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MARINE RESERVOIR AGE CORRECTION FOR THE ANDAMAN BASIN

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2020

Harsh Raj*
Affiliation:
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, India
Ravi Bhushan
Affiliation:
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India
M Muruganantham
Affiliation:
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India
Romi Nambiar
Affiliation:
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India Department of Chemistry, Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, India
Ankur J Dabhi
Affiliation:
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India
*
*Corresponding author. Email: harshraj@prl.res.in.
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Abstract

Marine reservoir age is an important component for correction in radiocarbon (14C) dating of marine and coastal samples. 14C concentration in pre-bomb marine samples of known age are used to derive marine reservoir age of a region. Annually banded coral from Landfall island in the northern Andaman has been analyzed for its 14C concentration during the pre-bomb period 1948–1951. 14C age and reservoir effect (∆R) are reported for these pre-bomb coral samples from the northern Andaman region. The mean 14C age of 331 ± 61 yr BP was obtained for the period 1948–1951 with an average reservoir age correction of –138 ± 61 yr. This reservoir age correction is lowest reported from the northern Indian Ocean. ∆R value of the northern Andaman and the Bay of Bengal appears lower than that of southern Andaman. The ∆R values obtained using mollusk shells and coral from the Andaman region shows large variability. The lower reservoir age correction for the Landfall Island situated in the northern part of the Andaman archipelago, could result due to freshwater flux and reduced upwelling in the region.

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 2020 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona
Figure 0

Figure 1 X-radiograph of Landfall coral showing annual density banding along with its δ18O composition. White box is the marked area of samples between 1948 and 1951.

Figure 1

Table 1 Results of 14C analysis of Landfall coral skeleton between 1948–1951.

Figure 2

Table 2 Reservoir age correction (ΔR) values of pre-bomb marine samples from Andaman Basin.

Figure 3

Figure 2 Map of northeastern Indian Ocean with reservoir age correction values from Landfall Island (this study), Chilika lake, Stewart sound (Dutta et al. 2001) and Nicobar Island (Southon et al. 2002). (Inset: study location marked by rectangle in northern Indian Ocean.)