A02_P07

Reservoir Effect determination in marine shells from Mexico

Rodriguez-Ceja M¹, Díaz-Castro M², Solis C¹, Álvarez-Lajonchere L³, Méndez-García C^1,4, Chávez-Lomelí E¹

¹Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico City, Mexico, ²2 Instituto Superior de Tecnologías y Ciencias Aplicadas. Universidad de La Habana, Cuba., La Habana, Cuba, ³Museo de Historia Natural Felipe Poey. Universidad de la Habana, Cuba. , LA Habana, Cuba, ⁴Cátedras Conacyt. Instituto de Física. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. , Mexico City, Mexico

When trying to establish the chronology of a site through radiocarbon dating, terrestrial samples are usually preferred. However, since they are not always available, an alternative is the use of malacological material from marine organisms as mollusks.

Given that radiocarbon activity in aquatic environments is usually different from that of the atmosphere, organisms that grow in both environments have different apparent ages, even though they are contemporary. This apparent age is known as “reservoir effect” and varies depending on latitude and other local factors.

Mexico is a country with a littoral of more than 11,000 Km, and a great interest in dating malacological samples from coastal contexts.   However, reservoir effect studies are still scare. Must of the available data come from studies done in the 60s and 90s decades, of the XX century.

We present new reservoir effect data from coastal Mexican sites in the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, obtained from a Collection of Mexican shells samples belonging to the Natural History Museum Felipe Poey, from the Universidad de La Habana, Cuba and to the Institute of Biology of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México.