Cation-Ratio and Accelerator Radiocarbon Dating of Rock Varnish on Mojave Artifacts and Landforms
Dorn RI, Bamforth DB, Cahill TA, Dohrenwend JC, Turrin BD, Donahue DJ, Jull AJ, Long A, Macko ME, Weil EB, Whitley DS, Zabel TH. 1986. Cation-Ratio and Accelerator Radiocarbon Dating of Rock Varnish on Mojave Artifacts and Landforms. Science. 231(4740):830-833
The first accelerator radiocarbon dates of rock varnishes are reported along with potassium/argon ages of lava flows and conventional radiocarbon dates of pluvial lake shorelines, in an empirical calibration of rock varnish K^{+} + Ca^{2+}/Ti^{4+} ratios with age in the Mojave Desert, eastern California. This calibration was used to determine the cation-ratio dates of 167 artifacts. Although cation-ratio dating is an experimental method, some dates suggest human occupation of the Mojave Desert in the late Pleistocene.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Dorn, Ronald; Bamforth, D.; Cahill, T.; Dohrenwend, J.; Turrin, B.; Donahue, D.; Jull, A.; Long, A.; Macko, M.; Weil, E.; Whitley, D.; Zabel, T.
- Units
- DEVA
- Keywords
- Geology, Mojave Desert, Physical Sciences, tandem accelerator mass spectrometry (TAMS)