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A Radiocarbon Perspective on Greenland Ice-Core Chronologies: Can we Use Ice Cores for 14C Calibration?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

John Southon
John Southon*
Affiliation:
Earth System Science Department, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

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Some of the most valuable paleoclimate archives yet recovered are the multi-proxy records from the Greenland GISP2 and GRIP ice cores. The crucial importance of these data arises in part from the strong correlations that exist between the Greenland δ18O records and isotopic or other proxies in numerous other Northern Hemisphere paleoclimate sequences. These correlations could, in principle, allow layer-counted ice-core chronologies to be transferred to radiocarbon-dated paleoclimate archives, thus providing a 14C calibration for the Last Glacial Maximum and Isotope Stage 3, back to the instrumental limits of the 14C technique. However, this possibility is confounded by the existence of numerous different chronologies, as opposed to a single (or even a “best”) ice-core time scale. This paper reviews how the various chronologies were developed, summarizes the differences between them, and examines ways in which further research may allow a 14C calibration to be established.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 46 , Issue 3: IntCal04: Calibration Issue, Guest Editor: PAULA J REIMER , 2004 , pp. 1239 - 1259
Copyright
Copyright © The Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona 

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