Consistently large marine reservoir ages in the Norwegian Sea during the Last Deglaciation

With the exception of the GS-1/Younger Dryas cold period marine reservoir ages for the Last Deglaciation in the North Atlantic-Norwegian Sea are generally assumed to have been around 400-500 radiocarbon years in magnitude (Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 126 (1994) 275; Radiocarbon 37 (1995) 53; Quat. Res. 52 (1999) 104; Nature 412 (2001) 724). By comparing the climate records obtained from the GRIP ice-core (Nature 359 (1992) 311; J. Quat. Sci. 13(4) (1998) 283) and from North Atlantic/Norwegian Sea cores (Quat. Res. 52 (1999) 104; Geology 23 (12) (1995) 1059; Nature 356 (1991) 757; Nature 356 (1992) 757; Paleoceanography 3(1) (1988) 1; Nature 343 (1990) 612; Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 126 (1994) 275), with radiocarbon-dated European continental records, we show that marine reservoir ages in the Norwegian Sea were of the order of 1000 C-14 yr, including large uncertainties. This approach rests on the reasonable assumption that climate changes throughout the NE Atlantic and Europe were more or less synchronous at the centennial scale. Fairly large variations in reservoir ages over time may have been caused by changing atmospheric C-14 content. The results indicate that detailed land-sea correlations for the North Atlantic during the Last Deglaciation are not feasible using radiocarbon dating alone. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved