Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory at GSC

As a National Laboratory, the Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory (GSC) was used to insure the comparability of dates on a regional and national basis and to enhance the comparability of dated samples related to:

• deglaciation chronology;
• sea level change; or
• the calibration of palaeoclimatic and palaeoecological events.

The radiocarbon dates produced are fundamental to research into glacial history, rates of sea level change, and identification of earthquake and landslide frequencies in Canada. With other paleontological data, radiocarbon dates provide essential proxy climate information for Global Change. Dates also define rates of organic (peat) accumulation, forest recolonization and climatic change detected in the pollen records from lake sediments.

The GSC Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory was a National Facility that maintained an archive of radiocarbon information and GSC clientele were provided not only with an age, but with all pertinent field and laboratory data, including wood identification, and macrofossil and fossil arthropod assessments. GSC dates have been made public to all Quaternary researchers, through annual 'Date Lists'. The GSC Laboratory has successfully taken part in international quality assurance / quality control programs to the benefit of all GSC clientele. All laboratory operations were essential to support the establishment of the chronologic, stratigraphic, and environmental history of Quaternary deposits in Canada.

International Quality Assurance:

The Radiocarbon Dating Laboratory has participated in four international crosscheck programs during the past two and a half decades. These quality assurance programs were essential to insure data integrity (excellence) and user confidence by providing an objective crosscheck and verification of different facilities worldwide.

GSC Radiocarbon Date Lists:

The GSC Laboratory has dated in excess of 6800 samples and published more than 6400 age determinations in its annual 'Date Lists' (thirty-four as of 2005 with GSC Date List XXXV to be released in 2006). The GSC laboratory was unique amongst radiocarbon laboratories in that it guaranteed that all dates and sample information would be made available to the Quaternary community.

Research on Canadian Marine Reservoir Ages:

The GSC has attempted to define the "reservoir age" in Canadian waters from the Pacific, through the Arctic, to the Atlantic. The reservoir age is essentially the residence time of carbon dioxide, and the bicarbonate formed from it, in the ocean; that is, the length of time spent in transit in the ocean between the time of absorption of the gas from the atmosphere and its ventilation back to the atmosphere at sites of ocean upwelling. During this transit time, the radioactive isotope of carbon (C-14) decays, imparting an "age" to the carbon in the water. Prior to this project, there were only a few measurements available from the Canadian sector of the Northwest Atlantic-Arctic Ocean.