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Planktic 14C Plateaus: A Result of Short-Term Sedimentation Pulses?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 December 2016

Sven Balmer  and
Michael Sarnthein
Sven Balmer*
Affiliation:
Institute of Geosciences, University of Kiel, Olshausenstr. 40, 24118 Kiel, Germany
Michael Sarnthein
Affiliation:
Institute of Geosciences, University of Kiel, Olshausenstr. 40, 24118 Kiel, Germany Institute of Geology, Innsbruck University, Innrain 50, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

The tuning of plateaus in glacial and deglacial planktic radiocarbon records to pertinent structures in the atmospheric 14C record of Lake Suigetsu results in both a record of surface water reservoir ages and a centennial-scale absolute age model. However, the atmospheric origin of planktic 14C plateaus may be questioned. Alternatively, plateaus may result from short pulses of increased hemipelagic sediment deposition, which challenges the technique of 14C plateau tuning. To test the two rationales for the interval 23–12 cal ka, we calculated hypothetical sedimentation rates for all 14C plateaus identified in five Atlantic sediment cores assuming sediment pulses that either span 10, 100, 200, or 300 yr each. These rates were compared to rates derived by 14C plateau tuning that assumes an atmospheric origin of the plateaus. In each plateau suite, our hypothetical sedimentation rates result in at least one or two cases in extreme values that exceed the rates reported for short-lasting pulses of sediment deposition in contourites by a factor of 50 and therefore appear unrealistic. Moreover, they result in entire suites of plateau structures that incidentally appear closely aligned to the pattern of atmospheric 14C plateau suites rather than to any pulses of climate-controlled sediment discharge.

Keywords

radiocarbon AMS datingsedimentscores
Type
Research Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , February 2017 , pp. 33 - 43
Copyright
© 2016 by the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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