NOAA/WDS Paleoclimatology - Global Marine Fossil 14C Data during the last 50,000 years

Using new and published marine fossil radiocarbon (14C/C) measurements—a tracer uniquely sensitive to circulation and air-sea gas exchange—we establish several benchmarks for Atlantic, Southern, and Pacific deep-sea circulation and ventilation since the last ice age. We find the most 14C-depleted water in glacial Pacific bottom depths, rather than the mid-depths as they are today, which is best explained by a slowdown in glacial deep-sea overturning in addition to a “flipped” glacial Pacific overturning configuration. These observations cannot be produced by changes in air-sea gas exchange alone, and they underscore the major role for changes in the overturning circulation for glacial deep-sea carbon storage in the vast Pacific abyss, and the concomitant drawdown of atmospheric CO2.