Radiocarbon time scale for deposition of holocene calcareous tufa from Poland and India (Orissa)

14 C concentration measurements together with carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis in calcareous tufa give possibilities for reconstruction of time scale and palaeoclimatic conditions of sedimentary processes. Results of isotope examinations of 2 profiles with organic and tufa sediments from Eastern Poland and 8 calcareous tufa sites from Eastern India (Orissa) are given. A systematic error of 14 C conventional age of carbonate fraction of tufa samples as reservoir age (T R ) was estimated. The T R values of different type of tufa sediment are determined by stream water energy. On the basis of known experimental dependence between T R and delta 13 C for tufas deposited in high, average and low energy water, unknown values of T R and corrected 14 C ages (T CCA ) were calculated for samples from India tufa sites. Continuous deposition of organic and carbonate sediments in Polish profiles give the possibility to calculate the approximated T CCA ages on the basis of dependence between T CCA and a sample depth in a profile, and time scale reconstruction of delta 13 C and delta 18 O changes in carbonate fraction of tufa samples during the whole Holocene.