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Science 12 November 2004:
Vol. 306. no. 5699, pp. 1169 - 1172
DOI: 10.1126/science.1102293
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Reports

Ventilation of the Glacial Deep Pacific Ocean

Wallace Broecker,1* Stephen Barker,1 Elizabeth Clark,1 Irka Hajdas,2 Georges Bonani,2 Lowell Stott3

Measurements of the age difference between coexisting benthic and planktic foraminifera from western equatorial Pacific deep-sea cores suggest that during peak glacial time the radiocarbon age of water at 2-kilometers depth was no greater than that of today. These results make unlikely suggestions that a slowdown in deep-ocean ventilation was responsible for a sizable fraction of the increase of the ratio of carbon-14 (14C) to carbon in the atmosphere and surface ocean during glacial time. Comparison of 14C ages for coexisting wood and planktic foraminifera from the same site suggests that the atmosphere to surface ocean 14C to C ratio difference was not substantially different from today's.

1 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 61 Route 9W/Post Office Box 1000, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
2 AMS 14C lab, ETH Hoenggerberg HPK H27 and H30, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland.
3 University of Southern California, 3651 Trousdale Parkway, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: broecker{at}ldeo.columbia.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Southern Hemisphere and Deep-Sea Warming Led Deglacial Atmospheric CO2 Rise and Tropical Warming.
L. Stott, A. Timmermann, and R. Thunell (2007)
Science 318, 435-438
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Marine Radiocarbon Evidence for the Mechanism of Deglacial Atmospheric CO2 Rise.
T. M. Marchitto, S. J. Lehman, J. D. Ortiz, J. Fluckiger, and A. van Geen (2007)
Science 316, 1456-1459
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)