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An alternative astronomical calibration of the lower Pleistocene timescale based on ODP Site 677

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

N. J. Shackleton ,
A. Berger  and
W. R. Peltier
N. J. Shackleton
Affiliation:
Subdepartment of Quaternary Research, The Godwin Laboratory, Free School Lane, Cambridge CB2 3RS, U.K.
A. Berger
Affiliation:
Institut d'Astronomie et de Géophysique G. Lemaitre, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
W. R. Peltier
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Tornoto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada.
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Abstract

Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 677 provided excellent material for high resolution stable isotope analysis of both benthonic and planktonic foraminifera through the entire Pleistocene and upper Pliocene. The oxygen isotope record is readily correlated with the SPECMAP stack (Imbrie et al. 1984) and with the record from DSDP 607 (Ruddiman et al. 1986) but a significantly better match with orbital models is obtained by departing from the timescale proposed by these authors below Stage 16 (620 000 years). It is the stronger contribution from the precession signal in the record from ODP Site 677 that provides the basis for the revised timescale. Our proposed modification to the timescale would imply that the currently adopted radiometric dates for the Matuyama–Brunhes boundary, the Jaramillo and Olduvai Subchrons and the Gauss–Matuyama boundary underestimate their true astronomical ages by between 5 and 7%.

Keywords

Pleistocene timescaleMilankovitchastronomical chronologyoxygen isotopesSPECMAPmagnetostratigraphy.
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 81 , Issue 4: The Late Cezozoic Ice Age , 1990 , pp. 251 - 261
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1990

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