14C activity and global carbon cycle changes over the past 50,000 years

Title14C activity and global carbon cycle changes over the past 50,000 years
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2004
AuthorsHughen, K, Lehman, S, Southon, J, Overpeck, J, Marchal, O, Herring, C, Turnbull, J
JournalScience
Volume303
Issue5655
Pagination202-7
Date PublishedJan 09
ISSN0036-8075 (Linking)
Accession Number14716006
Abstract

A series of 14C measurements in Ocean Drilling Program cores from the tropical Cariaco Basin, which have been correlated to the annual-layer counted chronology for the Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2 (GISP2) ice core, provides a high-resolution calibration of the radiocarbon time scale back to 50,000 years before the present. Independent radiometric dating of events correlated to GISP2 suggests that the calibration is accurate. Reconstructed 14C activities varied substantially during the last glacial period, including sharp peaks synchronous with the Laschamp and Mono Lake geomagnetic field intensity minimal and cosmogenic nuclide peaks in ice cores and marine sediments. Simulations with a geochemical box model suggest that much of the variability can be explained by geomagnetically modulated changes in 14C production rate together with plausible changes in deep-ocean ventilation and the global carbon cycle during glaciation.

DOI10.1126/science.1090300