abrupt changes in deep atlantic circulation during the transition to full glacial conditions 1 six ocean drilling program odp sites in the northwest atlantic have been used to investigate kinematic and chemical changes in the western boundary undercurrent wbuc during the development of full glacial conditions across the marine isotope stage 5a 4 boundary 70 000 years ago sortable silt mean grain size ss measurements are employed to examine changes in near bottom flow speeds together with carbon isotopes measured in benthic foraminifera and planktic foraminiferal fragmentation as proxies for changes in water mass chemistry a depth transect of cores spanning 1 8 4 6 km depth allows changes in both the strength and depth of the wbuc to be constrained across millennial scale events ss measurements reveal that the flow speed structure of the wbuc during warm intervals interstadials was comparable to modern holocene conditions however significant differences are observed during cold intervals with higher relative flow speeds inferred for the shallow component of the wbuc 2 km depth during all cold stadial intervals including heinrich stadial 6 and a substantial weakening of the deep component 3 4 km during full glacial conditions our results therefore reveal that the onset of full glacial conditions was associated with a regime shift to a shallower mode of circulation involving glacial north atlantic intermediate water that was quantitatively distinct from preceding cold stadial events furthermore our chemical proxy data show that the physical response of the wbuc during the last glacial inception was probably coupled to basin wide changes in the water mass composition of the deep northwest atlantic

the salinity temperature and δ18o of the glacial deep ocean we use pore fluid measurements of the chloride concentration and the oxygen isotopic composition from ocean drilling program cores to reconstruct salinity and temperature of the deep ocean during the last glacial maximum lgm our data show that the temperatures of the deep pacific southern and atlantic oceans during the lgm were relatively homogeneous and within error of the freezing point of seawater at the ocean s surface our chloride data show that the glacial stratification was dominated by salinity variations in contrast with the modern ocean for which temperature plays a primary role during the lgm the southern ocean contained the saltiest water in the deep ocean this reversal of the modern salinity contrast between the north and south atlantic implies that the freshwater budget at the poles must have been quite different a strict conversion of mean salinity at the lgm to equivalent sea level change yields a value in excess of 140 meters however the storage of fresh water in ice shelves and or groundwater reserves implies that glacial salinity is a poor predictor of mean sea level

the deglacial evolution of north atlantic deep convection deepwater formation in the north atlantic by open ocean convection is an essential component of the overturning circulation of the atlantic ocean which helps regulate global climate we use water column radiocarbon reconstructions to examine changes in northeast atlantic convection since the last glacial maximum during cold intervals we infer a reduction in open ocean convection and an associated incursion of an extremely radiocarbon 14c depleted water mass interpreted to be antarctic intermediate water comparing the timing of deep convection changes in the northeast and northwest atlantic we suggest that despite a strong control on greenland temperature by northeast atlantic convection reduced open ocean convection in both the northwest and northeast atlantic is necessary to account for contemporaneous perturbations in atmospheric circulation

size sorting in marine muds processes pitfalls and prospects for paleoflow speed proxies the basis for and use of fine grain size parameters for inference of paleoflow speeds is reviewed here the basis resides in data on deposited sediment taken in conjunction with flow speed measurements in the field experimental data on suspended sediment transport and deposition and theoretical treatments of the generation of size distributions of deposits from suspension controlled by particle settling velocity and flow speed in the deep sea sorting events occur under resuspension deposition events in benthic storms at flow speeds below 10 15 cm s 1 size in the noncohesive sortable silt 10 63 m range is controlled by selective deposition whereas above that range removal of finer material by winnowing also plays a role the best particle size instruments to measure a flow speed related grain size employ the settling velocity method while laser diffraction sizers can yield misleading results because of particle shape effects potential problems including source effects downslope supply on continental margins spatial variability of flow over bedforms and influence of ice rafted detritus are examined a number of studies using the sortable silt flow speed proxy are reviewed and inverse modeling of grain size distributions is examined outstanding problems are that corroboration is sparse because almost no studies have yet used the full range of proxies for flow rate and water mass identification and that the sortable silt mean size is not yet properly calibrated in terms of flow speed

rapid changes of glacial climate simulated in a coupled climate model abrupt changes in climate termed dansgaard oeschger and heinrich events have punctuated the last glacial period approximately 100 10 kyr ago but not the holocene the past 10 kyr here we use an intermediate complexity climate model to investigate the stability of glacial climate and we find that only one mode of atlantic ocean circulation is stable a cold mode with deep water formation in the atlantic ocean south of iceland however a warm circulation mode similar to the present day atlantic ocean is only marginally unstable and temporary transitions to this warm mode can easily be triggered this leads to abrupt warm events in the model which share many characteristics of the observed dansgaard oeschger events for a large freshwater input such as a large release of icebergs the model s deep water formation is temporarily switched off causing no strong cooling in greenland but warming in antarctica as is observed for heinrich events our stability analysis provides an explanation why glacial climate is much more variable than holocene climate

north atlantic ventilation of southern sourced deep water in the glacial ocean one potential mechanism for lowering atmospheric co2 during glacial times is an increase in the fraction of the global ocean ventilated by the north atlantic which produces deep water with a low concentration of unused nutrients and thus drives the ocean s biological pump to a high efficiency however the data indicate that during glacial times a water mass low in 13c 12c and 14c c occupied the deep atlantic apparently at the expense of north atlantic deep water nadw this water is commonly referred to as southern sourced because of its apparent entry into the atlantic basin from the south prompting the inference that it was ventilated at the southern ocean surface here we propose that this deep atlantic water mass actually included a large fraction of north atlantic ventilated water the chemical characteristics of which were altered by recirculation in the deep southern and indo pacific oceans in an ocean model sensitivity experiment that reduces antarctic bottom water formation and weakens its overturning circulation we find that a much greater fraction of nadw is transported into the southern ocean without contacting the surface and is entrained and mixed into the southern sourced deep water that spreads into the global abyssal ocean thus north atlantic ventilation takes over more of the ocean interior lowering atmospheric co2 and yet the abyssal atlantic is filled from the south with old water low in 13c 12c and 14c c consistent with glacial data

intensified deep pacific inflow and ventilation in pleistocene glacial times the production of cold deep waters in the southern ocean is an important factor in the earth s heat budget1 the supply of deep water to the pacific ocean is presently dominated by a single source the deep western boundary current east of new zealand here we use sediment records deposited under the influence of this deep western boundary current to reconstruct deep water properties and speed changes during the pleistocene epoch in physical and isotope proxies we find evidence for intensified deep pacific ocean inflow and ventilation during the glacial periods of the past 1 2 million years the changes in throughflow may be directly related to an increased production of antarctic bottom water during glacial times possible causes for such an increased bottom water production include increasing wind strengths in the southern ocean or an increase in annual sea ice formation leaving dense water after brine rejection and thereby enhancing deep convection we infer also that the global thermohaline circulation was perturbed significantly during the mid pleistocene climate transition between 0 86 and 0 45 million years ago

deepwater circulation on blake outer ridge western north atlantic during the holocene younger dryas and last glacial maximum three depth transects containing a total of 33 sediment cores were investigated along the blake outer ridge in the western subtropical north atlantic sortable silt mean grain size and stable isotope records were used to assess the position and relative intensity of the western boundary undercurrent wbuc during the holocene the last glacial maximum lgm and the younger dryas yd intervals the holocene reconstruction is consistent with modern physical and chemical hydrographic measurements in the area suggesting a deep position for the fast flowing core of the wbuc 3000 4000 m deepening to 4500 m water depth on the ridge flanks and a water column dominated by north atlantic deep water nadw the lgm and yd reconstructions show that a comparable hydrographic regime was present during both these intervals suggesting a similar mode of circulation that was appreciably different from the holocene reconstruction the wbuc s zone of maximum flow speed during these intervals is suggested to have shifted above 2500 m water depth consistent with nutrient depleted glacial north atlantic intermediate water formation with an increasing influence of southern source water ssw beneath below 4000 m water depth results hint at increased ssw flow vigor during both the lgm and yd with higher flow speeds than during the holocene this study provides a framework for aiding the interpretation of time series records of paleocurrent flow speed changes in the region of the wbuc

the little ice age and medieval warm period in the sargasso sea sea surface temperature sst salinity and flux of terrigenous material oscillated on millennial time scales in the pleistocene north atlantic but there are few records of holocene variability because of high rates of sediment accumulation holocene oscillations are well documented in the northern sargasso sea results from a radiocarbondated box core show that sst was approximately 1 degree c cooler than today approximately 400 years ago the little ice age and 1700 years ago and approximately 1 degree c warmer than today 1000 years ago the medieval warm period thus at least some of the warming since the little ice age appears to be part of a natural oscillation 39 refs 4 figs 1 tab

the thermal threshold of the atlantic meridional overturning circulation and its control by wind stress forcing during glacial climate 1 paleo proxy data suggest that the atlantic meridional overturning circulation amoc was shallower and weaker at the last glacial maximum lgm than at present in this study we have identified the existence of a thermal threshold of the amoc which may explain why many coupled climate models fail to simulate the weaker amoc during the lgm by using results obtained from a coupled climate model and conducting sensitivity simulations with an ocean general circulation model we found that the sudden transition from the present day amoc to the weaker glacial amoc occurs when we gradually change the degree of surface cooling from present day to glacial conditions this result is related to response of deep convection in the northern north atlantic ocean moderate cooling enhances deep convection whereas sufficient cooling results in total covering of sea ice there and suppression of deep convection the findings indicate the existence of a thermal threshold controlling the amoc where the present day type amoc suddenly shifts to the weaker glacial amoc once the surface cooling exceeds this threshold we also demonstrate that wind stress forcing plays a critical role in controlling the value of the thermal threshold our study suggests that slight differences in the degree of surface cooling or wind stress forcing for lgm simulations could lead to the very different response of the amoc during the lgm as reported in previous lgm simulations

western north atlantic evidence for millennial scale changes in ocean circulation and climate two late quaternary series of high resolution percent carbonate data from western north atlantic sediment drifts bermuda rise and bahama outer ridge show millennial scale oscillations superimposed on the familiar longer period oscillations of orbital origin the dominant high frequency oscillation in these records has a quasi period of about 4000 years these percent caco3 changes most likely result from the influence of climate change on the flux of terrigenous material from eastern canada the resuspension of continental margin sediment by deep eddy kinetic energy and carbonate dissolution sediment is transported to the bermuda rise by deep recirculating gyres and to the bahama outer ridge by the deep western boundary current system stable isotope results on foraminifera across several of these oscillations from interstadial climate conditions and from a glacial inception display variability similar to that of percent caco3 oxygen isotope ratios of planktonic foraminifera suggest large variations in near surface temperature and or salinity and carbon isotope ratios of benthic foraminifera indicate that there were significant oscillations in the flux of north atlantic deep water nadw these data support models which couple surface ocean conditions in the north atlantic production of nadw north atlantic heat flux and evidence for temperature oscillations in ice cores

deep western boundary current variability in the subtropical northwest atlantic ocean during marine isotope stages 12 10 high resolution 125 500 year temporal resolution sortable silt mean grain size data of subtropical northwest atlantic ocean drilling program odp leg 172 site 1061 monitor fluctuations of the deep western boundary current dwbc throughout marine oxygen isotope stages mis 12 10 330 460 kyr in great detail comparison with foraminiferal stable isotope data from the same site and odp site 1063 bermuda rise data of poli et al 2000 shows that the dwbc shoals during glacial times in relation to a reduced north atlantic deep water production and increased advection of southern ocean waters superimposed fluctuations in the flow speed position of the dwbc at a semiprecession scale are persistent throughout mis 10 12 and independent of the glacial state additional millennial scale variations in dwbc flow speed parallel surface water cooling events and ice rafted debris episodes especially at the transition of mis 11 10 indicating the sensitivity of deep current flow variations to changes in the surface water conditions these millennial scale variations are amplified when benthic foraminiferal 18o values exceed 3 8 and may be related to the transition of an ice volume threshold where climate variability is possibly amplified by feedback mechanisms associated with ice sheet growth

phase relationships between millennial scale events 64 000 24 000 years ago a core recovered on the iberian margin off southern portugal can be correlated with greenland ice cores using oxygen isotope variability in planktonic foraminifera which closely matches the ice core records of temperature over greenland our age model identifies the base of every interstadial between 64 000 and 24 000 years ago and uses the greenland ice core project grip timescale the oxygen isotope signal in benthic foraminifera on this grip based timescale is quite different from the planktonic record and resembles the temperature record over antarctica when this is synchronized with greenland using the record of methane in the atmospheric air in the polar ice cores we interpret the benthic record as indicating significant fluctuations in ice volume during millennial events and we suggest that antarctic temperature changed as a function of ice volume

dating reservoir deposits to reconstruct sediment yields from a small limestone catchment in the yimeng mountain region china abstract in this study we use reservoir deposits to reconstruct sediment yields over the past 50 years from the quananzi catchment a small limestone catchment in the yimeng mountain region china three sediment cores were collected from the reservoir and the chronology of each core was established using 137cs and 210pbex dating the area specific sediment yields ssy for different time periods since dam construction were estimated from each core by referring to the original capacity curves of the reservoir the estimated ssy from the quananzi catchment in each core for each period ranged between 0 9 0 3 and 2 6 0 9 t ha 1 y 1 with a mean value of 1 8 0 6 t ha 1 y 1 which is low compared with reported ssy from catchments worldwide the mean value was only about 1 7 of the equivalent value reported from the jiangzhang catchment in the granite area of the yimeng mountain region this low ssy reflects the shortage of erodible luvisols resistance to erosion and the limited effect of human disturbance in this small limestone catchment the decrease in ssy from 1959 to1972 suggests that the effect of the deforestation that occurred in 1958 on soil erosion decreased with time the continual increase of ssy through the two subsequent periods after 1972 reflects the expansion and intensification of cultivation during this time however the decreased ssy over the latest period of 1998 2012 can be related to the limitations imposed by the karst landscape on cultivation and to the impact of increasing numbers of residents leaving the area since the end of the 1990s to become temporary migrant workers elsewhere resulting in a decrease in human activity in the area overall the trend in ssy reflects the general history of changing human disturbance in this small limestone catchment over the past 50 years the results indicate that reservoir deposits provide a means of estimating the historical sediment yields from a karstic environment

a geostrophic transport estimate for the florida current from the oxygen isotope composition of benthic foraminifera we present a new method for the quantitative reconstruction of upper ocean flows for during times in the past for the warm t 5 c surface ocean density can be accurately reconstructed from calcite precipitated in equilibrium with seawater as both of these properties increase with decreasing temperature and increasing salinity vertical density profiles can be reconstructed from the oxygen isotopic composition of benthic foraminifera the net volume transport between two vertical density profiles can be calculated using the geostrophic method using benthic foraminifera from surface sediment samples from either side of the florida straits florida keys and little bahama bank we reconstruct two vertical density profiles and calculate a volume transport of 32 sv using this method this agrees well with estimates from physical oceanographic methods of 30 32 sv for the mean annual volume transport we explore the sensitivity of this technique to various changes in the relationship between temperature and salinity as well as salinity and the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater

simulated resumption of the north atlantic meridional overturning circulation slow basin wide advection and abrupt local convection abstract the resumption process of the north atlantic meridional overturning circulation moc is investigated in a series of freshwater hosing experiments using a comprehensive coupled climate model four different freshwater perturbations are applied to the north atlantic between 50 n and 70 n leading to a substantial weakening of moc and an expansion of winter sea ice cover over the greenland iceland norwegian gin seas deactivating the freshwater forcing leads to a two phase recovery of the moc the first phase is a slow basin wide advection process whereas the second phase is an abrupt decadal scale transition located in the north atlantic the slow basin wide advection process to an intermediate state of the moc is characterized by a restart of the deep water production in the area of the subpolar gyre and the irminger basin however the ice cover over the gin seas remains whereas the surface density gradually increases in the gin seas on a century time scale the length of this intermediate state depends on the strength of freshwater perturbation which determines the magnitude of the meridional density gradient in the north atlantic the second transition phase is triggered by a model specific density threshold reached in the gin seas when passed the moc abruptly intensifies by 60 within 60 80 years the analysis shows that this abrupt intensification only depends on surface salinity in the gin seas the model results reveal that the simulated sea ice retreat in the gin seas and a rapid increase of the greenland air temperature of the second phase of the resumption of the moc are similar in amplitude to temperature proxies observed during dansgaard oeschger events of the last ice age

glacial water mass geometry and the distribution of δ13c of σco2 in the western atlantic ocean 1 oxygen and carbon isotopic data were produced on the benthic foraminiferal taxa cibicidoides and planulina from 25 new piston cores gravity cores and multicores from the brazil margin the cores span water depths from about 400 to 3000 m and intersect the major water masses in this region these new data fill a critical gap in the south atlantic ocean and provide the motivation for updating the classic glacial western atlantic 13c transect of duplessy et al 1988 the distribution of 13c of co2 requires the presence of three distinct water masses in the glacial atlantic ocean a shallow 1000 m southern source water mass with an end member 13c value of about 0 3 0 5 vpdb a middepth 1500 m northern source water mass with an end member value of about 1 5 and a deep 2000 m southern source water with an end member value of less than 0 2 and perhaps as low as the 0 9 values observed in the south atlantic sector of the southern ocean ninnemann and charles 2002 the origins of the water masses are supported by the meridional gradients in benthic foraminiferal 18o a revised glacial section of deep water 13c documents the positions and gradients among these end member intermediate and deep water masses the large property gradients in the presence of strong vertical mixing can only be maintained by a vigorous overturning circulation

high resolution record of northern hemisphere climate extending into the last interglacial period high resolution record of northern hemisphere climate extending into the last interglacial period

reversed flow of atlantic deep water during the last glacial maximum the meridional overturning circulation moc of the atlantic ocean is considered to be one of the most important components of the climate system this is because its warm surface currents such as the gulf stream redistribute huge amounts of energy from tropical to high latitudes and influence regional weather and climate patterns whereas its lower limb ventilates the deep ocean and affects the storage of carbon in the abyss away from the atmosphere despite its significance for future climate the operation of the moc under contrasting climates of the past remains controversial nutrient based proxies1 2 and recent model simulations3 indicate that during the last glacial maximum the convective activity in the north atlantic ocean was much weaker than at present in contrast rate sensitive radiogenic 231pa 230th isotope ratios from the north atlantic have been interpreted to indicate only minor changes in moc strength4 5 6 here we show that the basin scale abyssal circulation of the atlantic ocean was probably reversed during the last glacial maximum and was dominated by northward water flow from the southern ocean these conclusions are based on new high resolution data from the south atlantic ocean that establish the basin scale north to south gradient in 231pa 230th and thus the direction of the deep ocean circulation our findings are consistent with nutrient based proxies and argue that further analysis of 231pa 230th outside the north atlantic basin will enhance our understanding of past ocean circulation provided that spatial gradients are carefully considered this broader perspective suggests that the modern pattern of the atlantic moc with a prominent southerly flow of deep waters originating in the north atlantic arose only during the holocene epoch

resolving sedimentological uncertainties using magnetostratigraphic correlation an example from the middle jurassic of burgundy france abstract magnetostratigraphic analysis was undertaken on a core 85 m long core from the shallow water carbonate platform of bathonian to late callovian age in burgundy france to establish high resolution magnetic correlations in a succession devoid of good stratigraphic markers and with diachronous lithofacies magnetic extracts reveal that the magnetic minerals carrying the characteristic remanence are mainly detrital titanomagnetites and fine grained biogenic magnetite of probable bacterial origin comparison of magnetic properties with lithologic data from wireline logs indicates that large grains are predominant in marly deposits whereas fine grained minerals are common mainly in pure limestones we have established a polarity sequence for the core that is independent of lithology and in ludes 17 polarity zones with the help of faunal zonation based on brachiopods and ammonites the polarity sequence was compared with the magnetostratigraphy established previously in four other sections from the same area the magnetostratigraphic correlation corroborates that platform flooding occurred during the early callovian an age in agreement with biostratigraphic interpretation constraining the age of successive onlaps a characteristic reverse polarity interval within the ammonite calloviense subzone is present in all the cores confirming the utility of magnetostratigraphy for stratigraphic correlation studies throughout the paris basin and burgundy

how is the ocean filled 1 the ocean surface rapidly exchanges heat freshwater and gases with the atmosphere but once water sinks into the ocean interior the inherited properties of seawater are closely conserved previous water mass decompositions have described the oceanic interior as being filled by just a few different property combinations or water masses here we apply a new inversion technique to climatological tracer distributions to find the pathways by which the ocean is filled from over 10 000 surface regions based on the discretization of the ocean surface at 2 by 2 resolution the volume of water originating from each surface location is quantified in a global framework and can be summarized by the estimate that 15 of the surface area fills 85 of the ocean interior volume ranked from largest to smallest the volume contributions scaled by surface area follow a power law distribution with an exponent of 1 09 0 03 that appears indicative of the advective diffusive filling characteristics of the ocean circulation as demonstrated using a simple model this work quantifies the connection between the surface and interior ocean allowing insight into ocean composition atmosphere ocean interaction and the transient response of the ocean to a changing climate

intermediate water links to deep western boundary current variability in the subtropical nw atlantic during marine isotope stages 5 and 4 records from ocean drilling program sites 1057 and 1059 2584 m and 2985 m water depth respectively have been used to reconstruct the behavior of the deep western boundary current dwbc on the blake outer ridge bor from 130 to 60 kyr b p marine isotope stage mis 5 and the 5 4 transition site 1057 lies within labrador sea water lsw but close to the present day boundary with lower north atlantic deep water lnadw while site 1059 lies within lnadw high resolution sortable silt mean inline equation grain size and benthic 13c records were obtained and changes in the dwbc intensity and spatial variability were inferred comparisons are made with similar proxy records generated for the holocene from equivalent depth cores on the bor during mis 5e inline equation evidence at site 1057 suggests slower relative flow speeds consistent with a weakening and a possible shoaling of the lsw sourced shallower limb of the dwbc that occupies these depths today in contrast the paleocurrent record from the deeper site suggests that the fast flowing deep core of the dwbc was located close to its modern depth below 3500 m during this interval the benthic 13c suggests little chemical stratification of the water column and the presence of a near uniform lnadw dominated water mass after 111 kyr b p the inline equation record at site 1057 increases to reach values similar to site 1059 for the rest of mis 5 the strengthening of flow speeds at the shallow site may correspond to the initiation of glacial north atlantic intermediate water formation also suggested by a divergence in the benthic 13c records with site 1057 values increasing to 1 2 coupled suborbital oscillations in dwbc flow variability and paleohydrography persisted throughout mis 5 comparison of these data with planktonic 18o records from the sites and alkenone derived sea surface temperature sst estimates from the nearby bermuda rise suggest a hitherto unrecognized degree of linkage between oscillations in subtropical north atlantic sst and dwbc flow

initiation and development of the laurentide and cordilleran ice sheets following the last interglaciation abstract fossil records from sites overridden by or adjacent to the laurentide ice sheet indicate that the climate of the last interglaciation oxygen isotope substage 5e ca 130 116 ka was warmer than today following the last interglaciation the laurentide ice sheet first developed during stage 5 over keewatin quebec and baffin island along its northern margin the ice sheet reached its maximum extent of the last glaciation during stage 5 the ice sheet advanced across baffin island onto the continental shelf early during stage 5 5d whereas the advance into the western canadian arctic occurred late during stage 5 5b the ice sheet also may have advanced into the st lawrence lowland during substage 5b although this event may be younger stage 4 the hudson bay lowland became ice free during substage 5a retreat of the ice sheet on baffin island occurred during late stage 5 probably substage 5a the exact timing of retreat from the western canadian arctic is unknown but it occurred before 48 ka the southern sector including the st lawrence lowland was ice free during late stage 5 the hudson bay lowland may have remained ice free through stage 4 and much of stage 3 because of conflicting chronologies however it is more likely that this area was glaciated throughout stage 3 and perhaps stage 4 nevertheless the data demonstrate that the lowland was ice free during part of the last glaciation an independent ice cap developed over the appalachian uplands and advanced across nova scotia during stage 4 perhaps as far as the edge of the continental shelf the ice cap remained active over nova scotia as a setellite to the laurentide ice sheet throughout the remainder of the last glaciation the ice sheet advanced into the st lawrence lowland during stage 4 and subsequently overwhelmed the local ice cap in the appalachian uplands advancing perhaps into northern new england but not farther south the lowland remained covered by the ice sheet until late stage 2 the ice sheet may also have advanced into the lake ontario basin during stage 4 the position of the northern margin of the laurentide ice sheet during stage 4 is not known but it remained an unknown distance behind its maximum position reached during stage 5 cores from baffin bay indicate a substantial decrease in high latitude glaciation during stage 4 following retreat the keewatin sector of the ice sheet may have remained over much of northwestern canada as a quasi stable ice mass until it readvanced during stage 2 similarly the baffin island sector of the ice sheet may have remained largely intact the southern margin of the ice sheet may have advanced into the lake ontario basin and upper mississippi valley during the middle of stage 3 ca 50 ka reaching its maximum extent of the last glaciation during stage 2 ca 18 21 ka advance of the northern margin was younger ca 8 13 ka than that of the southern margin this advance was less extensive than the penultimate advance stage 5 paleoenvironmental records indicate that the last interglaciation in areas covered by and near the cordilleran ice sheet was as warm as or warmer than present the cordilleran ice sheet appears to have developed during stage 5 or 4 at that time it advanced over southern british columbia and into the northern puget lowland there is no record of this event in northern areas that were later covered by the ice sheet the ice sheet disappeared before 59 ka at the beginning of a lengthy nonglacial interval paleoenvironmental records indicate that climate was similar to the present during part of this interval the ice sheet was absent and glaciers probably were confined to mountain areas throughout stage 3 climatic deterioration marking the end of this nonglacial interval may have begun as early as 29 ka by 14 15 ka the ice sheet had achieved its maximum extent of the last glaciation because there are few suitable dating methods capable of resolving events beyond the radiocarbon limit and because sites that preserve a record of events from the last glaciation are spatially restricted we consider this synthesis as tentative and subject to significant revision as dating methods improve nevertheless this perspective of the north american ice sheets through the last glaciation demonstrates their complex and dynamic behavior and attendant rapid fluctuations in ice volume

a late pleistocene time series of bottom current speed in the vema channel abstract a coarsening of the mean particle size of the carbonate free silt fraction from sea floor samples below 4000 m in the vema channel has been used to separate high velocity antarctic bottom water aabw from the overlying slower north atlantic deep water nadw a time series of fluctuations in bottom current speed within the modern aabw nadw transition zone was examined by determining the particle size distribution of sediments from eight gravity cores with a high resolution stratigraphy for the past 250 kyrs the bottom current paleospeed was inferred from a correlation of particle size in seafloor samples with mean current speed from nearby current meters the mean bottom current speed at depths comparable to modern aabw was highest 7 10 cm s during interglacial to glacial transitions corresponding to the oxygen isotopic stage 6 7 and 4 5 boundaries and at present the mean bottom current speed at depths comparable to modern nadw was nearly uniform for most of the past 250 kyrs except during glacial oxygen isotopic stage 2 when the speed dropped to 2 cm s or one half of the present speed the application of the calibrated particle size method to examine bottom current paleospeed allows testing of paleoceanographic models which rely on assumptions or inferences of changes in bottom water production rate during the late pleistocene paleoclimatic fluctuations

carbon dioxide effects of antarctic stratification north atlantic intermediate water formation and subantarctic nutrient drawdown during the last ice age diagnosis and synthesis in a geochemical box model in a box model synthesis of southern ocean and north atlantic mechanisms for lowering co2 during ice ages the co2 changes are parsed into their component geochemical causes including the soft tissue pump the carbonate pump and whole ocean alkalinity when the mechanisms are applied together their interactions greatly modify the net co2 change combining the antarctic mechanisms stratification nutrient drawdown and sea ice cover within bounds set by observations decreases co2 by no more than 36 ppm a drawdown that could be caused by any one of these mechanisms in isolation however these antarctic changes reverse the co2 effect of the observed ice age shoaling of north atlantic overturning in isolation the shoaling raises co2 by 16 ppm but alongside the antarctic changes it lowers co2 by an additional 13 ppm a 29 ppm synergy the total co2 decrease does not reach 80 ppm partly because antarctic stratification antarctic sea ice cover and the shoaling of north atlantic overturning all strengthen the sequestration of alkalinity in the deepest ocean which increases co2 both by itself and by decreasing whole ocean alkalinity increased nutrient consumption in the sub antarctic causes as much as an additional 35 ppm co2 decrease interacting minimally with the other changes with its inclusion the lowest ice age co2 levels are within reach these findings may bear on the two stepped co2 decrease of the last ice age

a radiometric calibration of the specmap timescale the astronomical theory of climate change asserts that earth s climate is affected by changes in its orbit which vary the seasonal and latitudinal distribution of solar radiation this theory is the basis of the orbitally tuned specmap timescale a key constraint for this important chronology was the mid point of the penultimate deglaciation initially dated to 127 000 years ago recent work suggests this event may be considerably older casting doubt on the astronomical theory the specmap timescale and the accuracy of orbitally tuned chronologies difficulties with u th coral dating of sea level events have impeded progress on this problem because most corals are not closed systems here we use a new approach to u th dating that corrects for open system behavior and produces a sea level curve of sufficient resolution to confidently correlate with specmap over the last 240 000 years permitting a reassessment of both this critical chronology and a central tenet of climate change theory high precision ages for 24 oxygen isotope events provide a 240 000 year chronology for marine 18o records that is independent of orbital tuning assumptions although there appear to be significant differences between the radiometric and orbitally tuned timescales near the lastglacial maximum and at the marine isotope stage 7 6 boundary a comparison of radiometric and specmap ages for identical isotope events suggest that the specmap timescale is quite accurate and that its errors were in general overestimated despite suborbital complexity orbital cyclicity is clearly evident in our record high amplitude sea level oscillations at periods greater than 20 000 years are very close in phase to summer insolation in the northern hemisphere although sea level changes cannot be uniquely tied to a specific season or latitude of insolation forcing the simplest explanation is that long period high amplitude sea level change is linked to northern hemisphere insolation forcing these results validate the principles of orbital tuning and suggest such timescales are generally robust

surface and deep ocean coupling in the subpolar north atlantic during the last 230 years the subpolar north atlantic ocean spna is of key importance for modulating the climate of nw europe because of heat loss to the atmosphere from the north atlantic current although hydrographic properties of the surface spna vary on interannual to multidecadal timescales hydrographic time series scarcely extend back beyond the 1950s we present a 230 year long record of spna surface conditions reconstructed from a very high accumulation rate core that also registers changes in deep flow speed in the iceland basin a lagged correlation is observed between the records of deep flow speed and stable oxygen isotopic composition of the surface spna d 18 o w with strongest correlation when the paleoflow speed record leads by 15 20 years this offset may to some extent reflect size selective biological mixing of the sediment nonetheless these records reveal a decadal scale coupling between surface and deep ocean variability over the past 230 years possibly driven by the north atlantic oscillation with implications for north atlantic circulation and climate

simulating the amplification of orbital forcing by ocean feedbacks in the last glaciation according to milankovitch theory the lower summer insolation at high latitudes about 115 000 years ago allowed winter snow to persist throughout summer leading to ice sheet build up and glaciation1 but attempts to simulate the last glaciation using global atmospheric models have failed to produce this outcome when forced by insolation changes only2 3 4 5 these results point towards the importance of feedback effects for example through changes in vegetation or the ocean circulation for the amplification of solar forcing6 7 8 9 here we present a fully coupled ocean atmosphere model of the last glaciation that produces a build up of perennial snow cover at known locations of ice sheets during this period we show that ocean feedbacks lead to a cooling of the high northern latitudes along with an increase in atmospheric moisture transport from the equator to the poles these changes agree with available geological data10 11 12 13 14 15 and together they lead to an increased delivery of snow to high northern latitudes the mechanism we present explains the onset of glaciation which would be amplified by changes in vegetation in response to weak orbital forcing

lowering of glacial atmospheric co2 in response to changes in oceanic circulation and marine biogeochemistry 1 we use an earth system model of intermediate complexity climber 2 to investigate what recent improvements in the representation of the physics and biology of the glacial ocean imply for the atmospheric concentration the coupled atmosphere ocean model under the glacial boundary conditions is able to reproduce the deep salty stagnant water mass inferred from antarctic deep pore water data and the changing temperature of the entire deep ocean when carbonate compensation is included in the model we find a co2 drawdown of 43 ppmv associated mainly with the shoaling of the atlantic thermohaline circulation and an increased fraction of water masses of southern origin in the deep atlantic fertilizing the atlantic and indian sectors of the southern ocean north of the polar front leads to a further drawdown of 37 ppmv other changes to the glacial carbon cycle include a decrease in the amount of carbon stored in the terrestrial biosphere 540 pg c which increases atmospheric co2 by 15 ppmv and a change in ocean salinity resulting from a drop in sea level which elevates co2 by another 12 ppmv a decrease in shallow water caco3 deposition draws down co2 by 12 ppmv in total the model is able to explain more than two thirds 65 ppmv of the glacial to interglacial co2 change based only on mechanisms that are clearly documented in the proxy data a good match between simulated and reconstructed distribution of 13c changes in the deep atlantic suggests that the model captures the mechanisms of reorganization of biogeochemistry in the atlantic ocean reasonably well additional poorly constrained mechanisms to explain the rest of the observed drawdown include changes in the organic carbon caco3 ratio of sediment rain reaching the seafloor iron fertilization in the subantarctic pacific ocean and changes in terrestrial weathering

transport and bottom boundary layerobservations of the north atlantic deep western boundary current at the blake outer ridge abstract the north atlantic deep western boundary current dwbc was surveyed at the blake outer ridge over 14 days in july and august 1992 to determine its volume transport and to investigate its bottom boundary layer bbl this site was chosen because previous investigations showed the dwbc to be strong and bottom intensified on the ridge s flanks and to have a thick bbl the primary instrument used was the absolute velocity profiler a free falling velocity and conductivity temperature depth device in two sections across the width of the dwbc volume transports of 17 1 sv and 18 1 sv were measured for all water flowing equatorward below a potential temperature of 6 c 1 sv 1 10 6 m 3 s 1 transport values were derived using both absolute velocities and avp referenced geostrophic velocities and were the same within experimental uncertainty good agreement was found between our results and historical ones when both were similarly bounded and referenced although this was a short term survey the mean of a 9 day time series of absolute velocity profiles was the same as the means of year long current meter records at three depths in the same location a turbulent planetary bbl was found everywhere under the current the thickness of the bottom mixed layer bml where concentrations of density nutrients and suspended sediments were vertically uniform was asymmetrical across the current and up to 5 times thicker than the bbl there was no velocity shear above the bbl within the thicker bmls and the across slope density gradient was very small the extra thick bml is perhaps maintained by a combination of processes including turbulence downwelling ekman transport a weak up slope return flow above the bbl and buoyant convection from the bbl into the bml the frictional bottom stress was mostly balanced by a down stream change in the current s external potential energy evidenced by a drop in the velocity core of the current

millennial scale propagation of atlantic deep waters to the glacial southern ocean the compilation of changes in the magnetic properties at various sites distributed along the path of the deepwater mass in north atlantic shows large amplitude short term fluctuations reflecting changes in the strength of the north atlantic deep water nadw these changes which suggest a two mode deep glacial circulation dynamic are perfectly concurrent with air temperature changes over greenland they also share a similar pattern with those reported in the nd isotope ratios from the deep cape basin during the same time period greenland interstadials were accompanied by increased flow speed of nadw and relatively more nadw reaching the southern ocean while during greenland stadials and heinrich events both the north atlantic flow speed of nadw and its presence in the south atlantic were reduced it is demonstrated that both proxies are tracing the same water mass and their reliability for monitoring changes in the deepwater circulation is therefore clearly established after using the climatically independent geomagnetic assisted stratigraphy to put the northern and southern hemisphere records on the same age scale the south atlantic record appears to lag changes in north atlantic flow speeds by approximately 860 220 years during the most prominent and best defined cycles interstadials 12 and 8 although future work is needed this significant offset provides a first observation and tentative quantification of the time needed for glacial northern component water to mix downward and to flow from the north to the south atlantic

surface and deep ocean variability in the northern sargasso sea during marine isotope stage 3 new geochemical proxy data from bermuda rise piston cores reveal ocean and climate conditions in the northern sargasso sea during marine isotope stage 3 using 18o on the planktonic foraminifer globigerinoides ruber we can correlate explicitly with every stadial interstadial change in greenland ice between 32 and 58 ka these data suggest repetitive changes of 4 c in the annual average sea surface temperature sst with maximum cooling comparable to or greater than sst during glacial maximum conditions the extent of sst depression is about the same for typical stadial events and for heinrich events 4 and 5 which we have identified on the bermuda rise by traces of ice rafting benthic foraminiferal 13c decreases during every stadial event consistent with reduced production of the deepest component of north atlantic deep water and shoaling of its interface with antarctic bottom water this interpretation is supported by benthic cd ca data from the climate cycle associated with interstadial 8

early arrival of southern source water in the deep north atlantic prior to heinrich event 2 the atlantic meridional overturning circulation amoc plays an important role in the northern hemisphere climate system significant interest went into the question of how excessive freshwater input through melting of continental ice can affect its overturning vigor and hence heat supply to higher northern latitudes such forcing can be tested by investigating its behavior during extreme iceberg discharge events into the open north atlantic during the last glacial period the so called heinrich events he here we present neodymium nd isotope compositions of past seawater a sensitive chemical water mass tag extracted from sediments of ocean drilling program site 1063 in the western north atlantic bermuda rise covering the period surrounding he 2 the last glacial maximum and the early deglaciation these data are compared with a record of the kinematic circulation tracer 231pa 230th xs extracted from the same sediment core both tracers indicate significant circulation changes preceding intense ice rafting during he 2 by almost 2 kyr moreover the nd isotope record suggests the presence of deeply ventilating north atlantic deep water early during marine isotope stage 2 until it was replaced by southern source water at 27 ka the early switch to high pa th xs and radiogenic nd in relation to intensified ice rafting during he 2 suggests that ice rafting into the open north atlantic during major he 2 was preceded by an early change of the amoc this opens the possibility that variations in amoc contributed to or even triggered the ice sheet instability rather than merely responding to it

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

subtropical north atlantic temperatures 60 000 to 30 000 years ago a reconstruction of sea surface temperature based on alkenone unsaturation ratios in sediments of the bermuda rise provides a detailed record of subtropical climate from 60 000 to 30 000 years ago northern sargasso sea temperatures changed repeatedly by 2 to 5 c covarying with high latitude temperatures that were previously inferred from greenland ice cores the largest temperature increases were comparable in magnitude to the full glacial holocene warming at the site abrupt cold reversals of 3 to 5 c lasting less than 250 years occurred during the onset of two such events greenland interstadials 8 and 12 suggesting that the largest most rapid warmings were especially unstable