Carbon 14 is generated in air from nitrogen by cosmic rays knocking a proton out of nitrogen atoms to leave an unstable carbon isotope, C14.  Half of it decays in 5700 years.  This fact is used to date material that has lived as the radiation declines at a regular rate. Radiation from C14 is so weak the dating procedure is usable only to 38,000 BC.  At that point the C14 decay product alpha particle count drops below the shieldable background count and this stops the “clock” for all date determining purposes.

The rate of carbon 14 production was constant until nuclear weapons were used in the atmosphere.  Fission and fusion explosions create carbon 14 from nitrogen much as do cosmic rays from space. In the 50’s the amount of C14 in the air was doubled.  Nuclear bomb test C14 spikes are thus discounted in carbon 14 dating.  The technology is calibrated on the amount of carbon 14 present in samples of known age.  From data curves are plotted, equations written and projections made.  Test sample radiation counts are compared with data curves to estimate the sample’s age.

Carbon 14 SCAF Efficiency Metric 

Carbon dating technology overlooks any carbon not coming from the atmosphere.  This is the case because carbon dioxide from fossil fuels has no isotopic C14.  Materials including such carbon appear to be much older than they actually are as they produce less radiation and are thus placed further down the decay data curve.  But, we can use this to determine SCAF effectiveness by reading the radioactivity of contemporary plants fertilized by sequestered carbon and comparing it with untreated controls.

Measuring Effectiveness

A greater relative decline in C14 indicates more carbon dioxide is delivered to the plants as what we deliver has no radioactivity. The procedure only requires looking at the data from a known age and then defining carbon acquisition the variable.

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