14CHRONO

The ¹⁴CHRONO Centre for Climate, the Environment and Chronology was set up in 2004. It houses an accelerator mass spectrometer for AMS 14C dating as well as stable isotope instrumentation. 

The ¹⁴CHRONO Centre was established to facilitate international, interdisciplinary research in past climate and environmental change, the relationship between human society and the environment, and the modern environment.  This research is underpinned by the development and refinement of chronological tools including accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) ¹⁴C dating, radiocarbon calibration curves and Bayesian age-depth modelling. 

Our laboratory recently constructed a Ramped Pyrolysis Oxidation (RPO) system to capture different thermal fractions of carbon during the heating of a sample. These fractions are analyzed using radiocarbon and stable carbon isotopes. The RPO system allows us to constrain the source of carbon in the sample and better understand the processes that affect carbon storage in sediments. In addition the RPO can improve radiocarbon dating of marine and terrestrial sediments by separating out older components in the sediment that are resistant to decay and may represent terrestrial or geological carbon input to a system. It can also be used to separate carbon in mortar from buildings, to more accurately provide a radiocarbon date for their construction.

We are involved in a number of exciting projects research projects led by staff from the School of Natural and Built Environments and those in collaboration with colleagues in the UK and elsewhere.  We are happy to discuss collaborative projects and funding opportunities. 

¹⁴CHRONO provide radiocarbon dates to student and staff research projects on a wide variety of material including bone, wood, peat and shells.

Chrono staff

Paula Reimer

Stephen Hoper

Maarten Blaauwn

Ron Reimer

Gerard Barrett

Evelyn Keaveney

Kerry Allen

Michelle Thompson

Jim McDonald

Julia Simpson

Niamh O’Neill-Munro

Svetlana Svyatko