Absolute dating of marine sediments is necessary to achieve reliable correlations of paleoclimate records. The 226Ra decay in barite separated from a deep-sea core of the Southern Ocean was used to determine absolute ages for the Holocene Epoch. Comparison with 14C ages measured on planktic foraminifers provides the first past sea-surface reservoir ages in the Antarctic zone of the Southern Ocean. Throughout the middle to late Holocene, our results indicate a reservoir age of ca. 1100 yr, comparable to modern estimates. A significantly higher reservoir age (ca. 1900 yr) is obtained for the early Holocene, which suggests a major change in the Southern Ocean circulation at that time.

You do not have access to this content, please speak to your institutional administrator if you feel you should have access.