A Pliocene‐Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic δ 18 O records

We present a 5.3‐Myr stack (the “LR04” stack) of benthic δ 18 O records from 57 globally distributed sites aligned by an automated graphic correlation algorithm. This is the first benthic δ 18 O stack composed of more than three records to extend beyond 850 ka, and we use its improved signal quality to identify 24 new marine isotope stages in the early Pliocene. We also present a new LR04 age model for the Pliocene‐Pleistocene derived from tuning the δ 18 O stack to a simple ice model based on 21 June insolation at 65°N. Stacked sedimentation rates provide additional age model constraints to prevent overtuning. Despite a conservative tuning strategy, the LR04 benthic stack exhibits significant coherency with insolation in the obliquity band throughout the entire 5.3 Myr and in the precession band for more than half of the record. The LR04 stack contains significantly more variance in benthic δ 18 O than previously published stacks of the late Pleistocene as the result of higher‐resolution records, a better alignment technique, and a greater percentage of records from the Atlantic. Finally, the relative phases of the stack's 41‐ and 23‐kyr components suggest that the precession component of δ 18 O from 2.7–1.6 Ma is primarily a deep‐water temperature signal and that the phase of δ 18 O precession response changed suddenly at 1.6 Ma.