HR: 16:30h
AN: PP24A-03 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Glacial Ventilation of the North Pacific
AU: * Keigwin, L D
EM: lkeigwin@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 360 Woods Hole Rd., Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Marchal, O
EM: omarchal@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 360 Woods Hole Rd., Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AB: Previous work on sediment cores from the North Pacific showed that above ~2 km d13C on the benthic foram Cibicidoides was higher during glacial time than it is today, after correcting for secular change of ~0.3 permil. This led to the suggestion that the ocean was better ventilated either through greater transport of a paleo North Pacific Intermediate Water, or transport was the same as today and preformed d13C was higher ([O2] was higher). Below ~2km, d13C was about the same as today, after correction. A new synthesis of apparent ventilation ages based on the paired benthic (BF) and planktonic foram (PF) 14C method provides general support for the scenario based on d13C. Although many 14C data are available for this synthesis, we exercised some reasonable quality control by selecting data that met the following criteria: (1) analyses based on high deposition rate cores, or laminated intervals of cores, (2) analyses conducted at peaks in BF abundance, and (3) analyses from a narrow window of glacial maximum time (~18-20 ka). The result shows that above ~2.5 km apparent ventilation ages are less than today (better ventilation), and the one sample from >3km is the same as today (~1700 yrs). When d13C and BF-PF 14C data are compared between the North Atlantic and North Pacific Oceans, it seems likely the same water filled these basins deeper than ~3.5 km. d13C of each basin was about 0 permil, and although the average apparent ventilation age was ~1200 yrs for the North Atlantic during the LGM, the two oldest determinations are 1550 and 1450 yrs. The fly in the ointment is still the very low d13C observed in the South Atlantic sector of the Southern Ocean. Although the available data are reproducible and may not reflect low d13C in the fluff layer at the seafloor, results from a zonally averaged circulation-biogeochemistry model showed that d13C may become unlinked from nutrient content during a change of the ocean general circulation.
DE: 4267 Paleoceanography
SC: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology [PP]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting