Radiocarbon: A key tracer for studying Earth’s dynamo, climate system, carbon cycle, and Sun

T. Heaton (1) , E. Bard (2, 3) , C. Bronk Ramsey (4) , M. Butzin (5) , P. Köhler (5) , R. Muscheler (6) , P. Reimer (7) , L. Wacker (8)

1 University of Sheffield [Sheffield]
2 CEREGE - Centre européen de recherche et d'enseignement des géosciences de l'environnement
3 Collège de France - Chaire Evolution du climat et de l'océan
4 University of Oxford
5 AWI - Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung = Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research = Institut Alfred-Wegener pour la recherche polaire et marine
6 Skane University Hospital [Lund]
7 QUB - Queen's University [Belfast]
8 ETH Zürich - Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology [Zürich]

Using carbon-14 Carbon-14 or radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope produced in the upper atmosphere by cosmic rays, is rapidly incorporated into the terrestrial carbon cycle and provides a way to calculate the age of carbon-bearing materials as old as 55,000 years. Heaton et al . review recent progress that has allowed the construction of better radiocarbon age calibration curves and discuss the new insights into climate processes, the Sun, Earth’s geodynamo, and the carbon cycle that have emerged from these efforts. —HJS

Domaines: Sciences de la Terre

T. Heaton, E. Bard, C. Bronk Ramsey, M. Butzin, P. Köhler, et al.. Radiocarbon: A key tracer for studying Earth’s dynamo, climate system, carbon cycle, and Sun. Science, 2021, 374 (6568), ⟨10.1126/science.abd7096⟩. ⟨hal-03550911⟩