slow release of fossil carbon during the palaeocene eocene thermal maximum a brief period of warming 55 9 myr ago has been attributed to the release of massive amounts of carbon geochemical and model data suggest the peak rate of carbon emission during this interval was relatively slow and significantly lower than present day levels of carbon emissions to the atmosphere

enhanced terrestrial weathering runoff and surface ocean carbonate production during the recovery stages of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum 1 the carbonate saturation profile of the oceans shoaled markedly during a transient global warming event known as the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm circa 55 ma the rapid release of large quantities of carbon into the ocean atmosphere system is believed to have triggered this intense episode of dissolution along with a negative carbon isotope excursion cie the brevity 120 220 kyr of the petm reflects the rapid enhancement of negative feedback mechanisms within earth s exogenic carbon cycle that served the dual function of buffering ocean ph and reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas levels detailed study of the petm stratigraphy from ocean drilling program site 690 weddell sea reveals that the cie recovery period which postdates the cie onset by 80 kyr is represented by an expanded 2 5 m thick interval containing a unique planktic foraminiferal assemblage strongly diluted by coccolithophore carbonate collectively the micropaleontological and sedimentological changes preserved within the cie recovery interval reflect a transient state when ocean atmosphere chemistry fostered prolific coccolithophore blooms that suppressed the local lysocline to relatively deeper depths a prominent peak in the abundance of the clay mineral kaolinite is associated with the cie recovery interval indicating that continental weathering runoff intensified at this time as well robert and kennett 1994 such parallel stratigraphic changes are generally consonant with the hypothesis that enhanced continental weathering runoff and carbonate precipitation helped sequester carbon during the petm recovery period e g dickens et al 1997 zachos et al 2005

faunal turnovers in central pacific benthic foraminifera during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum abstract although it is well known that the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm coincided with a major benthic foraminiferal extinction event the detailed pattern of the faunal turnover has not yet been clarified our high resolution benthic foraminiferal and carbon isotope analyses at the low latitude pacific ocean shatsky rise have revealed the following record of major faunal transitions 1 an initial turnover which involved the benthic foraminiferal extinction event bfe the bfe marked by a sharp transition from pre extinction fauna to disaster fauna represented by small sized bolivina gracilis expresses the onset of the petm and the abrupt extinction of about 30 of taxa this faunal transition lasted about 45 74 kyr after the initiation of the petm and was followed by 2 the appearance of opportunistic fauna represented by quadrimorphina profunda which existed for about 74 91 kyr after the initiation of the petm these two faunas which appeared after the extinction event are characterized by low diversity and dwarfism possibly due to lowered oxygen condition and decreased surface productivity the second pronounced turnover involved the gradual recovery from opportunistic fauna to the establishment of recovery fauna which coincided with the recovery about 83 91 kyr after its initiation

rise and fall of late pleistocene pluvial lakes in response to reduced evaporation and precipitation evidence from lake surprise california widespread late pleistocene lake systems of the basin and range province indicate substantially greater moisture availability during glacial periods relative to modern times but the climatic factors that drive changes in lake levels are poorly constrained to better constrain these climatic forcing factors we present a new lacustrine paleoclimate record and precipitation estimates for lake surprise a closed basin lake in northeastern california we combine a detailed analysis of lake hydrography and constitutive relationships describing the water balance to determine the influence of precipitation evaporation temperature and seasonal insolation on past lake levels at its maximum extent during the last deglaciation lake surprise covered 1366 km 2 36 of the terminally draining surprise valley watershed using paired radiocarbon and 230 th u analyses we dated shoreline tufa deposits from wave cut lake terraces in surprise valley california to determine the hydrography of the most recent lake cycle this new lake hydrograph places the highest lake level 176 m above the present day playa at 15 19 0 18 calibrated ka 14 c age this significantly postdates the last glacial maximum lgm when lake surprise stood at only moderate levels 65 99 m above modern playa similar to nearby lake lahontan to evaluate the climatic factors associated with lake level changes we use an oxygen isotope mass balance model combined with an analysis of predictions from the paleoclimate model intercomparison project 3 pmip3 climate model ensemble our isotope mass balance model predicts minimal precipitation increases of only 2 18 during the lgm relative to modern compared to an 75 increase in precipitation during the 15 19 ka highstand lgm pmip3 climate model simulations corroborate these findings simulating an average precipitation increase of only 6 5 relative to modern accompanied by a 28 decrease in total evaporation driven by a 7 c decrease in mean annual temperature lgm pmip3 climate model simulations also suggest a seasonal decoupling of runoff and precipitation with peak runoff shifting to the late spring early summer from the late winter early spring our coupled analyses suggest that moderate lake levels during the lgm were a result of reduced evaporation driven by reduced summer insolation and temperatures not by increased precipitation reduced evaporation primed basin and range lake systems particularly smaller isolated basins such as surprise valley to respond rapidly to increased precipitation during late heinrich stadial 1 hs1 post lgm highstands were potentially driven by increased rainfall during hs1 brought by latitudinally extensive and strengthened midlatitude westerly storm tracks the effects of which are recorded in the region9s lacustrine and glacial records these results suggest that seasonal insolation and reduced temperatures have been underinvestigated as long term drivers of moisture availability in the western united states

a 130 ka reconstruction of rainfall on the bolivian altiplano new efforts to link climate reconstructions from shoreline deposits and sediment cores yield an improved and more detailed lake history from the bolivian altiplano on the southern altiplano 10 lake oscillations have been identified from this new unified chronology each coincident with north atlantic cold events such as heinrich events h5 h2 h1 and the younger dryas by coupling this new lake history to a hydrologic budget model we are able to evaluate precipitation variability on the southern bolivian altiplano over the last 130 ka these modeling efforts underscore the relative aridity of the altiplano during the rare and small lake cycles occurring between 80 and 20 ka when colder temperatures combined with little or no change in rainfall produced smaller paleolakes relative aridity between 80 and 20 ka contrasts with the immense tauca lake cycle 18 1 14 1 ka which was six times larger than modern lake titicaca and coincided with heinrich event 1 this improved paleolake record from the southern altiplano reveals a strong link between central andean climate and atlantic sea surface temperature gradients during the late pleistocene even though today rainfall variability is driven mostly by pacific sea surface temperature anomalies associated with el nino southern oscillation however not all heinrich events appear to result in lake expansions most conspicuously during the global cold interval between 80 and 20 ka when the altiplano and amazon basin were relatively arid

isotopic tracers of paleohydrologic change in large lakes of the bolivian altiplano we have developed an 87sr 86sr 234u 238u and 18o data set from carbonates associated with late quaternary paleolake cycles on the southern bolivian altiplano as a tool for tracking and understanding the causes of lake level fluctuations distinctive groupings of 87sr 86sr ratios are observed ratios are highest for the ouki lake cycle 120 95 ka at 0 70932 lowest for coipasa lake cycle 12 8 11 4 ka at 0 70853 and intermediate at 0 70881 to 0 70884 for the salinas 95 80 ka inca huasi 45 ka sajsi 24 20 5 ka and tauca 18 1 14 1 ka lake cycles these sr ratios reflect variable contributions from the eastern and western cordilleras the laca hydrologic divide exerts a primary influence on modern and paleolake 87sr 86sr ratios waters show higher 87sr 86sr ratios north of this divide most lake cycles were sustained by slightly more rainfall north of this divide but with minimal input from lake titicaca the coipasa lake cycle appears to have been sustained mainly by rainfall south of this divide in contrast the ouki lake cycle was an expansive lake deepest in the northern poopo basin and spilling southward these results indicate that regional variability in central andean wet events can be reconstructed using geochemical patterns from this lake system

recovering the true size of an eocene hyperthermal from the marine sedimentary record 1 hyperthermals episodes of abrupt global warming associated with the massive injection of carbon into the oceans and atmosphere represent possible analogs for future climate change however uncertainties in their magnitude rate and duration arising as a result of mixing processes and changes in carbonate preservation as the sediment record is formed complicate their use in constraining climate sensitivity and the role of carbon cycle feedbacks here we use cgenie an earth system model of intermediate complexity to assess likely magnitude and rate of carbon input taking a small hyperthermal event from the early middle eocene c22nh3 49 2ma as a case study we develop an iterative method combined with a sediment model simulating the formation and mixing of deep sea sediments to converge on an estimate for the true magnitude of the carbon cycle perturbation in the atmosphere and ocean that drives the event in inverting the 0 95 benthic 13 cexcursion recorded atocean drilling program site 1258 we obtain an estimate of at least 1 45 for the atmospheric co2 13 c excursion that drove event c22nh3 we also assess controls on intersite variation of event shape in model sediments and find that sedimentation rate is the strongest determinant of modeled event size with higher sedimentation rate sites recording the atmospheric signal more accurately our revised estimate for the size of c22nh3 implies a total carbon input almost two thirds higher than would be deduced if the recorded 13 c excursion magnitude was taken at face value

effect of the formation of the isthmus of panama on atlantic ocean thermohaline circulation the late cenozoic closure of the seaway between the north andsouth american continents is thought to have caused extensive changes in ocean circulation and northern hemisphere climate1 2 but the timing and consequences of the emergence of the isthmus of panama which closed the seaway remain controversial1 2 3 4 5 here we present stable isotope and carbonate sand fraction records from caribbean sediments which when compared to atlantic and pacific palaeoceanographic records indicate that the closure caused a marked reorganization of ocean circulation starting 4 6 million years ago shallowing of the seaway intensified the gulf stream and introduced warm and saline water masses to high northern latitudes these changes strengthened deep water formation in the labrador sea over the next million years as indicated by an increased deep water ventilation and carbonate preservation in the caribbean sea and favoured early pliocene warming of the northern hemisphere the evaporative cooling of surface waters during north atlantic deep water formation would have introduced moisture to the northern hemisphere although the pronounced intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation between 3 1 and 2 5 million years ago substantially lagged the full development of north atlantic deep water formation we propose that the increased atmospheric moisture content was a necessary precondition for ice sheet growth which was then triggered by the incremental changes in the earth s orbital obliquity

deglacial changes in dust flux in the eastern equatorial pacific abstract atmospheric dust levels may play important roles in feedbacks linking continental source areas tropical convection marine productivity and global climate these feedbacks appear to be particularly significant in the tropical pacific where variations in local convection and productivity have been demonstrated to have impacts on climate at higher latitudes modeling of past dust levels and related feedbacks has been limited however by a paucity of observational data in this study we present a temporal and spatial survey of dust fluxes to the eastern equatorial pacific over the past 30 kyr glacial and holocene fluxes of 232th a proxy for continental material were calculated by normalization to 230th from a north south transect of cores along 110 w between 3 s and 7 n odp sites 848 853 fluxes were 30 100 higher during the last glacial suggesting increased dustiness in both hemispheres during the glacial period in both time periods dust fluxes decrease towards the south reflecting scavenging of northern hemisphere dust by precipitation at the itcz the holocene meridional dust flux gradient between 7 n and 3 s is characterized by a steep drop in dust levels at the southern edge of the modern range of the itcz while the gradient is shallower and more nearly linear during the last glacial this change may indicate that the glacial itcz in this region was a less effective barrier to inter hemispheric dust transport most likely due to a decrease in convective intensity and precipitation during the last glacial alternatively the change in gradient may be explained by increased variability in the location of the glacial itcz our data do not appear to require a mean southerly displacement of the glacial itcz as suggested by the results of other studies

new 230th u and 14c ages from lake lahontan carbonates nevada usa and a discussion of the origin of initial thorium five sets of coeval lacustrine carbonate samples from pleistocene lake lahontan in western nevada were dated by both the ams 14c and 230th u isochron methods all five groups of samples were analyzed for u th isotopes by alpha spectrometry and one of the groups was additionally measured by thermal and secondary ionization mass spectrometry tims and sims for comparison the 14c ages were corrected to calendar years using the calibration curve recommended by bard et al 1992 without local reservoir correction on the 14c ages mean 230th u isochron ages of some sets are apparently older than their calendar corrected 14c ages by up to 2300 years modern carbon contamination of these carbonate samples through recrystallization or deposition of secondary calcite is likely to be responsible for part of the age discrepancies we explored additional biases associated with the isochron ages maybe produced by the presence of initial th coprecipitated from the lake water it can be shown that if dissolved hydrogenous th is directly incorporated into the pure carbonates then the three component mixing among 1 detrital th 2 hydrogenous th adsorbed on detritus and 3 hydrogenous th incorporated by the carbonate can introduce a positive age bias we have developed an approach to estimate the magnitude of this bias of the lake lahontan carbonates the preliminary estimates suggest a positive age bias of 1000 to 2000 years for two sets of the samples

carbonate dissolution fluctuations in the western equatorial pacific during the late quaternary planktonic foraminiferal test fragmentation in three cores along a depth transect from the western equatorial pacific erdc 93p 1619 m rc17 177 2600 m v28 238 3120 m thompson 1976 were examined for the last 500 kyr at sample intervals from 2 5 to 5 kyr to study the fluctuations of dissolution in the western equatorial pacific the age models were constructed by correlating the 18o records with the specmap stack imbrie et al 1984 results showed that intermediate and deep waters experienced the same patterns of dissolution through climatic cycles fragmentation varied with a greater amplitude and the carbonate ion concentration changed less in the deep than in the intermediate water dissolution has significant variance distributions and coherencies with 18o over the 100 41 and 23 kyr periods of orbital variations dissolution maxima lag ice volume minima by 6 to 20 kyr the dissolution variability was consistent with recent geochemical models which seek to explain the reduction of atmospheric co2 concentration at the last glacial maximum broecker 1982 boyle 1988

rapid and sustained surface ocean acidification during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm has been associated with the release of several thousands of petagrams of carbon pg c as methane and or carbon dioxide into the ocean atmosphere system within 10 kyr on the basis of the co occurrence of a carbon isotope excursion cie widespread dissolution of deep sea carbonates and global warming in theory this rapid carbon release should have severely acidified the surface ocean though no geochemical evidence has yet been presented using boron based proxies for surface ocean carbonate chemistry we present the first observational evidence for a drop in the ph of surface and thermocline seawater during the petm planktic foraminifers from a drill site in the north pacific ocean drilling program site 1209 show a 0 8 decrease in boron isotopic composition 11b at the onset of the event along with a 30 40 reduction in shell b ca similar trends in 11b are present in two lower resolution records from the south atlantic and equatorial pacific these observations are consistent with significant global acidification of the surface ocean lasting at least 70 kyr and requiring sustained carbon release the anomalies in the b records are consistent with an initial surface ph drop of 0 3 units at the upper range of model based estimates of acidification

surviving rapid climate change in the deep sea during the paleogene hyperthermals predicting the impact of ongoing anthropogenic co2 emissions on calcifying marine organisms is complex owing to the synergy between direct changes acidification and indirect changes through climate change e g warming changes in ocean circulation and deoxygenation laboratory experiments particularly on longer lived organisms tend to be too short to reveal the potential of organisms to acclimatize adapt or evolve and usually do not incorporate multiple stressors we studied two examples of rapid carbon release in the geological record eocene thermal maximum 2 53 2 ma and the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm 55 5 ma the best analogs over the last 65 ma for future ocean acidification related to high atmospheric co2 levels we use benthic foraminifers which suffered severe extinction during the petm as a model group using synchrotron radiation x ray tomographic microscopy we reconstruct the calcification response of survivor species and find contrary to expectations that calcification significantly increased during the petm in contrast there was no significant response to the smaller eocene thermal maximum 2 which was associated with a minor change in diversity only these observations suggest that there is a response threshold for extinction and calcification response while highlighting the utility of the geological record in helping constrain the sensitivity of biotic response to environmental change

mass spectrometric 230th 234u 238u dating of the devils hole calcite vein the devils hole calcite vein contains a long term climatic record but requires accurate chronologic control for its interpretation mass spectrometric u series ages for samples from core dh 11 yielded 230 th ages with precisions ranging from less than 1 000 years 2 for samples younger than 140 ka thousands of years ago to less than 50 000 years for the oldest samples 566 ka the 234 u 238 u ages could be determined to a precision of 20 000 years for all ages calcite accumulated continuously from 566 ka until 60 ka at an average rate of 0 7 millimeter per 10 3 years the precise agreement between replicte analyses and the concordance of the 230 th 238 u 234 u 238 u ages for the oldest samples indicate that the dh 11 samples were closed systems and validate the dating technique in general

dynamics of fossil fuel co2 neutralization by marine caco3 a detailed model of the ocean circulation and carbon cycle was coupled to a mechanistic model of caco3 diagenesis in deep sea sediments to simulate the millennium scale response of the oceans to future fossil fuel co2 emissions to the atmosphere and deep sea simulations of deep sea injection of co2 show that caco3 dissolution is sensitive to passage of high co2 waters through the atlantic ocean but caco3 dissolution has a negligible impact on atmospheric pco2 or the atmospheric stabilization co2 emission in the coming centuries the ultimate fate of the fossil fuel co2 will be to react with caco3 on the seafloor and on land an initial caco3 dissolution spike reverses the net sedimentation rate in the ocean until it is attenuated by an enhanced vertical gradient of alkalinity after about 1000 years the magnitude of the initial spike is sensitive to assumptions about the kinetics for caco3 dissolution but subsequent behavior appears to be less model dependent neutralization by seafloor caco3 occurs on a timescale of 5 6 kyr and is limited to at most 60 70 of the fossil fuel release even if the fossil fuel release is smaller than the seafloor erodible inventory of caco3 additional neutralization by terrestrial caco3 restores a balance between caco3 weathering and seafloor accumulation on a timescale of 8 5 kyr while the deficit of seafloor caco3 the lysocline is replenished with an e folding timescale of approximately 18 kyr the final equilibrium with caco3 leaves 7 8 of the fossil fuel co2 remaining in the atmosphere to be neutralized by the silicate rock cycle on a time frame of hundreds of thousands of years

erratum to early to mid holocene aridity in central chile and the southern westerlies the laguna aculeo record 34 s quaternary res 58 2002 160 170

response of calcareous nannofossils to the paleocene eocene thermal maximum observations on composition preservation and calcification in sediments from odp site 1263 walvis ridge sw atlantic abstract in this study we present the results of a detailed analysis on calcareous nannofossil assemblages from sediment cores of odp site 1263 southern east atlantic walvis ridge this section represents one of the few complete deep sea sections that document the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm in the pelagic realm the petm transient event was characterized by a brief but intense interval of global warming a global negative carbon isotope excursion cie and widespread dissolution of seafloor carbonate sediments paired analysis at polarizing light microscope lm and scanning electron microscope sem documents the different behavior of nannofossils through the different phases of the petm at the onset of cie within the cie and during the recovery interval the presence of anomalous specimens and morphotypes within some nannofossil taxa recorded during previous lm high resolution analyses has been further investigated in selected samples at the sem besides the known representatives of the cie petm excursion nanno flora as rhomboaster calcitrapa group and discoaster anartios the analysis revealed the presence of peculiar morphotypes of fasciculithus and deformed specimens of discoaster nobilis group discoaster mediosus and discoaster multiradiatus that are considered related to the anomalous amount of co2 in the ocean atmosphere system during the early phase of petm comparative analyses were performed in few selected samples from other petm sections located at different latitudes in the atlantic and pacific oceans although the anomalous geochemical conditions during the petm cie interval seem to have had some influence on the nannofossil production calcification and assemblage composition it results that local productivity together with post depositional diagenetic conditions were additional important controlling factors on nannofossil assemblages preliminary data from eocene thermal maximum 2 etm2 or elmo suggest that nannofossil malformations are not exclusive of the petm and are associated to other episodes of perturbation of the c cycle

u series isochron dating a generalized method employing total sample dissolution the age of a sedimentary deposit can be determined by measuring 238u 234u 232th and 230th in two or more samples of the deposit with the requirement that these samples have different u th ratios but an identical 230th232th ratio when deposited this paper presents the theoretical and experimental aspects of the dating method the latter involves techniques for securing samples of varied u th ratios from the same deposit plotting isochrons of the radiochemical data obtained on totally dissolved samples for age analysis and estimating the errors involved although applications to impure carbonates and lacustrine evaporite sediments are given as examples in this paper the method potentially can be generalized for dating a variety of authigenic deposits such as rock varnish peat opal sulfate minerals and marine phosphorites

complexity of saharan paleoclimate reconstruction and implications for modern human migration abstract chronological and geochemical data from scarp and scarp foot depression sediments ssds have been used for deciphering saharan paleoclimates and patterns of migration of anatomically modern humans amh u th dating of thick accumulations of ssds indicates prevalent deposition during long lasting cool glacial periods marine isotope stage mis 6 8 10 and 12 and limited deposition during warm interglacial periods mis 5 7 and 13 in contrast quaternary sediments associated with short residence hydrologic systems in sinai yielded mis 2 osl ages of 27 7 to 10 2 ka the lack of ssds of mis 2 ages and the wide range of warm and cool stages in eastern sahara is attributed to 1 lengthy travel times of groundwater prior to discharge and deposition of ssds from deep groundwater originating from distant sources and 2 sampling and dating of ssds from depressions where natural discharge has been apparently continuous through wet and dry periods given that the previously dated depression ssds could have been deposited during dry periods and that the ages of ssds reflect the timing of groundwater discharge rather than the ages of the wet periods during which recharge occurred we suggest that earlier interpretations of saharan paleoclimate and amh migrations that heavily relied on dating of ssds should be revisited

on the duration of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm 1 the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm is one of the best known examples of a transient climate perturbation associated with a brief but intense interval of global warming and a massive perturbation of the global carbon cycle from injection of isotopically light carbon into the ocean atmosphere system one key to quantifying the mass of carbon released identifying the source s and understanding the ultimate fate of this carbon is to develop high resolution age models two independent strategies have been employed cycle stratigraphy and analysis of extraterrestrial helium heet both of which were first tested on ocean drilling program odp site 690 these two methods are in agreement for the onset of the petm and initial recovery or the clay layer main body but seem to differ in the final recovery phase of the event above the clay layer where the carbonate contents rise and carbon isotope values return toward background values here we present a state of the art age model for the petm derived from a new orbital chronology developed with cycle stratigraphic records from sites drilled during odp leg 208 walvis ridge southeastern atlantic integrated with published records from site 690 weddell sea southern ocean odp leg 113 during leg 208 five paleocene eocene p e boundary sections sites 1262 to 1267 were recovered in multiple holes over a depth transect of more than 2200 m at the walvis ridge yielding the first stratigraphically complete p e deep sea sequence with moderate to relatively high sedimentation rates 1 to 3 cm ka where a is years a detailed chronology was developed with nondestructive x ray fluorescence xrf core scanning records on the scale of precession cycles with a total duration of the petm now estimated to be 170 ka the revised cycle stratigraphic record confirms original estimates for the duration of the onset and initial recovery but suggests a new duration for the final recovery that is intermediate to the previous estimates by cycle stratigraphy and heet

new chronology for the late paleocene thermal maximum and its environmental implications the late paleocene thermal maximum lptm is associated with a brief but intense interval of global warming and a massive perturbation of the global carbon cycle we have developed a new orbital chronology for ocean drilling program odp site 690 weddell sea southern ocean by using spectral analysis of high resolution geochemical records the lptm interval spans 11 precessional cycles yielding a duration of 210 to 220 k y the 13 c anomaly associated with the lptm has a magnitude of about 2 5 to 3 we show that about 2 of the excursion occurs within two steps that each were less than 1000 yr in duration the remainder developed through a series of steps over 52 k y the timing of these steps is consistent with a series of nearly catastrophic releases of methane from gas hydrates punctuated by intervals of relative equilibria between hydrate dissociation and carbon burial further we are able to correlate the records between odp sites 690 and 1051 western north atlantic on the scale of 21 k y cycles which demonstrates that the details of the 13 c excursion are recognizable between distant sites comparison of cycle records at sites 690 and 1051 suggests that sediment representing the interval 30 k y just prior to and at the onset of the lptm are missing in the latter location this unconformity probably resulted from slope failure accompanying methane hydrate dissociation within 10 k y of the start of the lptm

an evaluation of uranium series dating of fossil echinoids from southern california pleistocene marine terraces abstract fossil sea urchins strongylocentrotus from pleistocene marine terraces on the southern california channel islands have been dated by the uranium series method in order to test the suitability of echinoids for dating marine terraces results indicate that urchin plates and spines do not behave as closed systems with respect to both uranium and thorium calculated ages based on these data do not agree with uranium series ages 120 000 and 127 000 yrs obtained previously from corals from the same localities thus fossil sea urchins strongylocentrotus are not considered suitable for uraniumseries dating of pleistocene marine terrace deposits

isotopic fractionation during leaching of impure carbonates and their effect on uranium series dating abstract experiments were designed to evaluate the behaviour of detritus during the leaching of impure carbonates by applying the u th isochron technique we used one natural detritus and a pure well dated caco 3 alone and in artificial mixtures one set of experiments was designed to study the effects of sample pre treatment on the detritus and a second set to examine the effect of acid attacks on both the carbonate and the detritus fractions in a mixture of constant proportions for both sets of data the extracted fraction from the detritus was calculated for 238 u 234 u 230 th and 232 th and their constancy established these conditions are necessary to apply the l l method schwarcz h p latham a g 1989 dirty calcites 1 uranium series dating of contaminated calcite using leachates alone chemical geology isotopes geoscience section 80 35 43 for u th dating finally the l l method was applied to the artificial impure carbonate and the resulting age is found in agreement with the age of the pure carbonate sample we concluded that conditions of the l l method to be applied for ageing impure carbonates hold

lake level chronology on the southern bolivian altiplano 18 23 s during late glacial time and the early holocene stratigraphic analyses of outcrops shorelines and diatoms from the southern bolivian altiplano uyuni coipasa basin reveal two major lacustrine phases during the late glacial period and the early holocene based on a chronology established by radiocarbon and u th control a comparison of14c and230th 234u ages shows that during times of high lake level radiocarbon ages are valid however during low water periods 14c ages must be corrected for a reservoir effect the lacustrine tauca phase started a little before 16 00014c yr b p and the lake level reached its maximum between 13 000 and 12 00014c yr b p a dry event ticana occurred after ca 12 000 and before 950014c yr b p a moderate lacustrine oscillation coipasa event occurred between ca 9500 and 850014c yr b p using a reservoir corrected conventional14c chronology comparisons between the lake level chronology in the uyuni coipasa basin and data from other southern tropical areas of south america suggest that the lacustrine evolution may reflect large scale climatic changes

protactinium 231 dating of carbonates by thermal ionization mass spectrometry implications for quaternary climate change measurement of protactinium 231 231pa in carbonates by thermal ionization mass spectroscopy yields 231pa ages that are more than 10 times more precise than those determined by decay counting carbonates between 10 and 250 000 years old can now be dated with 231pa methods barbados corals that have identical 231pa and thorium 230 230th ages indicate that the timing of sea level change over parts of the last glacial cycle is consistent with the predictions of the astronomical theory two devils hole calcite subsamples record identical 231pa and 230th ages suggesting that the chronology of this climate record is accurate

lake highstands on the altiplano tropical andes contemporaneous with heinrich 1 and the younger dryas new insights from 14 c u th dating and δ 18 o of carbonates this study provides new geochronological and stable isotope constraints on late pleistocene fluctuations in lake level that occurred in the closed watershed of the central altiplano between 25 and 12 ka u series isochrons and 14 c ages from carbonates are used to confirm and refine the previous chronology published placzek et al 2006b our new data support three successive lake highstands during the late pleistocene i the lake sajsi cycle from 25 to 19 ka that culminated at 3670 m at about 22 ka almost synchronously with the global last glacial maximum ii the lake tauca cycle that lasted from 18 to 14 5 ka and was characterized by the highest water level reached at least 3770 m from 16 5 to 15 ka iii the lake coipasa cycle from 12 5 to 11 9 ka that reached an elevation of 3700 m 42 m above the elevation of the salar de uyuni 3658 m these high amplitude lake level fluctuations are in phase with the cold warm oscillations that occurred in the north atlantic and greenland during the late pleistocene heinrich 1 bolling allerod younger dryas such temporal coincidence supports the hypothesis that wet events recorded in the central altiplano are controlled by the northesouth displacement of the inter tropical convergence zone resulting from changes in the meridional temperature gradient finally the oxygen isotope ratios measured in these lacustrine carbonates allows for calculation of the 18 o value of paleolake waters estimates of water 18 o v smow are 2 8 0 7 for lake tauca and 1 6 0 9 for lake coipasa these data are used to constrain changes in lake hydrology and can be interpreted to indicate that the proportion of precipitation arising from local water recycling was less than 50

in situ δ18o and mg ca analyses of diagenetic and planktic foraminiferal calcite preserved in a deep sea record of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum we report 18o and minor element mg ca sr ca data acquired by high resolution in situ secondary ion mass spectrometry sims from planktic foraminiferal shells and 100 500 m sized diagenetic crystallites recovered from a deep sea record odp site 865 of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm the 18o of crystallites 1 2 pee dee belemnite pdb is 4 8 higher than that of planktic foraminiferal calcite 3 6 pdb while crystallite mg ca and sr ca ratios are slightly higher and substantially lower than in planktic foraminiferal calcite respectively the focused stratigraphic distribution of the crystallites signals an association with petm conditions hence we attribute their formation to early diagenesis initially sourced by seafloor dissolution burndown ensued by reprecipitation at higher carbonate saturation the mg ca ratios of the crystallites are an order of magnitude lower than those predicted by inorganic precipitation experiments which may reflect a degree of inheritance from donor phases of biogenic calcite that underwent solution in the sediment column in addition sims 18o and electron microprobe mg ca analyses that were taken within a planktic foraminiferal shell yield parallel increases along traverses that coincide with muricae blades on the chamber wall the parallel 18o and mg ca increases indicate a diagenetic origin for the blades but their 18o value 0 5 pdb is lower than that of crystallites suggesting that these two phases of diagenetic carbonate formed at different times finally we posit that elevated levels of early diagenesis acted in concert with sediment mixing and carbonate dissolution to attenuate the 18o decrease signaling petm warming in whole shell records published for site 865

geochronology and stratigraphy of late pleistocene lake cycles on the southern bolivian altiplano implications for causes of tropical climate change large paleolakes 33 000 60 000 km2 that once occupied the high altitude poopo coipasa and uyuni basins in southern bolivia 18 22 s provide evidence of major changes in low latitude moisture in these now dry or oligosaline basins extensive natural exposure reveals evidence for two deep lake and several minor lake cycles over the past 120 k y fifty three new u th and 87 new 14c dates provide a chronologic framework for changes in lake level deposits from the ouki deep lake cycle are extensively exposed in the poopo basin but no deep lakes are apparent in the record between 98 and 18 1 ka the ouki lake cycle was 80 m deep and nineteen u th dates place this deep lake cycle between 120 and 98 ka shallow lakes were present in the terminal uyuni basin between 95 and 80 ka salinas lake cycle at ca 46 inca huasi lake cycle and between 24 and 20 5 ka sajsi lake cycle the tauca deep lake cycle occurred between 18 1 and 14 1 ka resulting in the deepest 140 m and largest lake in the basin over the past 120 ka multiple 14c and u th dates constrain the highest stand of lake tauca along a topographically conspicuous shoreline between 16 4 and 14 1 ka a probable post tauca lake cycle the coipasa produced a 55 m deep lake that is tentatively dated between 13 and 11 ka we suggest that paleolakes on the bolivian altiplano expanded in response to increased moisture in the amazon and enhanced transport of that moisture onto the altiplano by strengthened trade winds or southward displacement of the intertropical convergence zone itcz pole to equator sea surface temperature sst and atmospheric gradients may have influenced the position of the itcz affecting moisture balance over the altiplano and at other locations in the amazon basin links between the position of the itcz and the ca 23 ka precessional solar cycle have been postulated march insolation over the altiplano is a relatively good fit to our lake record but no single season or latitude of solar cycling has yet to emerge as the primary driver of climate over the entire amazon basin temperature may influence altiplano lake levels indirectly as potentially dry glacial periods in the amazon basin are linked to dry conditions on the altiplano intensification of the trade winds associated with la nina like conditions currently brings increased precipitation on the altiplano and deep lake development during the tauca lake cycle coincided with apparently intense and persistent la nina like conditions in the central pacific this suggests that sst gradients in the pacific are also a major influence on deep lake development on the altiplano

reversed deep sea carbonate ion basin gradient during paleocene eocene thermal maximum 1 the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm 55 ma ago was marked by widespread caco3 dissolution in deep sea sediments a process that has been attributed to massive release of carbon into the ocean atmosphere system the pattern of carbonate dissolution is key to reconstructing changes in deep sea carbonate chemistry and ultimately the rate magnitude and location of carbon input here we show that during the petm the deep sea undersaturation was not homogeneous among the different ocean basins application of a sediment model to a suite of data records from different sites and ocean basins shows that a globally uniform decrease in deep sea carbonate ion concentration co32 is inconsistent with the data rather we demonstrate that deep sea co32 increased from the atlantic through the southern ocean into the pacific our results show that the petm deep sea co32 basin gradient during dissolution was reversed relative to the modern

u series dating of impure carbonates an isochron technique using total sample dissolution abstract u series dating is a well established technique for age determination of late quaternary carbonates materials of sufficient purity for nominal dating however are not as common as materials with mechanically inseparable aluminosilicate detritus detritus contaminates the sample with extraneous th we propose that correction for contamination is best accomplished with the isochron technique using total sample dissolution tsd experiments were conducted on artificial mixtures of natural detritus and carbonate and on an impure carbonate of known age results show that significant and unpredictable transfer of radionuclides occur from the detritus to the leachate in commonly used selective leaching procedures the effects of correcting via leachate residue pairs and isochron plots were assessed isochrons using tsd gave best results followed by isochron plots of leachates only

depth dependency of the paleocene eocene carbon isotope excursion paired benthic and terrestrial biomarker records ocean drilling program leg 208 walvis ridge 1 the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm coincided with a negative carbon isotope excursion cie in carbonate and organic matter in terrestrial and marine records consequently the petm global warming of 5 6 c has been attributed to the rapid emission of a large amount of isotopically light carbon into the ocean atmosphere system and the magnitude of the cie has been used to estimate the amount of carbon greenhouse gas emitted however there are large discrepancies between the magnitude of the cie in marine and in terrestrial material in different types of marine carbonate records bulk carbonate planktic and benthic foraminiferal carbonate and in marine carbonate records from different locations the marine carbonate record of the cie may be incomplete in most deep sea bathyal abyssal locations because of ocean acidification and widespread dissolution of seafloor carbonates we demonstrate that the cie in benthic foraminiferal stable isotope records is relatively abrupt and not as gradual as portrayed in bulk carbonate records along the walvis ridge depth transect se atlantic the benthic cie is about 1 5 at 3600 m paleodepth in contrast to about 3 5 at 1500 m paleodepth consistent with depth dependent truncation by carbonate dissolution strong covariance between the benthic record and the stable carbon isotope values of terrestrial n alkanes isolated from the same core i e site 1263 supports a relatively rapid excursion of at least 3 5 but no more than 5 0

impact of dissolution on the sedimentary record of the paleocene eocene thermal maximum the input of massive amounts of carbon to the atmosphere and ocean at the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm 55 53 ma resulted in pervasive carbonate dissolution at the seafloor at many sites this dissolution also penetrated into the underlying sediment column the magnitude of dissolution at and below the seafloor a process known as chemical erosion and its effect on the stratigraphy of the petm are notoriously difficult to constrain here we illuminate the impact of dissolution by analyzing the complete spectrum of sedimentological grain sizes across the petm at three deep sea sites characterized by a range of bottom water dissolution intensity we show that the grain size spectrum provides a measure of the sediment fraction lost during dissolution we compare these data with dissolution and other proxy records electron micrograph observations of samples and lithology the complete data set indicates that the two sites with slower carbonate accumulation and less active bioturbation are characterized by significant chemical erosion at the third site higher carbonate accumulation rates more active bioturbation and possibly winnowing have limited the impacts of dissolution however grain size data suggest that bioturbation and winnowing were not sufficiently intense to diminish the fidelity of isotopic and microfossil assemblage records

glacial interglacial changes in moisture balance and the impact on vegetation in the southern hemisphere tropical andes bolivia peru abstract a palynological investigation of the last glacial interglacial cycle in the southern hemisphere tropical andes reveals changes in the moisture balance as the main driver in vegetation change thirty accelerator mass spectrometry radiocarbon dates biostratigraphy and tephra correlation reveal that a 119 m sediment core recovered from the huinaimarca sub basin of lake titicaca 16 0 to 17 5 s 68 5 to 70 w 3810 masl contains sediments covering 151 000 years correlation of aridity indicators with precessional variations in insolation is used to fine tune the structure of the age depth curve within this period variations in isoetes concentration above below 10 000 grains cm3 identify the extent of shallow water environments examination of another palaeolimnological indicator pediastrum and consideration of the bathymetry of the huinaimarca sub basin allow the reconstruction of lake level fluctuations these data indicate five wet dry cycles between c 151 000 and 14 200 cal yr bp high stands are suggested during the transition into c 134 000 cal yr bp and out of c 114 000 and 92 000 cal yr bp the last interglacial and during full glacial conditions c 70 000 and 45 000 cal yr bp these cycles are superimposed on a general trend of deepening lake levels through the glacial period this interpretation is supported by correlation with sediments from salar de uyuni 20 s 68 w 3653 masl the youngest wet episode is concurrent with palaeolake minchin c 45 000 cal yr bp with further evidence for an additional wet period commencing c 28 000 cal yr bp concomitant with palaeolake tauca the timing of lake level fluctuations is also supported by palaeoshoreline reconstructions from the uyuni poopo region however our data do not suggest a major peak in lake level in huinaimarca during the ouki lake cycle c 120 000 98 000 cal yr bp as inferred from u th ages obtained from palaeoshorelines around lago poopo the most extreme dry event occurs during the last interglacial period and resulted in a sedimentary hiatus tentatively dated to c 121 000 129 000 cal yr bp the observed wet dry cycles are shown to have a marked and rapid impact on the vegetation the aridity of the last interglacial promoted a community dominated by chenopodiaceae amaranthacae with no modern andean analogue polylepis acaena pollen is also shown to fluctuate markedly 0 20 particularly during the transitions into and out of the last interglacial it is probable that this pollen taxon is primarily representative of the high altitude arboreal genus polylepis which is a key component of highly biodiverse andean woodlands today rapid fluctuations indicate the sensitivity of this ecosystem to natural environmental pressure and potential vulnerability to future human impact and climate change the 100 000 year eccentricity solar cycle is shown to be the major controlling factor in moisture balance and vegetation over the last glacial interglacial cycle however significant fluctuations in moisture balance are also evident on timescales considerably shorter than the full glacial interglacial cycle we have linked these to precessional 21 000 year forcing nevertheless precise independent dating during the full glacial cycle is required to confirm the importance of this forcing mechanism

crustal structure and fault geometry of the 2010 haiti earthquake from temporary seismometer deployments haiti has been the locus of a number of large and damaging historical earthquakes the recent 12 january 2010 mw 7 0 earthquake affected cities that were largely unprepared which resulted in tremendous losses it was initially assumed that the earthquake ruptured the enriquillo plantain garden fault epgf a major active structure in southern haiti known from geodetic measurements and its geomorphic expression to be capable of producing m 7 or larger earthquakes global positioning systems gps and interferometric synthetic aperture radar insar data however showed that the event ruptured a previously unmapped fault the leog ne fault a north dipping oblique transpressional fault located immediately north of the epgf following the earthquake several groups installed temporary seismic stations to record aftershocks including ocean bottom seismometers on either side of the epgf we use data from the complete set of stations deployed after the event on land and offshore to relocate all aftershocks from 10 february to 24 june 2010 determine a 1d regional crustal velocity model and calculate focal mechanisms the aftershock locations from the combined dataset clearly delineate the leog ne fault with a geometry close to that inferred from geodetic data its strike and dip closely agree with the global centroid moment tensor solution of the mainshock but with a steeper dip than inferred from previous finite fault inversions the aftershocks also delineate a structure with shallower southward dip offshore and to the west of the rupture zone which could indicate triggered seismicity on the offshore trois baies reverse fault we use first motion focal mechanisms to clarify the relationship of the fault geometry to the triggered aftershocks

regulation of atmospheric co2 by deep sea sediments in an earth system model 1 we have extended the genie 1 earth system model to include a representation of sedimentary stratigraphy and the preservation of biogenic carbonates delivered to the ocean floor this has enabled us to take a novel approach in diagnosing modern marine carbon cycling assimilating observation of the calcium carbonate caco3 content of deep sea sediments with an ensemble kalman filter the resulting calibrated model predicts a mean surface sediment content 32 5 wt close to the observed value 34 8 wt and a global burial rate of caco3 in deep sea sediments of 0 121 pgc yr 1 in line with recent budget estimates of 0 10 0 14 pgc yr 1 we employ the genie 1 model in quantifying the multimillennial scale fate of fossil fuel co2 emitted to the atmosphere in the absence of any interaction between ocean and sediments an equilibrium partitioning of co2 is reached within 1000 years of emissions ceasing with 34 645 ppm remaining in the atmosphere out of a total fossil fuel burn of 4173 pgc an additional 12 of co2 emissions 223 ppm are sequestered as bicarbonate ions hco3 by reaction with deep sea carbonates seafloor caco3 neutralization on a timescale of 1 7 ka excess of carbonate weathering on land over deep sea burial results in a further net transformation of 14 of co2 emissions 261 ppm into hco3 terrestrial caco3 neutralization on a timescale of 8 3 ka we have also assessed the importance of a changing climate in modulating the stabilization of atmospheric co2 through ocean sediment interaction increased ocean stratification suppresses particulate organic carbon export which in turn enhances seafloor caco3 preservation the resulting reduction in the sequestration of fossil fuel co2 represents a new positive feedback on millennial scale climate change

use of uranium thorium dating to determine past 14c reservoir effects in lakes examples from antarctica the chronologies of many lacustrine records suffer from radiocarbon reservoir effects due to the presence of dissolved dead carbon or to slow air water exchange here we use the tims uranium thorium disequilibrium method in conjunction with ams radiocarbon dating to determine the age of lacustrine carbonates and to quantify the past radiocarbon reservoir effect in two antarctic lakes with differing characteristics by correcting a single sample u th age for detrital contamination a 14 c offset of v18 000 yr was obtained for carbonates from the former grounding line of the ross sea ice sheet in glacial lake trowbridge this large reservoir effect is believed to result from the direct input of old co2 from glacial meltwater in the second example an isochron approach on coeval samples formed at the bottom of lake vida now exposed due to lower lake level yielded an age of 9550 340 yr b p and a radiocarbon reservoir age of 3600 yr this offset was probably the result of lack of aeration due to perennial ice cover and or strong density stratification this evidence for long term isolation of the lake bottom indicates another level of hardship for life in the dry valley lacustrine environment an environment studied as an analogue for extreme periods of earth history as well as for exobiological implications the success of the u th technique on these two examples indicates that tims u th dating will be of widespread use in dating the important climate information recorded in the dry valleys both within and beyond the 14 c age range fl 2001 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

uranium series age estimates and paleoclimatic significance of pleistocene tufas from the lahontan basin california and nevada abstract an extended chronology of lahontan basin lake levels based on uranium series age estimates correlates with the global ice volume record lake highstands occur at or shortly after times of maximum ice sheet size moderate size lakes occur when the global ice volume is about 80 of its maximum the data indicate that lake levels rise and fall relative to the proximity of the mean position of the jetstream when the continental ice sheet is above some threshold size or shape it appears that the large scale circulation and climatic conditions are right for producing lakes of moderate to large size within the lahontan basin

direct u th dating of organic and carbonate rich lake sediments from southern scandinavia u th ages of holocene lacustrine sediments from southern sweden have been determined to assess the reliability of this technique for dating climatic events from the last interglacial glacial interglacial cycle and for calibration of the14c dating method the sediments are organic and carbonate rich and they are shown to be very well suited to high precision238u 234u 230th dating by thermal ionisation mass spectrometry tims twenty one samples from 2 58 m of sediment from lake igelsjon southern sweden yield ages between 3058 89 and 9426 262 yr 2 error the sediments consist of hydrogenous calcium carbonate 50 90 organic matter 5 50 and siliceous residue 5 the high u contents of the lake sediments between 6 and 76 ppm are in contrast to the low concentrations in the lake and groudwater 1 9 and 3 2 ppb respectively and mass balance calculations based on u content of water and sediments can be used to calculate a lakewter residence time of 24 days which is close to the residence time calculated using hydrologic data recent ground and lakewater 234u 238u 0 920 is enriched in 234u compared to soils from the catchment area 234u 238u 0 587 and 234u 238u in the lake sediments shows a marked decrease with time from 0 958 at 9426 yr bp to 0 919 at 3058 yr bp this is attributed to progressive leaching of u from soils which have experienced a previous history of recoil related u loss and it indicates that the assumption of constant initial 234u 238u ratios may be a source of significant error in the calculation of 234u 238u ages for continental deposits

interpreting transient carbonate compensation depth changes by marine sediment core modeling 1 with the advent of computationally fast intermediate complexity models of earth s climate and carbon cycle the marine record can be interpreted much more directly than before specifically the mechanistic simulation of deep sea sediment cores provides an important step in bridging the model data divide here i use this methodology to help interpret the excursion in carbonate compensation depth ccd during the paleoceneeocene thermal maximum that is recorded in cores recovered from walvis ridge in the south atlantic by explicitly simulating the expected geological record of a massive co2 release in an earth system model i show how reduction in the intensity of subsurface mixing of the sediment by benthic animals substantially magnifies the recorded shoaling of the ccd conversely to quantify correctly the carbon release consistent with the observed ccd changes one must account for any bioturbational changes a reduction in sediment mixing intensity also appears to be important to reproducing the sharpness of the contact between carbonate rich late paleocene sediments and the overlying early eocene clay layer at walvis ridge assuming a relatively rapid approximately 1 ka duration co2 release further helps to account for some of the paleoceanographic observations finally interbasin differences in bioturbational regime help resolve some of the observed disparity in carbonate preservation between walvis ridge and sites outside of the atlantic although changes in ocean ventilation and circulation are also likely to play a critical role in this

cosmogenic 3he production rate in the high tropical andes 3800 m 20 s implications for the local last glacial maximum abstract to improve both precision and accuracy of cosmic ray exposure dating methods there is a crucial need of calibration sites constraining the production rate of cosmogenic isotopes this is particularly true in the high tropical area where existing scaling models present significant discrepancies this study presents a new calibration site for cosmogenic 3he located at 3800 m in the tropical altiplano 19 9 s 67 6 w on the southern flank of the tunupa volcano in the vicinity of the salar de uyuni it consists in a fluvio glacial outwash that is stratigraphically bracketed by two successive lacustrine shorelines these shorelines are well dated by 14c and u series dating n 57 allowing determination of the age of the boulder field at the surface of the delta at 15 3 0 5 ka 1 eleven andesitic boulders were sampled on this fluvio glacial surface and the cosmogenic 3he contents of their pyroxene phenocrysts and amphiboles was analyzed the nucleogenic contribution from 6li capture is well constrained by determining the u th sm 4he age of these rocks this correction is minimal combined with the absolute dating of the delta these 3hec data yield a local production rate of 999 38 1 at g 1 yr 1 at 3800 m and 19 89 s after scaling with the time dependent scaling scheme of stone 2000 this result yields a rate of 121 5 1 at g 1 yr 1 at high latitude and sea level this new calibration is the highest among the existing global dataset it will thus permit the establishment of new robust glacial chronologies in the high tropics with an uncertainty lower than 5 at 1 such precision may have important implications in paleoclimatology notably because it will allow comparison with other well dated paleoclimatic archives including this new data the updated global 3hec production rate is 122 15 at g 1 yr 1 using the time dependent scaling of stone 2000 the new site specific 3hec production rate is used here to refine glacier fluctuations on cerro tunupa confirming that the local last glacial maximum was synchronous with the lake tauca highstand 15 5 ka data also suggest that a dramatic glacial retreat occurred at about 15 ka few hundred years before the lake tauca regression synchronously with the onset of the bolling allerod

laser vs settling velocity differences in silt grainsize measurements estimation of palaeocurrent vigour the use of grain size distribution of muds for the reconstruction of past deep ocean currents is becoming established and applied in the palaeoceanographic community the methods are also applicable to shallow marine and tidal flat muds with similar inferences concerning the energy of wave and current sorting being drawn fine sediment grain size distributions can be obtained using a variety of instruments based on fundamentally different theoretical principles these machines may give varying sometimes misleading results giving divergent interpretations of flow speed history the new evidence presented here combined with earlier work suggests that of the three most commonly used analytical methods for fine silts with clays settling velocity sedigraph should be the method and instrument of choice with electrical resistance pulse counters e g coulter counter as a suitable alternative the data also show that laser particle sizers should be avoided for palaeocurrent reconstructions because the measured size of platey minerals can be dominated by their large projected area this causes them to be recorded as the same size as larger equant grains although they have much smaller settling velocity and were deposited in aggregates this produces results with a weaker relationship to the dynamics of deposition the central problem is thus that some coarse clay fine silt is recorded as medium to coarse silt the key size in the sortable silt mean size method of inferring changes in flow speed for coarse silts e g loess the laser gives more satisfactory results

patterns and magnitude of deep sea carbonate dissolution during eocene thermal maximum 2 and h2 walvis ridge southeastern atlantic ocean 1 eocene thermal maximum 2 etm2 or h1 53 7 ma represents a short lived warming episode associated with the injection of a large mass of 13c depleted carbon into the ocean atmosphere system the mass of injected carbon the extent of deep sea dissolution and the amount of warming during etm2 appear to be approximately half of those documented for the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm 55 5 ma but the pattern of lysocline migration during etm2 has not yet been documented sufficiently to decipher potential differences in carbon sources and sequestration mechanisms we present high resolution carbonate dissolution and bulk stable isotope records across etm2 and the successive h2 event 53 6 ma on a common age model for four sites along the walvis ridge depth transect 1500 to 3600 m paleowater depth to assess lysocline evolution the onset of etm2 is characterized by multiple depth dependent transitions of carbonate dissolution up to 96 of the total flux associated with rapid depletions in bulk carbonate carbon up to 1 1 5 and oxygen up to 0 7 1 5 isotope values h2 shows a 0 7 negative carbon isotope excursion with a coeval decrease in 18o of 0 5 and 80 of carbonate dissolution during etm2 the lysocline recovered within 30 ka we attribute this rapid recovery to terrestrial caco3 neutralization through enhanced chemical weathering of carbonates in soils and rocks according to theory carbonate dissolution was lower after recovery than prior to etm2 indicating carbonate ion oversaturation and a deeper position of the lysocline spectral analysis indicates that the changes in carbonate dissolution and 13c values were precession paced implying that weathering feedbacks and short term perturbations in the carbon cycle were important in determining early eocene background and hyperthermal ocean co32 conditions

a large drop in atmospheric 14c 12c and reduced melting in the younger dryas documented with 230th ages of corals paired carbon 14 14 c and thorium 230 230 th ages were determined on fossil corals from the huon peninsula papua new guinea the ages were used to calibrate part of the 14 c time scale and to estimate rates of sea level rise during the last deglaciation an abrupt offset between the 14 c and 230 th ages suggests that the atmospheric 14 c 12 c ratio dropped by 15 percent during the latter part of and after the younger dryas yd this prominent drop coincides with greatly reduced rates of sea level rise reduction of melting because of cooler conditions during the yd may have caused an increase in the rate of ocean ventilation which caused the atmospheric 14 c 12 c ratio to fall the record of sea level rise also shows that globally averaged rates of melting were relatively high at the beginning of the yd thus these measurements satisfy one of the conditions required by the hypothesis that the diversion of meltwater from the mississippi to the st lawrence river triggered the yd event

limited range of interspecific vital effects in coccolith stable isotopic records during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum 1 small but significant differences exist among stable carbon and oxygen isotopic excursions measured in coccolith dominated bulk carbonate and planktic foraminifera during the paleocene eocene thermal maximum petm one hypothesis suggests that the bulk carbonate isotopic record is compromised by changing nannofossil assemblages since modern nannofossils show a large 5 permil range of interspecific vital effects new techniques are employed here to separate different size fractions of coccoliths from petm sediments at odp site 690 for isotopic analysis removing a major portion of the variation in nannofossil assemblages isotopic compositions of coarse and fine coccolith fractions dominated by coccoliths of genus chiasmolithus and toweius respectively differ by less than 0 5 permil for both oxygen and carbon the near monogeneric toweius record closely parallels the main trends in the bulk carbonate isotope records including multiple steps in the negative carbon isotopic excursion suggesting that the trends in the bulk carbonate record are not artifacts of changing species assemblages because both coccolithophorids and symbiont bearing foraminifera like acarinina must inhabit the photic zone it is unlikely that the 103 year lags in isotope event onset between coccoliths and acarinina reflect true time transgressive invasion of isotopically depleted co2 into the water column the small range of vital effects among paleocene coccoliths is unlikely to result from diagenetic homogenization and instead may reflect more similar carbon acquisition strategies of paleocene coccolithophorid algae due to larger and or more similar cell sizes and higher atmospheric carbon dioxide the small range of vital effects suggests that bulk carbonate records are likely reliable for other early and pre cenozoic sediments where foraminifera are often scarce

u th dating of lake lisan late pleistocene dead sea aragonite and implications for glacial east mediterranean climate change u series dating can be an effective means to obtain accurate and precise ages on quaternary carbonates however most samples require a correction for u and th in admixed detritus this complication is often addressed through generation of u th isochrons requiring analyses of several coeval samples in addition presence of water derived hydrogenous th in the carbonate can cause inaccuracies in isochron ages this study reports a high resolution u series chronology of sediments deposited by lake lisan the last glacial precursor of the dead sea the strategy employed combines multiple measurements from a few stratigraphic heights and fewer analyses from many heights in a single described and measured section the resulting chronology is based on ages at 22 heights in a 40 m thick section covering the interval of 70 14 calendar ka bp the effects of admixed detritus are evaluated using trace elements nearly pure aragonite samples indicated by very low abundances of insoluble elements such as nb and zr were found to contain hydrogenous th which causes the uncorrected u 230th age of a modern sample to be 2 5 ka nevertheless accurate ages have been obtained by correcting for the detrital and aqueous interferences the resulting ages are in stratigraphic order and their accuracy is evidenced by consistency of lisan formation u series and 14c ages with the coral based calendar radiocarbon age calibration the u th ages provide a context to unravel the limnological history of lake lisan boundaries between the lower middle and upper stratigraphic units correspond to the mis 4 3 and 3 2 transitions respectively during mis 2 and 4 the lake generally showed a stable two layer configuration and a positive fresh water balance reflected by deposition of laminated aragonite detritus dry intervals during mis 2 and 4 are indicated by thick gypsum layers and an inferred depositional hiatus which are temporally associated with heinrich events h1 at 17 ka and h6 at 65 ka respectively during mis 3 the lake level was unstable with intermittent dry periods indicated by abundant clastic layers and a significant hiatus between 43 49 ka clastic layers are associated with dansgaard oeschger events during mis 3 and indicate lake level declines during abrupt northern hemisphere warmings overall the climate of the eastern mediterranean region shows a strong linkage to the northern hemisphere climate with increasing lake size and stability during cold periods and fluctuations and dessication during warmings and heinrich events

u th dating of carbonate platform and slope sediments absolute chronology of marine sediment beyond the 14c age range provides a test for models of climate change and has many other applications u th techniques have been used for such chronology by dating corals but extending these techniques to marine sediment is complicated by the presence of significant initial 230th both in detrital material and scavenged from seawater in this study we investigate four methods of solving the initial 230th problem for a particular type of marine sediment the aragonite rich sediments of carbonate platforms and slopes bulk sediment u th analyses can be corrected for initial th to yield ages with 2 to 3 kyr precision for highstand periods when sediment aragonite contents are particularly high uncertainty on the corrections causes inadequate precision for sediment from other periods however removal of scavenged th before analysis would enable a dramatic increase in this precision but has not proved successful despite a range of chemical leach approaches using heavy liquids to separate the various carbonate minerals found in bahamas sediment enables an isochron approach to correct for initial th but the presence of initial th from two sources requires correction or removal of one source of initial th before the other is deconvolved by the isochron quantitative removal of detrital material before isochron analysis proves a successful approach such isochron data demonstrate that although sediment remains closed to u th on a centimetre scale nuclides are moved from grain to grain by recoil such intergrain exchange is expected to be observed in all sediments containing mineral grains with different u concentrations measured 234u 238u allows the recoil movement to be corrected and results in isochron ages with precision sometimes as low as 3 kyr the accuracy of this approach has been proved by dating samples within the 14c age range sediments spanning the penultimate deglaciation have also been dated after a small correction for bioturbation the age for this event is found to be 135 2 3 5 ka this date is 8 kyr before the peak in northern hemisphere insolation and suggests that deglaciation is initiated by a mechanism in the southern hemisphere or tropics this isochron approach shows considerable promise for dating of sediments older than this event which will provide further information about the timing and mechanisms of global climate change

caco3 size distribution a paleocarbonate ion proxy lysocline reconstructions play an important role in scenarios purporting to explain the lowered atmospheric co2 content of glacial time these reconstructions are based on indicators such as the caco3 content the percent of coarse fraction the ratio of fragments to whole foraminifera shells the ratio of solution susceptible to solution resistant species and the ratio of coarse to fine caco3 all assume that changes with time in the composition of the input material do not bias the result however as the composition of the input material does depend on climate none of these indicators provides an absolute measure of the extent of dissolution in this paper we evaluate the reliability of the ratio of 63 m caco3 to total caco3 as a dissolution indicator we present here results that suggest that in today s tropics this ratio appears to be determined solely by co3 ion concentration and water depth i e the saturation state of bottom waters this finding offers the possibility that the size fraction index can be used to reconstruct co3 ion concentrations for the late quaternary ocean to an accuracy of 5 mol kg 1

toward better paleocarbonate ion reconstructions new insights regarding the caco3 size index 1 the reconstruction of paleocarbonate ion concentrations provides an important constraint on the contribution of the caco3 cycle to the decrease in atmospheric co2 content during glacial time such reconstructions have been challenging because each of the existing paleo co32 indices has serious limitations in this study we reexamine the broecker clark caco3 size index by analyzing the 20 m 20 to 38 m and 38 to 63 m fractions in sediments from the ontong java plateau and the ceara rise scanning electron microscope analyses demonstrate that the less than 20 m caco3 is dominated by coccoliths and the greater than 20 m caco3 is dominated by foraminifera our results clearly indicate that the coccoliths are far more resistant to dissolution than the foraminifera referenced to a core top sample from 2 31 km depth in a core top sample from 4 04 km depth on the ontong java plateau 70 of the foraminifera caco3 was dissolved as opposed to only 7 of the coccolith caco3 we found that the dissolution of foraminifera shells did not produce a significant amount of fragments smaller than 63 m in size and thus the broecker clark size index is not a measure of the extent of fragmentation rather it is a measure of the extent of differential dissolution of foraminifera relative to coccoliths on the basis of these results we propose a new dissolution index which involves the ratio of dissolution susceptible foraminifera caco3 to total caco3

sortable silt and fine sediment size composition slicing parameters for palaeocurrent speed and palaeoceanography fine sediment size 63 ixm is best measured by a sedimentation technique which records the whole size distribution repeated size measurement with intermediate steps of removal of components by dissolution allows inference of the size distribution of the removed component as well as the residue in this way the size of the biogenic and lithogenic noncarbonate fractions can be determined observations of many size distributions suggest a minimum in grain size frequency curves at 8 to 10 ixm the dynamics of sediment erosion deposition and aggregate breakup suggest that fine sediment behavior is dominantly cohesive below 10 1xm grain size and noncohesive above that size thus silt coarser than 10 ixm displays size sorting in response to hydrodynamlc processes and its properties may be used to infer current speed silt that is f mer than 10 ixm behaves in the same way as clay 2 xm useful parameters of the distribution are the 10 63 ixm mean size and the percentage 10 63 ixm in the fine fraction we cannot use size distributions to distinguish the nature of the currents therefore to infer water mass advection speeds i e the mean kinetic energy of the flow ku regions of high eddy kinetic energy ke must be avoided at the present such abyssal regions lie under the high surface k e of major current systems gulf stream kuroshio agulhas antarctic circmpolar current and brazil falldand currents in the argenthe basin this is probably a satisfactory guide for the pleistocene with regard to the carbonate subfraction of the size spectrum size modes due to both cocco iths and foramlnlferal fragments can be recognized and analyzed with the boundary between them again at about 10 lm the flux of less than 10 lm carbonate at pelagic sites above the lysocline is another candidate for a productivity indicator

a reassessment of u th and14c ages for late glacial high frequency hydrological events at searles lake california u th isochron ages of tufas formed on shorelines suggest that the last pluvial event in lake lahontan and searles lake was synchronous at about 16 500 cal yr b p equivalent to a radiocarbon age of between 14 000 and 13 500 yr b p whereas the timing of this pluvial event determined by radiocarbon dating is on the order of 1000 yr younger the timing of seven distinct periods of near desiccation in searles lake during late glacial time has been reinvestigated for u th age determination by mass spectrometry u th dating of evaporite layers in the interbedded mud and salt unit called the lower salt in searles lake was hampered by the uncertainty in assessing the initial230th 232th of the samples the resulting ages corrected by a conservative range of initial230th 232th ratios suggest close correlation of the abrupt changes recorded in greenland ice cores dansgaard oeschger events and wet dry conditions in searles lake between 35 000 and 24 000 cal yr b p

strategies for successful u th dating of paleolake carbonates an example from the bolivian altiplano we report over 90 u th dates from carbonates deposited around paleolakes on the bolivian altiplano petrographic and chemical data for tufas and the siliciclastic detritus contained within them allow 1 assessment of possible diagenetic effects 2 a development of a strategy for selection of carbonate samples with low initial th contents and 3 assessment of the uncertainty due to initial th this strategy allows us to produce precise u th dates from lacustrine carbonates the principal consideration in dating such carbonates is the composition and quantity of initial th incorporated into the carbonate and additional uncertainty is introduced because this initial th may have two sources in lacustrine deposits isochron plots measured 230th 232th and x ray diffraction and trace element chemistry of silicic residues all favor regional soil and dust as the sole source of initial th in carbonates from the bolivian altiplano a situation that simplifies single sample dating of altiplano carbonates