Deglacial floods in the Beaufort Sea preceded Younger Dryas cooling
A period of cooling about 13,000 years ago interrupted about 2,000 years of deglacial warming. Known as the Younger Dryas (YD), the event is thought to have resulted from a slowdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation in response to a sudden flood of Laurentide Ice Sheet meltwater tha...
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ftoregonstate:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:vx021m24g 2024-09-15T17:58:24+00:00 Deglacial floods in the Beaufort Sea preceded Younger Dryas cooling Keigwin, L. D. Klotsko, S. Zhao, N. Reilly, B. Giosan, L. Driscoll, N. W. Reilly, Brendan https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/vx021m24g English [eng] eng unknown https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/vx021m24g Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) Article ftoregonstate 2024-07-22T18:06:04Z A period of cooling about 13,000 years ago interrupted about 2,000 years of deglacial warming. Known as the Younger Dryas (YD), the event is thought to have resulted from a slowdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation in response to a sudden flood of Laurentide Ice Sheet meltwater that reached the Nordic Seas. Oxygen isotope evidence for a local source of meltwater to the open western North Atlantic from the Gulf of St Lawrence has been lacking. Here we report that the eastern Beaufort Sea contains the long-sought signal of O-18-depleted water. Beginning at similar to 12.94 +/- 0.15 thousand years ago, oxygen isotopes in the planktonic foraminifera from two sediment cores as well as sediment and seismic data indicate a flood of meltwater, ice and sediment to the Arctic via the Mackenzie River that lasted about 700 years. The minimum in the oxygen isotope ratios lasted similar to 130 years. We suggest that the floodwater travelled north along the Canadian Archipelago and then through the Fram Strait to the Nordic Seas, where freshening and freezing near sites of deep-water formation would have suppressed convection and caused the YD cooling by reducing the meridional overturning. Article in Journal/Newspaper Beaufort Sea Canadian Archipelago Foraminifera* Fram Strait Ice Sheet Mackenzie river Nordic Seas North Atlantic Planktonic foraminifera ScholarsArchive@OSU (Oregon State University) |
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Open Polar |
collection |
ScholarsArchive@OSU (Oregon State University) |
op_collection_id |
ftoregonstate |
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English unknown |
description |
A period of cooling about 13,000 years ago interrupted about 2,000 years of deglacial warming. Known as the Younger Dryas (YD), the event is thought to have resulted from a slowdown of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation in response to a sudden flood of Laurentide Ice Sheet meltwater that reached the Nordic Seas. Oxygen isotope evidence for a local source of meltwater to the open western North Atlantic from the Gulf of St Lawrence has been lacking. Here we report that the eastern Beaufort Sea contains the long-sought signal of O-18-depleted water. Beginning at similar to 12.94 +/- 0.15 thousand years ago, oxygen isotopes in the planktonic foraminifera from two sediment cores as well as sediment and seismic data indicate a flood of meltwater, ice and sediment to the Arctic via the Mackenzie River that lasted about 700 years. The minimum in the oxygen isotope ratios lasted similar to 130 years. We suggest that the floodwater travelled north along the Canadian Archipelago and then through the Fram Strait to the Nordic Seas, where freshening and freezing near sites of deep-water formation would have suppressed convection and caused the YD cooling by reducing the meridional overturning. |
author2 |
Reilly, Brendan |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Keigwin, L. D. Klotsko, S. Zhao, N. Reilly, B. Giosan, L. Driscoll, N. W. |
spellingShingle |
Keigwin, L. D. Klotsko, S. Zhao, N. Reilly, B. Giosan, L. Driscoll, N. W. Deglacial floods in the Beaufort Sea preceded Younger Dryas cooling |
author_facet |
Keigwin, L. D. Klotsko, S. Zhao, N. Reilly, B. Giosan, L. Driscoll, N. W. |
author_sort |
Keigwin, L. D. |
title |
Deglacial floods in the Beaufort Sea preceded Younger Dryas cooling |
title_short |
Deglacial floods in the Beaufort Sea preceded Younger Dryas cooling |
title_full |
Deglacial floods in the Beaufort Sea preceded Younger Dryas cooling |
title_fullStr |
Deglacial floods in the Beaufort Sea preceded Younger Dryas cooling |
title_full_unstemmed |
Deglacial floods in the Beaufort Sea preceded Younger Dryas cooling |
title_sort |
deglacial floods in the beaufort sea preceded younger dryas cooling |
url |
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/vx021m24g |
genre |
Beaufort Sea Canadian Archipelago Foraminifera* Fram Strait Ice Sheet Mackenzie river Nordic Seas North Atlantic Planktonic foraminifera |
genre_facet |
Beaufort Sea Canadian Archipelago Foraminifera* Fram Strait Ice Sheet Mackenzie river Nordic Seas North Atlantic Planktonic foraminifera |
op_relation |
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/articles/vx021m24g |
op_rights |
Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) |
_version_ |
1810434810613596160 |