Map showing locations of samples dated by radiocarbon methods in the San Francisco Bay region

Radiocarbon dating is an important interdisciplinary tool for studies involving events and processes during the last 40,000 years of earth history, including studies involving marine transgressions and regressions, land subsidence, climatic changes, sedimentation rates and patterns, fault movements, and archaeology, among others.

The potential value of a radiocarbon date is diminished, however, if adequate site data are not taken with the sample and do not accompany the date in publication.  At a minimum, published dates should include an accurate location for the dated sample, type of material dated and method of dating, nature of the site, depth below surface (or other accurately defined datum) of date sample, stratigraphy of material overlying date sample, and the significance of the data in the study.