Abstract
Major trends of Quaternary global climate are reflected in the continental ice volume changes which have been reconstructed by oxygen isotope analysis. δ180 records from deep sea sediments show that the net glacial build-up occurs relatively slowly, but that the end of an ice age occurs quickly, in less than 10,000 yr, implying a non-linear response to simple Milankovitch theory. In order to understand the details of the last deglaciation a precise chronology of the paleoclimatic signals is needed. Carbon-14 measurements, performed by accelerator mass spectrometry, provide reliable ages on different species of foraminifera and can be used to provide a time scale for the oxygen isotope record. In addition, a bioturbation model has been used to point out the artifacts which could be falsely interpreted in terms of lead and lag in the paleoclimatic record. A comparison of the data with the restored signals enables the construction of a new deglaciation curve.
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