Late Glacial ¹⁴C Ages from a Floating, 1382-Ring Pine Chronology

Abstract

We built a floating, 1382-ring pine chronology covering the radiocarbon age interval of 12,000 to 10,650 BP. Based on the strong rise of Δ 14 C at the onset of the Younger Dryas (YD) and wiggle-matching of the decadal-scale Δ 14 C fluctuations, we can anchor the floating chronology to the Cariaco varve chronology. We observe a marine reservoir correction higher than hitherto assumed for the Cariaco site, of up to 650 yr instead of 400 yr, for the full length of the comparison interval. The tree-ring Δ 14 C shows several strong fluctuations of short duration (a few decades) at 13,800; 13,600; and 13,350 cal BP. The amplitude of the strong Δ 14 C rise at the onset of the YD is about 40, whereas in the marine data set the signal appears stronger due to a re-adjustment of the marine mixed-layer Δ 14 C towards the atmospheric level.