Atlantic Deep-Sea Stratigraphy: Extension of Absolute Chronology to 320,000 Years

Abstract

Thorium-230 measurements on a core of globigerina ooze from the Caribbean Sea substantiate the prediction of Ericson et al. that the paleontological boundary U-V (Sangamon-Illinoian boundary in their scheme) in the Atlantic sediments has an age of close to 320,000 years. As the ages derived by Ericson et al. were based on extrapolations of mean sedimentation rates established by carbon-14 and protactinium-231 dating of the upper sections of this and other cores, this result confirms the assumption that sedimentation rates in the Caribbean Sea have not changed significantly during the past several hundred thousand years. The uranium content of the ocean as indicated by the deposition rate of thorium-230 was no more than 30 percent higher during glacial than during interglacial periods.