The Unreliability of 14C Dates Obtained from Buried Sandy Podzols

Abstract

A test for the reliability of 14C dating of soil was made at two sites with buried, autochthonous, and in parts, allochthonous sandy podzols, dated either lithoand pedostratigraphically or palynologically. The differences between the age ranges obtained and the apparent mean residence times (AMRT) calculated from the 14C content of alkaline extracts from fossil soil layers and horizons lean in organic matter exceed 10,000 years, corresponding to a maximum contamination with recent carbon of up to 50 %. The use of correction factors for the apparent mean residence times of podzols is not valid, not even for climate zones, because these values have a broad scatter for the same profile.