Chronology of the Palmer Deep site, Antarctic Peninsula: a Holocene palaeoenvironmental reference for the circum-Antarctic

Palmer Deep sediment cores are used to produce the first high-resolution, c ontinuous late Pleistocene to Holocene time-series from the Antarctic marin e system. The sedimentary record is dated using accelerator mass spectromet er radiocarbon methods on acid insoluble organic matter and foraminiferal c alcite. Fifty-four radiocarbon analyses are utilized in the dating which pr ovides a calibrated timescale back to 13 ka BP. Reliability of resultant ag es on organic matter is assured because duplicates produce a standard devia tion from the surface age of less than laboratory error (i.e., +/-50 years) . In addition, surface organic matter ages at the site are in excellent agr eement with living calcite ages at the accepted reservoir age of similar to 1260 years for the Antarctic Peninsula. Spectral analyses of the magnetic susceptibility record against the age model reveal unusually strong periodi city in the 400, similar to 200 and 50-70 year frequency bands, similar to other high-resolution records from the Holocene but, so far, unique for the circum-Antarctic, Hen we show that comparison to ice-core records of speci fic climatic events (e.g., the 'Little Ice Age', Neoglacial, Hypsithermal, and the Bolling/Allerod to Younger Dryas transition) provides improved focu s upon the relative timing of atmosphere/ocean changes between the northern and southern high latitudes.