(super 14) C calibration in the Southern Hemisphere and the date of the last Taupo eruption; evidence from tree-ring sequences.

Abstract

Tree rings from a section of Prumnopitys taxifolia (matai) covering the period AD 1335-1745 have been radiocarbon dated and used to generate a (super 14) C calibration curve for southern hemisphere wood. Comparison of this curve with calibration data for northern hemisphere wood does not show a systematic difference between (super 14) C ages measured in the northern and southern hemispheres. A floating chronology covering 270 yr and terminating at the last Taupo (New Zealand) eruption, derived from a sequence of 10-yr samples of tree rings from Phyllocladus trichomanoides (celery pine, or tanekaha), is also consistent with the absence of a systematic north-south difference, and together with the matai data, fixes the date of the Taupo eruption at AD 232+ or -15.