Synchronous radiocarbon and climate shifts during the last deglaciation

Radiocarbon data from the Cariaco Basin provide calibration of the carbon-1 4 time scale across the period of deglaciation (15,000 to 10,000 years ago) with resolution available previously only from Holocene tree rings. Recons tructed changes in atmospheric carbon-14 are larger than previously thought , with the largest change occurring simultaneously with the sudden climatic cooling of the Younger Dryas event. Carbon-14 and published beryllium-10 d ata together suggest that concurrent climate and carbon-14 changes were pre dominantly the result of abrupt shifts in deep ocean ventilation.