Florida Bay core logs disposition and analysis parameters

The data set contains the core number, location, latitude/longitude, date collected, storage location, core surface description, and analyses for cores taken from Rabbitt Key, Cluett Key, Whipray Basin, Bob Allen Key, Rankin Bight, Lake Ingraham, Russell Bank, Johnson Key, Porjoe Key, Trout Creek, Little Madeira Bay, Crocodile Point, Pass Key, and Park Key.

The use of radioactive isotopes is founded on the known physical property of radioactive material, the half-life. A half-life of an isotope is the amount of time it takes for half of a given number of atoms to "decay" to another element. The age of objects that contain radioactive isotopes with known half-lives can be calculated by determining the percent of the remaining radioactive material. To use this method successfully certain other prerequisites must be met. These are: 1. the chemistry of the nuclide (element) is known; 2. once the nuclide is incorporated into the substrate the only change is radioactive decay, and 3. in order to be useful, it is relatively easy to measure.