Comment on "Mixed-layer deepening during Heinrich events: a multi-planktonic foraminiferal delta18O approach".
Rashid and Boyle (Reports, 19 October 2007, p. 439) analyzed oxygen isotopes in planktonic foraminera from marine sediments and concluded that Heinrich events (massive iceberg discharges into the North Atlantic Ocean) caused upper water masses to deepen. We question the robustness of this interpretation and argue that a strongly stratified mixed layer characterized by dense sea-ice cover and production of oxygen-18-depleted brines likely prevailed during such events.
Geochemistry and Geodynamics Research Centre, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Montreal, Quebec H3C 3P8, Canada. chm@uqam.ca
Claude
C
Hillaire-Marcel
Anne
A
de Vernal