From Economist:
The two researchers therefore looked at samples of sea-floor sediment taken from a site on Blake Ridge in the north-western Atlantic Ocean. They knew from the work of others that some foram shells in this sediment have remained translucent while others have become opaque, permitting the two sorts from the same sedimentary layer to be compared and contrasted.
The contrasts, they found, are huge. Radiocarbon dating suggests the opaque shells are a lot older than the translucent ones. In one sample, collected from a depth of 71-73cm below the sea floor, the translucent shells clocked in as being between 14,030 and 17,140 years old, while the opaque shells seemed to be aged between 26,120 and 32,580 years. Another sample, taken from almost twice that depth beneath the sea floor, had translucent shells that were apparently between 21,730 and 21,800 years old. Opaque shells at that depth were dated to between 27,860 and 33,980 years ago.
Clearly, there is something wrong here. Ms Wycech and Dr Kelly suspect that the compaction which transforms ooze into sedimentary rock forces carbon-containing compounds like bicarbonates into the shells, both making them more opaque and diluting their 14C—and thus causing them to appear older than they really are. The randomness of such a process would also explain why the range of possible ages is wider for the opaque shells than for the translucent ones.
Whatever the cause, though, this finding will worry climate scientists. More.
Unfortunately, it will not worry climate scientists. They are busy getting up prosecutions against doubters and questioners
See also: Forests challenge ecosystem claims
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