A Detailed Radiometric Chronological Framework for Nordic Seas Ocean–Ice Sheet Interactions Spanning 50-150 Ka BP

Abstract:

Chronological control of sedimentary deposits is a key to do paleoclimatic interpretations of proxy records and to compare them with records from other archives. Beyond the reach of radiocarbon dating there are however few options for developing chronological control. We present a detailed radiometrical-based chronological framework of a Norwegian Sea core archive that records ocean-ice sheet interactions in the Nordic Seas covering the time span 50-150 ka BP. The chronology is based on a detailed multi-proxy and multi-archive alignment of high resolution records from the Norwegian Sea and precisely radiometric dated speleothem δ¹⁸O record from both China and the Alps. This approach utilizes the close and well documented millennial and multi-centennial scale coupling between the North Atlantic climate variability (recorded in the Norwegian Sea records, the Greenland ice cores and in the Alpine speleothems) and the Asian Monsoon system recorded in the Chinese speleothem δ¹⁸O. One intriguing feature of the Norwegian Sea record is that it often is more similar to the Chinese speleothem records than to the Greenland ice core records. The alignment is aided by a tephrostratigraphic link to the Greenland ice cores which provide an independent test of the age model and alignment. Uncertainties are addressed by Bayesian age-depth modeling. The radiometric-based age model and the quantified uncertainties enable an independent comparison between the Nordic Seas ocean-ice sheet interaction and other absolutely dated records such as U/Th dated sea-level indices and orbital parameters. This improves our ability to interpret the ocean–ice sheet interactions of the polar north in a global context over this time span that comprises a glacial-interglacial cycle.