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Re: - C14 Decay rates


Thermal activation depends exponentially on temperature
but only weakly (algebraically) on mass. Tunneling
is independent of temperature but depends exponentially
on sqrt(mass), roughly speaking.

Right you are John, and this is of major importance with H & D where the
mass ratio is ~2, but the original question was about carbon dating --
which began on a another list -- could one expect that there might be an
appreciable enhancement over a ~long time of C14 in a surface exposed to
air or the environment generally? The example given on the other list was
a mastodon but the covering was unspecified. The claim was that the C14
surface concentration was "consideraably" greater that that found in the
bulk remains -- but after a few centuries, I assume we are talking about
bones.

Jim Green
mailto:JMGreen@sisna.com
http://users.sisna.com/jmgreen