improved schmidt hammer exposure ages for active and relict pronival ramparts in southern norway and their palaeoenvironmental implications abstract eight pronival protalus ramparts from alpine southern norway were dated using schmidt hammer exposure age dating shd based on local high precision linear calibration equations shd ages were 1355 1240 to 815 1000 years for three active ramparts and 8730 1050 to 14 635 1060 years for five relict ramparts different parts of the same rampart yielded ages that were in generally good agreement r value frequency distributions enabled the identification single age and mixed age boulder populations and the differentiation of active and relict rampart surfaces the relict ramparts are located outside younger dryas glacier limits and probably formed over a period of 6000 years between deglaciation following the last glacial maximum of the late weichselian 18 000 years ago and the end of the younger dryas 11 700 years ago at that time glacial debuttressing and permafrost degradation apparently enhanced the release of rock debris from rock faces to the ramparts the active ramparts which are located in areas deglaciated after the younger dryas are relatively uncommon in the study area due to diminished paraglacial effects and limited debris supply associated with seasonally frozen ground during the holocene thus the legacy of glaciers glacier permafrost interaction and the specific type of periglacial environment must all be considered when assessing the palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic significance of pronival ramparts

the u series toolbox for paleoceanography the geochemistry of marine sediments is a major source of information about the past environment of the many measurements that provide such information those of the u series nuclides are unusual in that they inform us about the rate and timescales of processes oceanic processes such as sedimentation productivity and circulation typically occur on timescales too short to be assessed using parent daughter isotope systems such as rb sr or sm nd so the only radioactive clocks that we can turn to are those provided by cosmogenic nuclides principally 14c or the u series nuclides this makes the u series nuclides powerful allies in the quest to understand the past ocean climate system and has led to their widespread application over the last decade as in other applications of the u series those in paleoceanography rely on fractionation of the nuclides away from secular equilibrium in the oceanic setting this fractionation is generally due to differences in the solubility of the various nuclides the behavior of the u series nuclides in the ocean environment was widely researched in the middle decades of the twentieth century this work established knowledge of the concentrations of the nuclides in the various compartments of the ocean system and of their fluxes between these compartments such understanding was comprehensively summarized in the ivanovich and harmon u series volume 1992 particularly by cochran 1992 understanding of the behavior of the u series nuclides has not advanced very dramatically in the decade since that summary but a major theme of research has been the use of this geochemical understanding to develop u series tools to assess the past environment table 1 view this table table 1 summary of seawater data for u series nuclides with paleoceanographic applications s soluble i insoluble full descriptions of the paleoceanographic uses and references are provided in the text further details of the half

231pa 230th fractionation by ocean transport biogenic particle flux and particle type 231pa and 230th are removed from the water column by a process of reversible scavenging which quickly removes 230th to the sediment 231pa is less efficiently scavenged onto particles than 230th and is therefore more effectively transported via advection and diffusion before it reaches the ocean sediment this study combines particle fields dust opal caco3 poc derived from observations with the bern3d intermediate complexity ocean model and an equilibrium scavenging model for isotopes the equilibrium partition coefficient for particulate versus dissolved isotope activity is varied with particle type the model can explain many of the features of the global 231pa and 230th distribution the success of such a simple model at representing the global pattern of 231pa 230th activity ratio supports the use of this proxy in paleoceanographic studies we use the model to address the controversy concerning which particle types are dominant in fractionating 231pa 230th in the ocean the lithogenic dust flux is found to be unimportant for 231pa 230th fractionation the ocean fractionation of 231pa 230th is dominated by the distribution of the caco3 and opal flux we also confirm that opal is a weak scavenger of 230th

230th and 232th distributions in mid latitudes of the north pacific ocean effect of bottom scavenging abstract vertical distributions of total 230 th and dissolved 232 th were determined in the mid latitudes of the north pacific ocean 8 n 95 w 40 n 160 e the observed 232 th concentrations are some of the lowest values reported for oceans because of low biogenic particle flux high 230 th activity is exhibited in the central gyre most vertical distributions of 230 th in the pacific ocean have been described well using the reversible scavenging model however we observed the depletion of total 230 th compared with a reversible scavenging model prediction for the deep layers in the mid latitudes of the north pacific ocean considering the time scale of the scavenging residence time of th horizontal eddy diffusion from the higher particle flux region could not have a major influence on 230 th depletion in deep waters the observed depletion is partly explained by lateral advection adopting the scavenging mixing model additionally a bottom scavenging process above the seafloor and a diffusion process are considered to explain the 230 th deficit taking into account the time scale of the scavenging residence time of th in deep waters 230 th in deep water to the upper layers

the influence of particle composition and particle flux on scavenging of th pa and be in the ocean we have examined the relative affinity of th pa and be for sorption from seawater onto particles of variable composition opal carbonate lithogenic particles and organic carbon nuclide concentrations in particles collected from time series sediment traps were normalized by the dissolved nuclide concentration in the overlying water column in order to compute partition coefficients under conditions spanning a wide range of particle flux and particle composition our results suggest that the affinity of particles for pa and be increases with their increasing opal content and decreasing carbonate content while the affinity of particles for th increases with increasing carbonate content and decreases with increasing opal content we find no correlation between the aluminosilicate content of particles and their affinity for scavenging of any of these elements extrapolating to a pure caco3 end member the partition coefficient for th 9 0 106 g g 1 is 40 times greater than for pa and roughly 100 times greater than for be whereas for a pure opal end member the partition coefficient for th 3 9 105 g g 1 is slightly less than that for pa and be partition coefficients decrease with increasing particle flux in open ocean settings but not in an ocean margin region this kinetic effect reflects the increasing contribution of unaltered surface material reaching the sediment traps as particle flux increases the degree of fractionation between pa and th and between be and th depends on the opal carbonate rain ratio these results challenge the use of sedimentary 231pa 230th and 10be 230th ratios as simple proxies of particle flux however the strong dependence of nuclide scavenging on the opal carbonate rain ratio may provide a needed tool for reconstructing past changes in planktonic community composition

similar rates of modern and last glacial ocean thermohaline circulation inferred from radiochemical data today the ocean thermohaline circulation transports half of the 231pa produced by radioactive decay in the atlantic ocean water column to the southern ocean this export respectively imparts low and high 231pa 230th ratios to the surface sediments of these oceans ocean sediments from the last glacial maximum bear a similar isotopic fingerprint implying that advection of north atlantic deep intermediate water into the circumpolar deep water of the southern ocean occurred at a similar or slightly higher rate during the last glacial period

controversy over the relationship between major components of sediment trap materials and the bulk distribution coefficients of 230th 231pa and 10be abstract a four end member mixing model is introduced to estimate the distribution coefficients of 230th 231pa and 10be for pure end members lithogenic clays organic carbon carbonates and opal in sediment trap materials from three oceanic regions four pure end members contribute differently to the fractionation of nuclides in three regions contribution of organic matter to the bulk distribution coefficients cannot be ignored

13c record of benthic foraminifera in the last interglacial ocean implications for the carbon cycle and the global deep water circulation the 13c 12c ratios of upper holocene benthic foraminiferal tests genera cibicides and uvigerina of deep sea cores from the various world ocean basins have been compared with those of the modern total carbon dioxide tco2 measured during the geosecs program the 13c difference between benthic foraminifera and tco2 is 0 07 0 04 for cibicides and 0 83 0 07 for uvigerina at the 95 confidence level 13c analyses of the benthic foraminifera that lived during the last interglaciation isotopic substage 5e about 120 000 yr ago show that the bulk of the tco2 in the world ocean had a 13c value 0 15 0 12 lower than the modern one at the 95 confidence level reflecting a depletion compared to the present value of the global organic carbon reservoir regional differences in 13c between the various oceanic basins are explained by a pattern of deep water circulation different from the modern one the antarctic bottom water production was higher than today during the last interglaciation but the eastward transport in the circumpolar deep water was lower

paired carbon isotope and cadmium data from benthic foraminifera implications for changes in oceanic phosphorus oceanic circulation and atmospheric carbon dioxide abstract the carbon isotope and cadmium content of foraminiferal shells from oceanic sediments provides information on past chemical distributions in the ocean starting from reasonable assumptions it can be shown that paired data on both tracers provides more information than does either separately the slope of paired isochronous 13c and cd ca data from fossil benthic foraminifera depends on oceanic p cd and gd 13c p ratios the zero cd ca intercept of this line depends on mean oceanic 13c p and the 13c p ratio given data sufficient to define oceanic mean 13c and cd contents it is possible to place quantitative constraints on the product of the c p redfield ratio and mean oceanic phosphorus and to estimate a circulation parameter which is independent of changes in ocean chemical inventories with the limited available data no significant changes in oceanic p cd can be detected between the holocene and most recent glacial maximum if this data is taken to be representative of the whole ocean then the p and cd contents of the ocean were about 17 higher during the last glacial maximum than at present ocean box models indicate that this change in oceanic p and a 2 c deep ocean cooling during glacials would cause a 47 ppmv reduction in atmospheric pco2 during glacial intervals

u and th concentrations and isotope ratios in modern carbonates and waters from the bahamas the short residence times of th and pa in seawater make them very responsive to changes in the ocean environment we use a new multi ion counting technique to make th and pa isotope measurements in seawaters from a near shore environment in which oceanic chemical tracers are not overwhelmed by terrestrial inputs the bahamas an unusual feature of the bahamas setting is the shallow depth of water residing on the bank tops these waters have significantly lower 232th 230th 10 000 than those immediately adjacent to the banks 24 000 31 000 and a 231pa 230th near the production ratio 0 1 the change in 232th 230th and 231pa 230th on the bank tops is explained by almost quantitative removal of th and pa by scavenging and their replacement with a mixture of 230th and 231pa alpha recoiled from the underlying carbonates together with th from dust dissolution analysis of a water profile in the tongue of the ocean which separates the great and little bahama banks allows us to trace the movement of bank top water to depth a distinct minimum in both 232th 230th 13 000 and 231pa 230th 0 5 is observed at 430 m and is interpreted to reflect density cascading of bank top water with entrained carbonate sediment these results suggest that th and pa can be used as water mass tracers in near shore environments uranium concentration measurements on the same waters demonstrate that u is conservative across a range in salinity of 2 psu with a concentration of 3 33 ppb at a salinity of 35 the incorporation of u and th isotopes into marine carbonates has also been assessed by analyzing carbonate samples from the same location as these bahamas waters such incorporation is critical for u th geochronology u isotope analyses demonstrate that seawater 234u averages 146 6 and does not vary by more than 2 5 o and that carbonates capture this value additional high precision measurements 1 o on modern carbonates confirm that all oceans have identical 234u modern marine carbonates are shown to have 232th 230th ratios that reflect the local seawater in which they formed

ocean thermohaline circulation and sedimentary 231pa 230th ratio holocene sediments from the atlantic are characterized by 231pa 230th ratios below the production ratio of the two radionuclides in the water column 0 093 whereas holocene sediments from the southern ocean have 231pa 230th 0 093 this pattern of 231pa deficit and excess was ascribed to southward 231pa export from the atlantic by the atlantic thermohaline circulation thc as pa is scavenged less efficiently by marine particles and more effectively transported by the thc than th the same pattern is observed in deposits of the last glacial maximum lgm which led to a previous contention that the thc strength did not vary markedly through the last glacial termination here we embed a description of trace metal scavenging into a zonally averaged circulation biogeochemistry ocean model to explore the sensitivity of 231pa 230th in atlantic and southern ocean sediments to thc changes our results show that the production of biogenic opal which unlike other marine particles poorly fractionates th and pa in the southern ocean water column determines the spatial pattern of the sensitivity also 231pa 230th increases in the north atlantic but changes little in the south atlantic and decreases in the southern ocean as thc is reduced the mean 231pa 230th of the whole atlantic is therefore less sensitive to thc changes than the mean 231pa 230th of the north atlantic the current uncertainties in atlantic mean 231pa 230th are too large to rule out a twofold reduction of the thc at the lgm however the increase in north atlantic mean 231pa 230th simulated in response to a twofold thc reduction is larger than the observed change in the north atlantic mean 231pa 230th from the lgm to holocene comparing this change with the modeled sensitivity of north atlantic 231pa 230th to thc variations indicates that the thc at the lgm could not have been reduced by 30 of its present strength experiments of transient thc changes indicate that high resolution 231pa 230th records from north atlantic sediments could also document thermohaline oscillations on century to millennial timescales

measurement of the sortable silt current speed proxy using the sedigraph 5100 and coulter multisizer iie precision and accuracy the weight percentage and mean size of the 10 63 m terrigenous silt fraction termed sortable silt of fine grained marine sediments have recently been argued to be proxies for near bottom palaeocurrent intensity this paper details the accuracy and precision of the sedigraph 5100 and the coulter multisizer iie in determining the weight percentage and mean size of the sortable silt at abundances characteristic of deep ocean sediments three sortable silt standards and a fine silt clay diluent were generated from natural deep sea sediment of the iceland basin these were used to produce silty clays with standard additions of sortable silt ranging from 1 to 20 of the total by weight accuracy was measured relative to the size of the pure spike measured by each instrument at sortable silt abundance 5 the sedigraph and the coulter multisizer estimate both weight percentage and mean grain size precisely and accurately while below 5 instrumental noise degrades their performance on the basis of the sedigraph results a series of percentage errors is defined which may be applied to sortable silt mean size and weight percentage estimates used in palaeoceanographic near bottom current reconstruction it is suggested that ideally palaeocurrent reconstructions should be based on sedigraph determinations of the 0 63 m grain size distribution yielding both mean and abundance or on coulter multisizer determinations of the sortable silt grain size mean the coulter multisizer may prove especially useful in regions of very depleted 5 sortable silt component

oceanic 231pa 230th ratio influenced by particle composition and remineralization abstract we have investigated the role of particle compositions in affecting the distribution of 231pa and 230th in the ocean by separating sediments collected by sediment traps and cores into three size fractions and analyzed for their excess 231pa 231paex excess 230th 230thex and major chemical components the samples came from stations along 140 w in the equatorial pacific and from the blake outer ridge in the north atlantic results indicate that aluminosilicates clays are the major carrier of 231pa and 230th and the ratio 231paex 230thex in marine particulates decreases with increasing 232th concentration model simulation shows that sea floor sediments and trap collected particles have similar 231paex 230thex ratios in their biogenic components which are very close to the seawater ratio but are about one order higher than the ratios in coexisting clays preferential scavenging of 230th over 231pa by clays is primarily responsible for the 231pa 230th fractionation in the ocean the fractionation factor between 230th and 231pa fth pa varies from 10 for aluminosilicates to 1 for biogenic 232th free particles changes in fth pa as a function of particle composition exert primary controls on 231paex 230thex in marine particulates and bottom sediments and on the boundary scavenging of pa remineralization of biogenic particles in the water column may result in a decrease of 231paex 230thex our observations place an important constraint on the use of sediment 231paex 230thex as a paleoproductivity proxy namely in order to use down core variations of 231paex 230thex to assess past changes in surface productivity one must either verify or assume that the lithogenic particle flux and water column particle remineralization have remained essentially constant at the core site

assessing subsidence rates and paleo water depths for tahiti reefs using u th chronology of altered corals we present uranium thorium chronology fora 102 m core through a pleistocene reef at tahiti french polynesia sampled during iodp expedition 310 tahiti sea level we employ total and partial dissolution procedures on the older coral samples to investigate the diagenetic overprint of the uranium thorium system although alteration of the u th system cannot be robustly corrected diagenetic trends in the u th data combined with sea level and subsidence constraints for the growth of the corals enables the age of critical samples to be constrained to marine isotope stage 9 we use the ages of the corals together with o based sea level histories to provide maximum constraints on possible paleo water depths these depth constraints are then compared to independent depth estimates based on algal and foraminiferal assemblages microbioerosion patterns and sedimentary facies confirming the accuracy of these paleo water depth estimates we also use the fact that corals could not have grown above sea level to place a maximum constraint on the subsidence rate of tahiti to be 0 39 m ka with the most likely rate being close to the existing minimum estimate of 0 25 m ka

deep sea coral evidence for rapid change in ventilation of the deep north atlantic 15 400 years ago 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

scavenging of thorium in the ocean the distributions of th isotopes in both suspended participate matter and sea water were measured in the western north pacific and japan sea suspended particulate matter was collected simultaneously on four 142 mm diameter nuclepore filters 1 0 m in pore size by using an in situ deep sea pumping system particle associations were found to be 6 40 for 228th 9 52 for 230th and 9 72 for 232th with mean values of 26 32 for all three isotopes in order to explain the observed th isotope distributions in the pacific a reversible exchange model was developed that includes two classes fine and large of particle population in the ocean the fine particles are defined as those collected by filtration and comprising most of the standing crop of particles in seawater with no significant settling flux the large particles on the other hand are defined as those collected via sediment traps and represent a negligible standing stock in the water but play a predominant role in the vertical flux the model calculation suggests that the transfer of th from solution to fine particles is controlled by an adsorption desorption process which depends upon the chemical reactivity of elements aggregation of fine particles to fast sinking large particles was estimated to occur throughout the water column on a time scale of one to five months the large aggregates seem to disintegrate on a time scale of less than a few days suggesting their extremely fragile nature

seawater 234 u 238 u during the last 800 thousand years abstract constraining the history of seawater 234u 238u is important because this ratio is used to assess the validity of u th ages and because it provides information about the past rate of physical weathering on the continents this study makes use of u rich slope sediments from the bahamas in an attempt to reconstruct seawater 234u 238u for the last 800 kyr for the last 360 kyr u th dating of these sediments provides ages and initial 234u 238u values sixty seven samples largely from marine highstands have initial 234u 238u which scatter somewhat about the modern seawater value 1 145 but neither this scatter nor the average value increases with age of sample these data contrast with published coral data and suggest that seawater 234u 238u has remained within 15 of the modern value for the last 360 kyr this confirms the rejection of coral u th ages where the initial 234u 238u is significantly different from modern seawater data from older highstands dated with 18o stratigraphy or by the presence of the brunhes matuyama b m reversal at 780 kyr allow seawater 234u 238u to be assessed prior to the range of the 230th chronometer unfortunately diagenetic scatter in the data between the b m reversal and 360 kyr is rather large probably relating to low u concentrations for these samples but there is no indication of a trend in seawater 234u 238u with age high u samples from close to the b m reversal show less diagenetic scatter and an initial 234u 238u that averages 1 102 this lower value can be explained by lower seawater 234u 238u at the time of the b m reversal or by progressive loss of 234u from the sediment by recoil a simple box model is presented to illustrate the response of seawater 234u 238u to variations in riverine input such as might be caused by changes in continental weathering comparison of the bahamas 234u 238u data with model results indicates that riverine 234u 238u has not varied by more than 65 for any 100 kyr period during the last 360 kyr it also indicates that the ratio of physical to chemical weathering on the continents has not been higher than at present for any extended period during the last 800 kyr

deep flow in the madagascar mascarene basin over the last 150 000 years the sw indian ocean contains at least four layers of water masses with different sources deep antarctic lower circumpolar deep water flow to the north midwater north indian deep water flow to the south and upper circumpolar deep water to the north meridional convergence of intermediate waters at 500 1500 m and the shallow south equatorial current flowing west sedimentation rates in the area are rather low being less than 1 cm ka 1 on madagascar ridge but up to 4 cm ka 1 at amirante passage bottom flow through the madagascar mascarene basin into amirante passage varies slightly on glacial interglacial time scales with faster flow in the warm periods of the last interglacial and minima in cold periods far more important are the particularly high flow rates inferred from silt grain size which occur at warm to cold transitions rather than extrema this suggests the cause is changing density gradient driving a transiently fast flow corroboration is found in the glacial interglacial range of benthic d18o which is ca 2 suggesting water close to freezing and at least 1 2 more saline and thus more dense glacial bottom waters than present significant density steps are inferred in isotope stage 6 the 5e 5d and 5a 4 transitions oxygen isotope data suggest little change by mixing in glacial bottom water on their northward path benthic carbon isotope ratios at amirante passage differ from glacial southern ocean values due possibly to absence of a local productivity effect present in the southern ocean

interpretation of the 231 pa 230 th paleocirculation proxy new water column measurements from the southwest indian ocean measurements of 231 pa 230 th and 232 th concentrations have been made on five water column profiles along the western margin of the madagascar and mascarene basins in the southern indian ocean these measurements help to fill a significant gap in the global coverage of water column 232 th 230 th and 231 pa data 232 th concentrations vary but generally increase with depth suggesting higher particle loading in deeper waters and the presence of a significant dissolved fraction of 232 th 230 th concentrations increase with depth and profiles are similar to the average of existing data from other regions 231 pa concentrations on the other hand show significant depth structure apparently reflecting the various water masses sampled at this location the modified remnants of north atlantic deep water are found at a depth of 62000 m and exhibit elevated 231 pa concentrations exported from the south atlantic antarctic intermediate and bottom waters have lower 231 pa probably due to scavenging onto opal particles during transit from the southern ocean the differences between water masses raises a question which water mass is important in controlling the 231 pa 230 th ratio in underlying sediments a simple one dimensional model is used to demonstrate that the 230 th and 231 pa exported to sea floor sediments last equilibrates with waters close to the seafloor within 61000 m rather than averaging the whole water column these findings suggest that 231 paxs 230 thxs in sediments provides information primarily about deep water masses in this region sedimentary records will therefore provide information about the past flow of antarctic bottom water into the indian ocean interpretation of data from other regions such as the north atlantic where this proxy has most successfully been applied requires careful consideration of regional oceanography and knowledge of the composition of the water masses being investigated d 2005 elsevier b v all rights reserved

enhanced scavenging of 231pa relative to 230th in the south atlantic south of the polar front implications for the use of the 231pa 230th ratio as a paleoproductivity proxy abstract the fractionation of 230th and 231pa was investigated throughout the atlantic sector of the southern ocean published scavenging models generally assume that the 231pa 230t ratio of surface sediments is primarily determined by the mass flux of particles this relationship holds north of the polar front where low primary productivity coincides with ratios of unsupported 231pa 230th xs 231pa 230th in surface sediments below the production ratio of both radionuclides in the water column however we observed high xs231pa 230th ratios conventionally interpreted as a high productivity signal in surface sediments south of the polar front especially throughout the weddell sea in contradiction with the low particle flux of this region measurements of both dissolved and particulate fractions of 231pa and 230th in the water column revealed a strong n s decrease in the th pa fractionation factor from typical open ocean values around 10 north of the polar front to values between 1 and 2 south of 60 s this observation clearly indicates that the high xs231pa 230th ratios in surface sediments south of the antarctic circumpolar current are produced by a n s increase in the relative scavenging efficiency of 231pa relative to 230th most probably due to a change in the chemical composition of particulate matter and not by a high mass flux it is speculated that biogenic opal suggested not to significantly fractionate231pa and 230th may explain the enhanced scavenging of 231pa to the south this assumption is further supported by extremely high 231pa 230th ratios up to 0 34 in material collected with sediment traps south of the polar front where fluxes are primarily determined by biogenic opal based on these results we conclude that in regions where the sedimenting flux is dominated by biogenic opal the 231pa 230th ratio is not a reliable indicator for the mass flux of particles thus limiting its use as a paleoproductivity proxy in the southern ocean

the role of deep ocean circulation in setting glacial climates the glacial cycles of the pleistocene involve changes in the circulation of the deep ocean in important ways this review seeks to establish what were the robust patterns of deep sea water mass changes and how they might have influenced important parts of the last glacial cycle after a brief review of how tracers in the modern ocean can be used to understand the distribution of water masses i examine the data for biogeochemical circulation rate and conservative tracers during glacial climates some of the robust results from the literature of the last 30 years include a shoaled version of northern source deep water in the atlantic expanded southern source water in the abyss and deep ocean salt rather than heat stratification of the last glacial maximum lgm deep sea and several lines of evidence for slower overturning circulation in the southern deep cell we combine these observations into a new idea for how the ocean atmosphere system moves from interglacial to glacial periods across a single cycle by virtue of its influence on the melting of land based ice around antarctica cooling north atlantic deep water nadw leads to a cold and salty version of antarctic bottom water aabw this previously underappreciated feedback can lead to a more stratified deep ocean that operates as a more effective carbon trap than the modern helping to lower atmospheric co 2 and providing a mechanism for the deep ocean to synchronize the hemispheres in a positive feedback that drives the system to further cooling

uranium series and radiocarbon geochronology of deep sea corals implications for southern ocean ventilation rates and the oceanic carbon cycle we present new uranium series and radiocarbon measurements for deep sea corals from the southern ocean these data are used to reconstruct ventilation ages both at present and at the end of the last glacial period approximately 16 500 years ago we apply an improved two component mixing approach to correct uranium series dates for contaminant thorium and protactinium present in oxide coatings calculated seawater radiocarbon values for contemporary samples decrease with depth in the water column and agree with direct seawater radiocarbon measurements for this area this indicates that deep sea corals can accurately record seawater radiocarbon distributions two of three glacial samples experienced open system uranium series systematics however a third sample from the drake passage yields concordant thorium and protactinium dates as well as seawater values for initial 234u 238u this coral yields a ventilation age that is approximately 20 40 greater than modern values for its location this increase is consistent with published deep sea coral and calibrated planktonic benthic foraminifera radiocarbon data suggesting that the glacial oceans as a whole may have been substantially less ventilated presumably due to decreased formation of north atlantic deep water an overall decrease in oceanic mixing rates could have contributed to lower dissolved carbon in surface ocean water and lower atmospheric pco2 during the past glacial period

distribution of 230th in the labrador sea and its relation to ventilation abstract measurements of dissolved and particulate230th and232th by thermal ionization mass spectrometry were made on samples collected from the labrador sea and the denmark strait and iceland scotland overflow waters the large scale feature of low and invariant230th evident in deep waters of the labrador sea and previously observed in the deep northern atlantic can be reproduced using a reversible scavenging model that includes the effect of ventilation advective transport also must be important in the redistribution of230th in other regions of the atlantic and for other long lived tracers such as231pa 26al and10be

constraints on deep water age and particle flux in the equatorial and south atlantic ocean based on seawater 231pa and 230th data high precision measurements of 231 pa and 230 th in filtered seawater and suspended particulate matter samples are reported for the equatorial and south atlantic distributions of 231 pa and 230 th clearly indicate the influence of advection as evidenced by departures from scavenging models that predict a linear increase with depth for these tracers application of a scavenging mixing model implies a deep water transit time of 60 100 years from the northern source water regions the average particulate 231 pa 230 th activity ratio is 0 0498 0 0160 a factor of 2 lower than the 231 pa 230 th production ratio of 0 093 and in agreement with reported excess 231 pa 230 th ratios of 0 06 0 004 in holocene sediments north of 50 s in the atlantic these water column data further suggest that lateral eddy diffusive transport combined with enhanced scavenging in high particle flux marginal regions boundary scavenging is weakly expressed in the atlantic particle fractionation of these tracers is also indicated by the elevated fractionation factors of f th pa 4 32 24 04 ave 9 97 4 98 compared to values of 1 4 in the southern ocean

distribution of 230th and 231pa in the water column in relation to the ventilation of the deep arctic basins distribution of 230th and 231pa in the water column was measured in the eurasian basins of the arctic ocean i e the makarov amundsen and nansen basins the profiles obtained were compared to one previously published from the alpha ridge bacon et al earth and planetary science letters 95 1989 15 22 the amundsen and nansen basins are similar in their 23oth and 231pa distribution whereas in the makarov basin and at the alpha ridge these radionuclides are comparatively enriched in the deep basin this may be due to low particle flux in conjunction with low water mass renewal rates the 230th concentration in water depth 1000 m in the makarov basin is relatively low compared with the alpha ridge which may be caused by an exchange of water masses between the amundsen and makarov basins in the eurasian basin deep water 230th profiles can be explained both by a scavenging model and by a mixing scavenging model enhanced particle load caused by resuspension may explain the increased scavenging in the eurasian basin bottom water the differences in scavenging between the norwegian greenland sea and the eurasian basins at present are not large enough to cause significant fractionation between 230th and 231pa