Rapid oceanic and atmospheric changes during the

• Main Authors: Younger Dryas Cold Period, Jostein Bakke, Øyvind Lie, Einar Heegaard, Trond Dokken, Gerald H. Haug, Hilary H. Birks, Peter Dulski, Trygve Nilsen, The Younger Dryas Event
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Norway; Nordic Seas; North Atlantic; Sea ice
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.452.6142; http://ic.ucsc.edu/~acr/BeringResources/Articles of interest/Fram Strait/Bakke et al 2009.pdf

12,900 years ago, was a period of rapid cooling in the Northern Hemisphere, driven by large-scale reorganizations of patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation1–3. Environ-mental changes during this period have been documented by both proxy-based reconstructions3 and model simulations4, but there is currently no consensus on the exact mechanisms of onset, stabilization or termination of the Younger Dryas5–8. Here we present high-resolution records from two sediment cores obtained from Lake Kråkenes in western Norway and the Nordic seas. Multiple proxies from Lake Kråkenes are indicative of rapid alternations between glacial growth and melting during the later Younger Dryas. Meanwhile, reconstructed sea surface temperature and salinity from the Nordic seas show an alternation between sea-ice cover and the influx of warm, salty North Atlantic waters. We suggest that the influx of warm