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14C Terrestrial Ages of Meteorites from Desert Regions: Algeria and Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jull, A. J. T.; Wlotzka, F.; Bevan, A. W. R.; Brown, S. T.; Donahue, D. J.

1993-07-01

The terrestrial age or residence time on the Earth's surface is important in determining the history of a meteorite. Carbon-14 has been used for a terrestrial-age indicator since 1962 [1,2]. Since 1984, small samples of meteorites of 0.1 to 0.5 g have been dated using accelerator mass spectrometry [3-5]. The precision of terrestrial age estimates is limited by the accuracy to which the saturated activity of ^14C in the meteorite is known. Jull et al. [4,5] used Bruderheim and some other chondrites to establish a saturated activity reference level. It is important to be aware that ^14C can vary with the depth and size of the object, and ^14C as a function of accurate depth has so far been measured only for one object, Knyahinya [7]. Carbon-14 is of particular interest in warmer climatic regions, where the storage time before a meteorite weathers away is expected to be much less than other locations, for example, Antarctica. This view was originally based on the work of Boeckl [7], who determined a "weathering half life" of some 3500 yr for chondrites from the southwestern U.S.