Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T02:07:43.216Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Age Dating and the Orbital Theory of the Ice Ages: Development of a High-Resolution 0 to 300,000-Year Chronostratigraphy1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Douglas G. Martinson ,
Nicklas G. Pisias ,
James D. Hays ,
John Imbrie ,
Theodore C. Moore Jr.  and
Nicholas J. Shackleton
Douglas G. Martinson
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, New York 10964 Department of Geological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027
Nicklas G. Pisias
Affiliation:
College of Oceanography, Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon 97331
James D. Hays
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, New York 10964 Department of Geological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027
John Imbrie
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island 02912
Theodore C. Moore Jr.
Affiliation:
Exxon Production Research, Houston, Texas 77001
Nicholas J. Shackleton
Affiliation:
Sub-Department of Quaternary Research, The Godwin Laboratory, Free School Lane, Cambridge, England CB2 3RS
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Using the concept of “orbital tuning”, a continuous, high-resolution deep-sea chronostratigraphy has been developed spanning the last 300,000 yr. The chronology is developed using a stacked oxygen-isotope stratigraphy and four different orbital tuning approaches, each of which is based upon a different assumption concerning the response of the orbital signal recorded in the data. Each approach yields a separate chronology. The error measured by the standard deviation about the average of these four results (which represents the “best” chronology) has an average magnitude of only 2500 yr. This small value indicates that the chronology produced is insensitive to the specific orbital tuning technique used. Excellent convergence between chronologies developed using each of five different paleoclimatological indicators (from a single core) is also obtained. The resultant chronology is also insensitive to the specific indicator used. The error associated with each tuning approach is estimated independently and propagated through to the average result. The resulting error estimate is independent of that associated with the degree of convergence and has an average magnitude of 3500 yr, in excellent agreement with the 2500-yr estimate. Transfer of the final chronology to the stacked record leads to an estimated error of ±1500 yr. Thus the final chronology has an average error of ±5000 yr.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 1 - 29
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

LDGO Contribution Number 3994.

References

Berger, W.H., (1973). Deep-sea carbonates: Pleistocene dissolution cycles Journal of Foraminiferal Research 3, 187–195 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birchfield, G.E. Veertman, J. Lunde, A.T., (1981). A paleoclimate model of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets Quaternary Research 15, 126–142 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloom, A.L. Broecker, W.S. Chappel, J.M.A. Matthews, R.K. Mesolella, K.J., (1974). Quaternary sea level fluctuations on a tectonic coast: New 230Th/234U dates from the Huon Peninsula New Guinea Quaternary Research 4, 185–205 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broecker, W.S., (1966). Absolute dating and the astronomical theory of glaciation Science 151, 299–304 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Broecker, W.S., (1982). Ocean chemistry during glacial time Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 46, 1689–1705 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broecker, W.S. Thurber, D.L. Goddard, J. Ku, T.-L. Mesolella, K.J., (1968). Milankovitch hypothesis supported by precise dating of coral reefs and deep-sea sediments Science 159, 297–300 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Calder, N., (1974). Arithmetic of ice ages Nature (London) 252, 216–218 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dodge, R.E. Fairbanks, R.G. Benninger, L.K. Maurrasse, F., (1983). Pleistocene sea levels from raised coral reefs of Haiti Science 219, 1423–1425 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dunn, D.A., (1982). Change from “Atlantic-type” to “Pacific-type” carbonate stratigraphy in the middle Pliocene Equatorial Pacific Ocean Marine Geology 50, 41–60 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Emiliani, C., (1966). Paleotemperature analysis of Caribbean cores P6304-8 and P6304-9 and a generalized temperature curve for the past 425,000 years Journal of Geology 74, 109–126 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fairbanks, R.G. Matthews, R.K., (1978). The marine oxygen isotope record in Pleistocene coral, Barbados, West Indies Quaternary Research 10, 181–196 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hays, J.D. Imbrie, J. Shackleton, N.J., (1976). Variations in the earth's orbit: Pacemaker of the ice ages Science 194, 1121–1132 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Imbrie, J. Hays, J.D. Martinson, D.G. McIntyre, A. Mix, A.C. Morley, J.J. Pisias, N.G. Prell, W.L. Shackleton, N.J., (1984). The orbital theory of Pleistocene climate: Support from a revised chronology of the marine δ18O record Berger, A.L. et al. Milankovitch and Climate, Part 1 Reidel The Netherlands 269–305 Google Scholar
Imbrie, J. Imbrie, J.Z., (1980). Modelling the climatic response to orbital variations Science 207, 942–953 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Imbrie, J. Kipp, N.G., (1971). A new micropaleontological method for quantitative paleoclimatology: Application to a late Pleistocene Caribbean core Turekian, K.K. The Late Cenozoic Glacial Ages Yale Univ. Press New Haven, Conn 71–181 Google Scholar
Kominz, M.A. Pisias, N.G., (1979). Pleistocene climate: Deterministic or stochastic Science 204, 171–173 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Martinson, D.G., (1982). An Inverse Approach to Signal Correlation with Applications to Deep-Sea Stratigraphy and Chronostratigraphy Ph.D. thesis Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Columbia University New York Google Scholar
Martinson, D.G. Menke, W. Stoffa, A., (1982). An inverse approach to signal correlation Journal of Geophysical Research 87, 4807–4818 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Milankovitch, M., (1941). Kanon der Erdbestrahlung une sei Eiszeitemproblem Acad. R. Serbe Belegrade 633 (translated by the Israel Program for Scientific Translations, Jerusalem, 1970) Google Scholar
Mix, A.C. Ruddiman, W.F., (1986). Structure and timing of the last deglaciation: Oxygen-isotope evidence Quaternary Science Review Google Scholar
Moore, T.C. Jr. Pisias, N.G. Dunn, D.A., (1982). Carbonate time series of the Quaternary and late Miocene sediments in the Pacific Ocean: A spectral comparison Marine Geology 46, 217–233 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pisias, N.G. Martinson, D.G. Moore, T.C. Jr. Shackleton, N.J. Prell, W. Hays, J. Boden, G., (1984). High resolution stratigraphic correlation of benthic oxygen isotopic records spanning the last 300,000 years Marine Geology 56, 119–136 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruddiman, W.F. McIntyre, A., (1979). Warmth of the subpolar North Atlantic during Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet growth Science 204, 173–175 CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saltzman, B. Hansen, A.R. Maasch, K.A., (1984). The late Quaternary glaciations as the response of a three-component feedback system to earth-orbital forcing Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences 41, 3380–3389 2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shackleton, N.J., (1977). Carbon-13 in Uvigerina: Tropical rainforest history and the Equatorial Pacific carbonate dissolution cycles Anderson, N.R. Malahoff, A. The Fate of Fossil Fuel CO2 in the Oceans Plenum New York 401–427 Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J. Opdyke, N.D., (1973). Oxygen isotope and paleomagnetic stratigraphy of Equatorial Pacific core V28-238: Oxygen isotope temperature and ice volumes on a 10,000 year and 100,000 year time scale Quaternary Research 3, 39–55 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weertman, J., (1976). Milankovitch solar radiation variations and ice age ice sheet sizes Nature (London) 261, 17 CrossRefGoogle Scholar