important parameter in global carbon budget models that are used in greenhouse warming studies. 


-- 
Henry Shaw, Earth Sciences Dept., LLNL |    All opinions are my own.
Internet: shaw4@llnl.gov               |  
CIS: 76347,2523                        |
Fidonet: Henry Shaw at 1:161/55        |