Radiocarbon Ages of Shells in Holocene Marine Deposits

Abstract

Radiocarbon dates of marine shells from Central West Greenland, Finnmark, in North Norway, and Dublin Bay, in Ireland, were used in dating relative sea-level changes. When fossil assemblages and formation of marine deposits and their relationship to sea-level were taken into account, the constructed curves of relative sea-level changes agreed with the shell dates. The origin of the shells in the deposits studied varied from site to site, but the dates gave additional information of the formation of marine deposits which could not have been obtained from the study of sediments alone.