Rapid grain boundary diffusion in foraminifera tests biases paleotemperature records

The paleoseawater temperature record from the oxygen isotope compositions of fossil foraminifera tests may be biased by up to about 1 degrees C due to grain-boundary diffusion alone, according to isotope exchange experiments on foraminifera tests. The oxygen isotopic compositions of fossil foraminifera tests constitute a continuous proxy record of deep-ocean and sea-surface temperatures spanning the last 120 million years. Here, by incubating foraminifera tests in O-18-enriched artificial seawater analogues, we demonstrate that the oxygen isotopic composition of optically translucent, i.e., glassy, fossil foraminifera calcite tests can be measurably altered at low temperatures through rapid oxygen grain-boundary diffusion without any visible ultrastructural changes. Oxygen grain boundary diffusion occurs sufficiently fast in foraminifera tests that, under normal upper oceanic sediment conditions, their grain boundaries will be in oxygen isotopic equilibrium with the surrounding pore fluids on a time scale of