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Tiny animal carcasses found in buried Antarctic lake

nature.com

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Re: Tiny animal carcasses found in buried Antarctic lake

#22
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you have it backwards -- carbon works by some organic material not interacting with the atmosphere. Atmospheric CO2 has a relatively constant proportion of carbon-14. Once it stops interacting with the atmosphere it begins to decay and have a different proportion than atmospheric carbon.

I don't understand this response. The model of the GP comment appears to be that: - The atmosphere has a certain level of carbon-14, and living things stay at the atmospheric level by virtue of the various processes by which they interact with the atmosphere. - When they stop living, they also stop exchanging carbon with the atmosphere, and their carbon-14 levels change due to radioactive decay over time. - But here,…

>To answer it, we'd need to know why ...

This page is good: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiocarbon_dating

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