| definition |
- Charcoal records from sediments can reconstruct much longer fires histories, but with less temporal and spatial precision than tree-ring records. Because charcoal particles can be carried aloft to great heights and transported great distances, the source of the charcoal may be from distant fires as well as local fires. Charcoal accumulation may continue for a few years after a fire because of transportation and redeposition of secondary charcoal. This process tends to blur the exact age of a fire, even when the charcoal particles are directly dated by radiocarbon dating, which itself has a dating precision of +/- 5%. Additionally, the charcoal deposited may represent more than one fire within the area, or fires from more than one year. As a result, fire episodes are referred to as one or more fires occurring in the time interval of interest, rather than individual fires.
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