Natural thermoluminescence of fossil foraminiferals as a potential proxy for deep-sea temperature changes

Foraminiferal shells from two piston cores separately located at the Ninetyeast Ridge and the Bengal Fan of the Indian Ocean were selected and purified for measurements of natural thermoluminescence (NTL) intensity by a high precision thermoluminescence meter (RGD-3).Variations of the NTL intensity along the two core sequences both spanning the last two glacial-interglacial cycles displayed a strong, identical signal of the global ice volume cycles, which matched well with their corresponding oxygen isotope data.As higher NTL intensity occurred within interglacial periods and changes in an NTL signal were most likely influenced by the temperature of ambient seawater in which the planktonic foraminiferal shells long existed, the NTL signal could be considered as a potential proxy for orbital scale temperature changes of bottom seawater in the tropical Indian Ocean.