4,- 1Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China (baorui@ouc.edu.cn)
- 2Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China (jyliucugb@yeah.net)
- 3Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China (wangyipeng@stu.ouc.edu.cn)
- 4Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Lausanne, Lausanne , Switzerland (samuel.jaccard@unil.ch)
- 5Ocean University of China, Qingdao, China (wn@ouc.edu.cn)
- 6Institute for Advanced Marine Research, China University of Geosciences, Guangzhou (gongxun@cug.edu.cn)
- 7School of Ocean Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing, China (fangnq@cugb.edu.cn)
Changes in ocean ventilation have been pivotal in regulating carbon sequestration and release on centennial to millennial timescales. However, paleoceanographic reconstructions documenting changes in deep-ocean ventilation using 14C dating, may bear multidimensional explanations, obfuscating the roles of ocean ventilation played on climate evolution. Here, we show that previously inferred poorly ventilated conditions in the North Atlantic were linked to enhanced pre-aged organic carbon (OC) input during Heinrich Stadial 1 (HS1). The 14C age of sedimentary OC was approximately 13,345 ± 692 years older than the coeval foraminifera in the central North Atlantic during HS1, which is coupled to a ventilation age of 5,169 ± 660 years. Old OC was mainly of terrigenous origin and exported to the North Atlantic by ice-rafting. Remineralization of old terrigenous OC in the ocean may have contributed to, at least in part, the anomalously old ventilation ages reported for the high-latitude North Atlantic during HS1.
How to cite: Bao, R., Liu, J., Wang, Y., Jaccard, S. L., Wang, N., Gong, X., and Fang, N.: Pre-aged terrigenous organic carbon biases ocean ventilation-age reconstructions in the North Atlantic, EGU General Assembly 2026, Vienna, Austria, 3–8 May 2026, EGU26-4682, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu26-4682, 2026.
