Abstract. Knowledge of the marine reservoir age is fundamental for creating reliable chronologies of marine sediment archives based on radiocarbon dating. This age difference between the 14C age of a marine sample and that of its contemporaneous atmosphere is dependent on several factors, among others ocean circulation, water mass distribution, terrestrial runoff, upwelling, sea-ice cover and is therefore spatially heterogenous. Anthropogenic influence on the global isotopic carbon system, mostly through atmospheric nuclear tests, has complicated the determination of the regional reservoir age correction ΔR, which therefore can only be measured on historic samples of known age. In this study we expand on the few existing measurements of ΔR for the coastal waters around Greenland, by adding 92 new radiocarbon dates on mollusks from museum collections. All studied mollusk samples were collected during historic expeditions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and besides coastal sites around Greenland, the dataset also includes localities from the western Labrador Sea, Baffin Bay, and the Iceland Sea. Together with existing measurements, the new results are used to calculate average ΔR values for different regions around Greenland, all in relation to Marine20, the most recent radiocarbon calibration curve. To support further discussions and comparison with previous datasets, we introduce the term ΔR13 where the suffix 13 refers to the previous calibration curve Marine13. Our study explores the links between the marine reservoir age and oceanography, sea ice cover, water depth, mollusk feeding habits, and the presence of carbonate bedrock. Although we provide regional averages, we encourage people to consult the full catalogue of measurements and determine a suitable ΔR for each case individually, based on the exact location including water depth. Despite this significant expansion of the regional reservoir age database around Greenland, data from the northern coast, directly bordering the Arctic Ocean remains missing.
<p>Little is known about climate and ocean conditions during the Last Glacial Maximum in Baffin Bay, Greenland. This is partly due to the dissolution of biogenic carbonates in the central Baffin Bay, preventing reliable <sup>14</sup>C-chronologies. We present the results from a transect of gravity cores retrieved during the 2019 BIOS cruise on the HDMS Lauge Koch in the northern Baffin Bay. Core LK19-ST8-14G has been analyzed for grain size variations, sea-ice biomarkers, XRF, and color spectrophotometry. A preliminary chronology based on radiocarbon dates from foraminifera show that the bottom of the core is approximately 35.000 cal. years BP while the top sediments are of Late Holocene age. The sediment archive thus covers the full extent of the LGM and the last deglaciation. High-resolution photography and CT scans allowed the identification of distinctly different lithofacies in the sediment archive. The lower sections of the core are characterized by laminated mud with no IRD and absence of microfossils indicating a sub ice-shelf environment during the glacial period. The laminated sequence is interrupted by several coarser, detrital-carbonate (DC) rich layers which are interpreted as episodes of glacial retreat or ice-shelf collapse. The youngest of these DC layers immediately precedes the Holocene, which is represented by approximately 40 cm of bioturbated sediments with some IRD. This interpretation is supported by the concentrations of HBIs and sterols throughout the core, which indicate near perennial ice cover in the glacial northern Baffin Bay and more open water conditions during the Holocene.</p>
<p>Radiocarbon (<sup>14</sup>C) dating is the standard method for obtaining the age of marine sediments of Holocene and late Pleistocene age. For accurate calibrations, however, this tool relies on precise knowledge of the local radiocarbon reservoir age of the surface ocean, i.e. the regional difference (&#916;R) from the average global marine calibration dataset. This parameter has become impossible to measure from modern material samples because of <sup>14</sup>C contamination from extensive testing of thermo-nuclear bombs in the second half of the twentieth century. The local reservoir age can thus only be calculated from the radiocarbon age of samples collected before AD 1950 or from sediment records containing absolute age markers, derived from e.g. tephrochronology or paleomagnetism.</p><p>Knowledge of the marine reservoir age around Greenland is sparse and relies on work by a few studies, represented by measurements clustered in local patches. In this study we add new radiocarbon measurements on samples from historical mollusk collections from Arctic expeditions of the late 19<sup>th</sup> and early 20<sup>th</sup> Century. The 92 new samples are from central east Greenland and the entire western Greenland coast. Although the new data is mostly coastal, it includes a few deeper sites from the Labrador Sea and northeastern North Atlantic Ocean, where deep waters were found to be very young. Together with existing measurements, the new results are used to calculate average &#916;R values for different regions around Greenland, all in relation to Marine20, the most recent radiocarbon calibration curve. Despite the significant addition of new measurements, very few data exist for southeastern Greenland, while no data at all is available for the Arctic Ocean coast in northern Greenland.</p>
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