An Online Application for ΔR Calculation. Issue 5 (29th December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Reimer, Ron W; Reimer, Paula J
• Editors: Cook, Gordon; Hamilton, Derek
• Is Part Of: Radiocarbon. Volume 59:Issue 5(2017)
• Page Start: 1623
• Page End: 1627
• Publication Date: 2016-12-29
• Subjects: calibration, -- ΔR calculation, -- marine reservoir corrections; Radiocarbon dating -- Periodicals; 930.1028505
• DOI: 10.1017/RDC.2016.117
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0033-8222

Abstract

Abstract: A regional offset (ΔR) from the marine radiocarbon calibration curve is widely used in calibration software (e.g. CALIB, OxCal) but often is not calculated correctly. While relatively straightforward for known-age samples, such as mollusks from museum collections or annually banded corals, it is more difficult to calculate ΔR and the uncertainty in ΔR for 14 C dates on paired marine and terrestrial samples. Previous researchers have often utilized classical intercept methods that do not account for the full calibrated probability distribution function (pdf). Recently, Soulet (2015 ) provided R code for calculating reservoir ages using the pdfs, but did not address ΔR and the uncertainty in ΔR. We have developed an online application for performing these calculations for known-age, paired marine and terrestrial 14 C dates and U-Th dated corals. This article briefly discusses methods that have been used for calculating ΔR and the uncertainty and describes the online program deltar, which is available free of charge.