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Silicified wood from around Old Faithful Geyser, Yellowstone National Park: Radiocarbon Dating

Metadata Updated: December 11, 2025

Radiocarbon dating of silicified wood was performed at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Radiocarbon Laboratory in Denver, Colorado. All samples were chemically treated using the standard acid-base-acid (ABA) procedure before being combusted online in the presence of excess high-purity oxygen. Water and other contaminant gases were removed using cryogenic separation techniques, and the resulting purified CO2 gas was measured manometrically and converted to graphite using an iron catalyst and hydrogen reduction (Vogel et al., 1984). Graphite targets were then submitted for accelerator mass spectrometry 14C analysis at the National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry facility in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
All 14C ages were calibrated using the IntCal13 dataset and CALIB 7.1html (Stuiver and Reimer, 1993; Reimer et al., 2013). Calibrated age ranges are presented in calibrated years before present (BP; 0 yr BP = 1950 A.D.), and uncertainties are given at the 95% (2) confidence level.
Select sub-samples of silicified wood were excised with a stainless-steel razor blade and massed into 4 x 6 mm tin capsules (Costech Analytical, Inc, USA). Stable carbon isotope (δ13C) analysis was conducted by continuous flow-isotope ratio mass spectrometry at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Stable Isotope Laboratory in Denver, Colorado using a Carlo Erba NC1500 interfaced to a Micromass Optima mass spectrometer.  Isotopic data are reported in per mil notation after normalization to VPDB with USGS 40 (δ13C = -26.39 ‰) and USGS 41A (δ13C = 36.55 ‰).
References
Johnson, C.A., Stricker, C.A., Gulbransen, C.A., and Emmons, M.P., 2017, Determination of δ13C, δ15N, or δ34S by isotope-ratio-monitoring mass spectrometry using an elemental analyzer: U.S. Geological Survey Techniques and Methods, book 5, chap. D4, 27 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/tm5D4.
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatte, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M., van der Plicht, J., 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55, 1869-1887.
Stuiver, M., Reimer, P.J., 1993. Extended 14C data base and revised CALIB 3.0 14C age calibration program. Radiocarbon 35, 215-230.
Vogel, J.S., Southon, J.R., Nelson, D.E., Brown, T.A., 1984. Performance of catalytically condensed carbon for use in accelerator mass spectrometry. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 5, 289-293.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date December 11, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date December 11, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-5eb9b6b582ce25b5135d2720
Data Last Modified 2020-08-27T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 573a8026-d310-4c38-a06a-1d071ea7b9a7
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash caf3a5409326ace799b6a95d0ef6d9ae48fdbf2b6ddda45af1c5fef2c770cd59
Source Schema Version 1.1

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