Barbados Sea Level and Radiocarbon Calibration Records

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-2).The island of Barbados provides an excellent approximation of the global sea level history. Uranium series and radiocarbon dating of fossil corals from wire line drill cores have already provided a sea level record for the deglacial and an expanded record has extended the sea level history to 30,000 years BP. During a 2007 cruise the PI drilled submerged Late Pleistocene coral reefs southwest of South Point Barbados. A majority of these samples are represented by the reef crest species Acropora palmata and U-series dating of selected Acropora palmata samples indicate corals range in the age from 11 to 33 kyr. The PIs will conduct U-series and AMS 14C datings on ~ 200 Acropora palmata samples from the new collection and use the data to construct a sea-level curve directly using this surface dwelling coral. This will provide a detailed sea level and radiocarbon record for the last 33 kyr. The PIs will be able to better resolve the timing and extent of melt water pulses, constrain the duration of the Last Glacial Maximum low-stand through Heinrich event 1, and better resolve sea level variations during the Younger Dryas and LGM, with particular interest in determining the rate of sea level fall (60m) between 33 and 26 ky. Broader impacts: The study will provide the scientific community with a continuous sea level record of the last 33 ky as well as calibrate the radiocarbon curve for that interval. The project will also provide material for a PhD dissertation and support two undergraduates.