A Radiocarbon Perspective on Greenland Ice-Core Chronologies: Can we Use Ice Cores for ¹⁴C Calibration?

Some of the most valuable paleoclimate archives yet recovered are the multi-proxy records from the Greenland GISP2 and GRIP ice cores. The crucial importance of these data arises in part from the strong correlations that exist between the Greenland δ 18 O records and isotopic or other proxies in numerous other Northern Hemisphere paleoclimate sequences. These correlations could, in principle, allow layer-counted ice-core chronologies to be transferred to radiocarbon-dated paleoclimate archives, thus providing a 14 C calibration for the Last Glacial Maximum and Isotope Stage 3, back to the instrumental limits of the 14 C technique. However, this possibility is confounded by the existence of numerous different chronologies, as opposed to a single (or even a “best”) ice-core time scale. This paper reviews how the various chronologies were developed, summarizes the differences between them, and examines ways in which further research may allow a 14 C calibration to be established.