Radiocarbon age of waters in the deep Atlantic revisited

Journal Article · Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1991 · Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/90GL02707· OSTI ID:5511625

Broecker, W S; Virgilio, A ^[1]; Peng, T H ^[2]

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1. Columbia Univ., New York, NY (USA)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA)

The authors use a simple box model to evaluate the impact of temporal changes of the atmosphere's {sup 14}C/C on ventilation fluxes for the deep Atlantic calculated from radiocarbon measurements. The conclusion is that despite the fact that over the 300 year period from 1650 to 1950 the atmosphere's radiocarbon content declined at the same rate as radiocarbon decays, this temporal change has a relatively small impact (10-15%) on radiocarbon-based estimates of the ventilation rate of the deep Atlantic. The reason is that the radiocarbon content of the source waters for deep Atlantic are reasonably well buffered against changes in atmospheric {sup 14}C/C.

• DOE Contract Number: AC05-84OR21400
• OSTI ID: 5511625
• Journal Information: Geophysical Research Letters (American Geophysical Union); (United States), Vol. 18:1; ISSN 0094-8276
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ATLANTIC OCEAN
CARBON CYCLE
AGE ESTIMATION
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION
BOX MODELS
CARBON 14
CARBON DIOXIDE
DECAY
DEPTH
DISSOLUTION
HISTORICAL ASPECTS
ISOTOPE DATING
ISOTOPE RATIO
OCEANIC CIRCULATION
VENTILATION
BETA DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
BETA-MINUS DECAY RADIOISOTOPES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON ISOTOPES
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMISTRY
DIMENSIONS
EVEN-EVEN NUCLEI
ISOTOPES
LIGHT NUCLEI
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
NUCLEI
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
RADIOISOTOPES
SEAS
SURFACE WATERS
YEARS LIVING RADIOISOTOPES
540311* - Environment
Aquatic- Basic Studies- Radiometric Techniques- (1990-)
540111 - Environment
Atmospheric- Basic Studies- Radiometric Techniques- (1990-)