Will there be a 14C minimum in the tropical Pacific in the 1990s

Conference · Tue Jan 09 04:00:00 EST 1990 · EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union; (United States)

OSTI ID:6880284

Toggweiler, J R ^[1]

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1. Princeton Univ., NJ (United States)

14C distributions measured during GEOSECS showed large minima in bomb 14C levels in the tropical belts of the major ocean basins. Broecker et al. (1978, JGR, 83) attributed the minima to upwelling of deep water which was free of bomb 14C. Wyrtki (1981, JPO, 11) countered that heat budgets constrain the water upwelling the the equator to be from the upper themocline. Druffel (1987, JMR, 45) built a model of the Pacific upwelling system incorporating Wyrtki's description of the upwelling system. Druffel showed that the GEOSECS 14C minimum could be reproduced with upwelled upper thermocline water because bomb 14C levels were still relatively low in the tropical thermocline at the time of GEOSECS. Druffel went on to predict that mid latitude and tropical surface 14C levels would approach a common value before the 1990s and upper thermocline water masses acquired more bomb 14C and atmospheric 14C levels declined. By studying pre-bomb coral 14C records and a model simulation in Toggweiler et al. (1989, JGR, 94), I have found confirmation that some older and colder water upwells in the tropical Pacific. Upper thermocline (22-24C) water has about the same pre-bomb 14C content as pre-bomb surface waters and cannot generate a low 14C singal prior to the bomb test. The appearance of the oldest upwelled water in the coral data is correlated in time with the cold phase of the ENSO cycle. Most of the low 14C water moves southward into the South Pacific. I will argue that intensified upwelling during the cold phase of ENSO pulls up 12-14C water from the lower layers of the Equatorial Undercurrent. Upwelling from this layer may represent an important closure mechanism for mode waters formed in the subantarctic. A source of older water makes it certain that the tropical 14C minimum will persist through the 1990s and the remainder of the post-bomb era.

• OSTI ID: 6880284
• Report Number(s): CONF-9002174--
• Conference Information: Journal Name: EOS, Transactions, American Geophysical Union; (United States) Journal Volume: 71:2
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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