Is there evidence for a 4.2 ka BP event in the northern North Atlantic region?

• Published in: Climate of the Past
• Main Authors: Bradley, Raymond S., Bakke, Jostein
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2019
• Subjects: North Atlantic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-15-1665-2019; https://cp.copernicus.org/articles/15/1665/2019/

We review paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic records from the northern North Atlantic to assess the nature of climatic conditions at 4.2 ka BP, which has been identified as a time of exceptional climatic anomalies in many parts of the world. The northern North Atlantic region experienced relatively warm conditions from 6 to 8 ka BP, followed by a general decline in temperatures after ∼5 ka BP, which led to the onset of neoglaciation. Over the last 5000 years, a series of multi-decadal- to century-scale fluctuations occurred, superimposed on an overall decline in temperature. Although a few records do show a glacial advance around 4.2 ka BP, because they are not widespread we interpret them as local events – simply one glacial advance of many that occurred in response to the overall climatic deterioration that characterized the late Holocene.