41Ca Concentrations in Modern Bone and Their Implications for Dating
Open Access
- 1 January 1989
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Radiocarbon
- Vol. 31 (03) , 305-310
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s003382220001184x
Abstract
We have made the first measurements without pre-enrichment of 41Ca in terrestrial rock and bone samples using accelerator mass spectrometry. Although the results in tufa deposits from Egypt are in good agreement with the saturation value of 8×10-15 predicted by Raisbeck and Yiou (1979), the average 41Ca:40Ca ratio of 2×10-15 (range: 0.6 to 4.2×10-15) that we measure in modern bone is an order of magnitude lower than that obtained previously by Henning, et al (1987) on a cow bone that was measured using AMS following isotope enrichment. The low value and the variability (more than a factor of seven) of the 41Ca:40Ca ratio in modern bone make the possibility of dating bones using 41Ca unlikely.Keywords
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