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Radiocarbon dating is arguably the most common method for dating Quaternary deposits. However, accurate age assignments using radiocarbon dating are dependent on knowing the radiocarbon reservoir. For the coastal waters across Antarctica, the radiocarbon reservoirs show significant variation, ranging from 700 to 6000 years depending on the material dated and the period in question. In this study, we examine the radiocarbon reservoir age for the shallow waters of the Southern Ocean using 23 whale bones salvaged from commercial whaling operations on or near the Western Antarctic Peninsula between 1904 and 1916. The species origin of the bones had been identified previously as humpback, fin, or blue whales using sequences of mitochondrial (mt)DNA. We find an average reservoir age of 1050 ± 135 years for these 23 whale bones, with a <100-year difference in the reservoir age by species. A comparison between our results and other studies through the Holocene suggest that the Southern Ocean surface water radiocarbon reservoir age is of a similar magnitude across much of Antarctica and has not significantly changed for the last 14,000 years. Combining our new ages with existing data sets provides insight to the stability of the Southern Ocean marine radiocarbon reservoir age, enhancing our understanding of ocean ventilation and upwelling dynamics throughout the Holocene.
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Chronology of the Palmer Deep site, Antarctic Peninsula: a Holocene palaeoenvironmental reference for the circum-Antarctic
Palmer Deep sediment cores are used to produce the first high-resolution, continuous late Pleistocene to Holocene time-series from the Antarctic marine system. The sedimentary record is dated using accelerator mass spectrometer radiocarbon methods on acid insoluble organic matter and foraminiferal calcite. Fifty-four radiocarbon analyses are utilized in the dating which provides a calibrated timescale back to 13 ka BP. Reliability of resultant ages on organic matter is assured because duplicates produce a standard deviation from the surface age of less than laboratory error (i.e., ±50 years). In addition, surface organic matter ages at the site are in excellent agreement with living calcite ages at the accepted reservoir age of 1260 years for the Antarctic Peninsula. Spectral analyses of the magnetic susceptibility record against the age model reveal unusually strong periodicity in the 400,–200 and 50-70 year frequency bands, similar to other high-resolution records from the Holocene but, so far, unique for the circum-Antarctic. Here we show that comparison to icecore records of specific climatic events (e.g., the ’Little Ice Age‘, Neoglacial, Hypsithermal, and the Bølling/Allerød to Younger Dryas transition) provides improved focus upon the relative timing of atmosphere/ocean changes between the northern anid southern high latitudes.
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- Award ID(s):
- 9615695
- PAR ID:
- 10530261
- Publisher / Repository:
- Sage Journals
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Holocene
- Volume:
- 11
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0959-6836
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1 to 9
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1191/095968301673881493
