Problems in Radiocarbon Dating of Soils

Abstract

We discuss our progress in three principal applications of 14C dating of recent and fossil soils: 1) new methods; 2) problems of interpreting 14C soil data (e.g.,14C age of soils, age of soils, duration of humus formation, rate of carbon cycling); and 3) 14C analysis of soil organic matter (OM) in pedology and paleogeography (e.g., soil genesis and evolution, humus formation and OM metamorphosis, geochronology and stratigraphy of Late Pleistocene and Holocene sediments). We suggest exploring the above issues in the analysis of each 14C profile in conjunction with paleogeographical data, and by simulation of the carbon cycle in each type of profile.