Importance of the Radiocarbon Standard Deviation in Determining Relative Sea Levels and Glacial Chronology from East Baffin Island

Examples of the importance of the radiocarbon standard deviation in the evaluation of relative sea levels and a local glacial chronology are presented. Techniques for evaluating the data are described. In the early stage of postglacial emergence, uncertainties in the radiocarbon age of a sample, presumed to date the marine limit, can lead to a twenty per cent error in the estimated elevation of lower sea levels. As recently as about 4,300 radiocarbon years ago, glaciers from the inland ice sheet over Baffin Island were reaching to sea level in at least this one area.