Radiocarbon results from a 13-kyr BP coral from the Huon Peninsula, Papua New Guinea.

Abstract

This paper presents radiocarbon results from a single Goniastrea favulus coral from Papua New Guinea which lived continuously between 13.0 and 13.1 kyr BP. The specimen was collected from a drill core on the Huon Peninsula and has been independently dated with (super 230) Th. A site-specific reservoir correction has been applied to the results, and coral growth bands were used to calibrate individual growth years. Alternating density bands, which are the result of seasonal growth variations, were subsampled to provide 2 integrated 6-month (super 14) C measurements per year. This allows for 20 independent measurements to be averaged for each decadal value of the (super 14) C calibration, making these results the highest resolution data set available for this brief time range. The finestructure of the data set exhibits (super 14) C oscillations with frequencies on the order of 4 to 10 yr, similar to those observed in modern coral (super 14) C records.