High resolution flow speed reconstructions of two core sites located on Gardar Drift in the northeast Atlantic Basin and Orphan Knoll in the northwest Atlantic Basin reveal a long-term decrease in flow speed of Northeast Atlantic Deep Water (NEADW) after 6,500 years. Benthic foraminiferal oxygen isotopes of sites currently bathed in NEADW show a 0.2per mil depletion after 6,500 years, shortly after the start of the development of a carbon isotope gradient between NEADW and Norwegian Sea Deep Water. We consider these changes in near-bottom flow vigor and benthic foraminiferal isotope records to mark a significant reorganization of the Holocene deep ocean circulation, and attribute the changes to a weakening of NEADW flow during the mid to late Holocene that allowed the shoaling of Lower Deep Water and deeper eastward advection of Labrador Sea Water into the northeast Atlantic Basin.

MD99-2251 originally published in Ellsion et al., (2006). Conversion to calendar years before present (cal. yrs BP) with CALIB 501 (Stuiver et al., 1993) using marine04 as calibration data set. Mean ages are the arithmetic means of the age ranges given by the program.

Supplement to: Hoogakker, Babette A A; Chapman, Mark R; McCave, I Nick; Hillaire-Marcel, Claude; Ellison, Christopher RW; Hall, Ian R; Telford, Richard J (2011): Dynamics of North Atlantic Deep Water masses during the Holocene. Paleoceanography, 26(4), PA4214