University of Wisconsin Radiocarbon Dates XIV

Abstract

Procedures and equipment of the laboratory have been described in previous date lists. Wood, charcoal, and peat samples are pretreated with dilute NaOH and dilute H3PO4 before conversion to the counting gas methane; marls and lake cores are treated with acid only. Very calcareous samples are treated with dilute HCl instead of H3PO4.

Peatlands and Histosols in Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge, West Virginia

“…obtained one radiocarbon date of ~6,000 cal yr BP from reed-sedge peat, not from the base of the organic soils. Collectively published data on Allegheny Mountain peatlands indicate a wide age range for the initiation of peat accumulation (Table 2-1), from ~16,400 cal yr BP and ~15,000 cal yr BP (Maxwell and Davis, 1972) at Buckles Bog, ~11,000 cal yr BP (Arnold and Libby, 1951) and ~5,600 cal yr BP (Bender et al, 1979(Bender et al, , 1977Watts, 1979) at Cranberry Glades, ~5,400 cal yr BP at Big Run Bog (Larabee, 1986), to ~1,000 cal yr BP at Cranesville Swamp (Booth et al, 2016 Matchen et al, 1999). Projecting through limestone bottomlands in the valley center, a low, elongated ridge corresponds to the axis of the anticline; it is comprised of coarse-grained sandstone of the Price Formation .…”

“…Allegheny Mountain peatlands (Figure 2-1): Big Run Bog (Larabee, 1986), Buckles Bog (Maxwell and Davis, 1972), Cranesville Swamp (Booth et al, 2016;Cox, 1968), four peatlands within Cranberry Glades (Bender et al, 1977(Bender et al, , 1979Darlington, 1943;Edens, 1973;Watts, 1979), and one peatland within Canaan Valley , which was reexamined for this study. Most published Allegheny Mountain peatland chronologies share a proposed developmental history beginning in the late Pleistocene or Holocene as an open body of water accumulating limnic sediments that evolves through a transitional process of terrestrialization, first into a wetland accumulating organic-rich clays, and then into a peatland accumulating organic soils.…”

“…Recently, Booth et al (2016) (Darlington, 1943;Edens, 1973), transitioned into a wetland accumulating organic clay at ~14,100 cal yr BP and finally into a peatland accumulating peat beginning at ~5,600 cal yr BP (Bender et al, 1979(Bender et al, , 1977Watts, 1979). Darlington (1943) described over 150 cores from Cranesville Swamp, before the advent of radiocarbon dating.…”