Radiocarbon age dates for sections of 19 sediment cores from offshore Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands collected by the U.S. Geological Survey in 2008 and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in the 1960's

19 cores (8 from 2008-008-FA and 11 from LDEO) were sampled for foraminifera at 1.5 to 2 cm thick intervals at submarine landslide deposits and above or below turbidites. These samples were washed over a 63-micron screen, dried, and then picked for datable species (Globigerinoides ruber, Globigerinoides sacculifer, and Globigerinella aequilarteralis). After being picked, the samples were washed and then sent off for dating.

Planktonic foraminifera were analyzed for radiocarbon dating at the WHOI National Ocean Science Accelerator mass Spectrometry (NOSAMS) facility. Radiocarbon ages were converted to calibrated ages using Calib 6.0 (Stuiver and Reimer, 1993) and IntCal 09 calibration curves (Reimer and others, 2009). The archive cores were processed in 2009 and the cores collected in 2008 were processed in 2011.
Reimer, P.J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Burr, G.S., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Hajdas, I., Heaton, T.J., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., McCormac, F.G., Manning, S.W., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Southon, J.R., Talamo, S., Turney, C.S.M., van der Plicht, J., Weyhenmeyer, C.E. 2009. IntCal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51(4):1111-50.
Stuiver, M. and Reimer, P.J., 1993, Extended 14C database and revised Calib radiocarbon calibration program: Radiocarbon, v. 35, p. 215-230.

The NOSAMS data were arranged into a Microsoft Excel 2010 spreadsheet and exported as an XLS and a CSV

Edits to the metadata were made to fix any errors that MP v 2.9.36 flagged. This is necessary to enable the metadata to be successfully harvested for various data catalogs. In some cases, this meant adding text "Information unavailable" or "Information unavailable from original metadata" for those required fields that were left blank. Other minor edits were probably performed (title, publisher, publication place, etc.). Added additional online links in the Identification section. The source information was incomplete and had to be modified to meet the standard. Fixed a link to data in the entity and attribute overview section. Minor fixes to the attribute format for some attributes were needed to meet the standard. The metadata date (but not the metadata creator) was edited to reflect the date of these changes. The metadata available from a harvester may supersede metadata bundled within a download file. Compare the metadata dates to determine which metadata file is most recent.

Added keywords section with USGS persistent identifier as theme keyword.