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Science 1 May 1998:
Vol. 280. no. 5364, pp. 725 - 728
DOI: 10.1126/science.280.5364.725
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Reports

Deep-Sea Coral Evidence for Rapid Change in Ventilation of the Deep North Atlantic 15,400 Years Ago

Jess F. Adkins, *dagger Hai Cheng, Edward A. Boyle, Ellen R. M. Druffel, R. Lawrence Edwards

Coupled radiocarbon and thorium-230 dates from benthic coral species reveal that the ventilation rate of the North Atlantic upper deep water varied greatly during the last deglaciation. Radiocarbon ages in several corals of the same age, 15.41 ± 0.17 thousand years, and nearly the same depth, 1800 meters, in the western North Atlantic Ocean increased by as much as 670 years during the 30- to 160-year life spans of the samples. Cadmium/calcium ratios in one coral imply that the nutrient content of these deep waters also increased. Our data show that the deep ocean changed on decadal-centennial time scales during rapid changes in the surface ocean and the atmosphere.

J. F. Adkins and E. A. Boyle, Department of Earth, Atmosphere and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
H. Cheng and R. L. Edwards, Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA.
E. R. M. Druffel, Department of Earth System Science, University of California at Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697-3100, USA.
*   Present address: Geochemistry 62, LDEO, Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.

dagger    To whom correspondence should be addressed.

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