New Caledonia Coral Multicentury Stable Isotope Data: readme file
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               World Data Center A- Paleoclimatology
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NOTE: PLEASE CITE ORIGINAL REFERENCES WHEN USING THIS DATA!!!!!

CONTRIBUTORS: T. M. Quinn, T.J. Crowley, F.W. Taylor, C. Henin, P. Joannot, Y. Join

NAME OF DATA SET: New Caledonia Coral Multicentury Stable Isotope Data

IGBP PAGES/WDCA CONTRIBUTION SERIES NUMBER: 1999-003

SUGGESTED DATA CITATION: T. M. Quinn, et al, 1999, 
New Caledonia Coral Multicentury Stable Isotope Data,
IGBP PAGES/World Data Center-A for Paleoclimatology 
Data Contribution Series #1999-003.  
NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program, Boulder CO, USA.

ORIGINAL REFERENCES: 
Quinn, T.M., T.J. Crowley, F.W. Taylor, C. Henin, P. Joannot, and Y. Join, 1998, 
A multicentury stable isotope record from a New Caledonia coral: 
Interannual and decadal SST variability in the southwest Pacific since 1657; 
Paleoceanography, 13, 4, 412-426. 

Crowley, T.J., Quinn, T.M., and Taylor, F.W., 1997, 
Evidence for a Volcanic Cooling Signal in a 335 Year Coral Record 
from New Caledonia; Paleoceanography, 12, 633-639.

LAST UPDATE:  1/1999 (Original receipt by WDC-A Paleo)

FUNDING SOURCE: NSF ATM-9529109, NOAA NA63GP0546, NOAA NA76GP0505

GEOGRAPHIC REGION: Tropical Pacific
PERIOD OF RECORD: 1657-1992 A.D.

LIST OF FILES: readme.NC.txt (this file), NC.Coral.5_98.xls 
(Microsoft Excel format), NC.1951-1657.Qtr.txt, NC.1992-1952.Mon.txt, 
NC.Published.1992-1657.Qtr.txt, NC.RawData.txt (Tab delimited ASCII files
of the individual sheets in NC.Coral.5_98.xls).

DESCRIPTION:
Latitude:	22 29 South
Longitude:	166 27 East
Bathymetry	coral collected live in ~3m of water in September of 1992
Coral species:	Porites lutea
Variable names:	The Excel File contains 4 worksheets labelled Raw Data, 
92-52 mo., 1951-1657 qtr., and Published 1992-1657 Qtr.  The last worksheet 
contains age, delta18O and delta 13C used in Quinn et al. (1998).  
These data have been interpolated at 4 samples/year using AnalySeries 
(Paillard et al., 1996).
Path refers to sampling pathway; values range from 1 to 30.
Sample id refers to numbering scheme used in sampling.  Cells with more than 
1 value reflect offset and overlapping sequences.  Stable isotope data for 
these cells are averages of overlapped samples.

Sample # refers to sequential numbering of all data from top to bottom.  
Overlapped samples counted as one sample.
Raw delta 18O, delta 13C isotopic values as they were determined on the 
mass spectrometer.

Year: calendar year assignments based on integrated use of density-bands and
observed SST measurements.

Post-AS delta 18O, delta 13C refers to data that have been interpolated at 
equal age increments using the software program AnalySeries 
(Paillard et al., 1996).  
Conversion from depth to age was accomplished using the age model feature 
of AnalySeries. 

Variable unit: per mil relative to VPDB.
Data precision:	Precision (±2) was monitored by daily analyses of a powdered 
calcite standard (NBS-20) and was better than 0.08 per mil for both oxygen and 
carbon.  The average standard deviation of forty-six replicate analyses of 
coral samples is 0.10 per mil for oxygen and 0.07 per mil carbon.  

Data format: Values are reported in standard notation relative to VPDB after 
correction for the 17O contribution

Sampling information: We sampled the coral at two levels of sampling density.  
The upper 40 years of the coral was sampled at 12 samples/density-band couplet (dbc).  
The remainder of the coral was sampled at 4 samples/dbc.