Coupled European and Greenland last glacial dust activity driven by North Atlantic climate

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
• Main Authors: Újvári, Gábor, Stevens, Thomas, Molnár, Mihály, Demény, Attila, Lambert, Fabrice, Varga, György, Timothy Jull, A. J., Páll-Gergely, Barna, Buylaert, Jan Pieter, Kovács, János
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: Dansgaard−Oeschger events; Dust; European loess; Mollusk shell; Radiocarbon dating; Greenland; Dansgaard-Oeschger events; Greenland ice cores; North Atlantic; North Atlantic oscillation
• Online Access: https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/publications/e2a7f18b-c5cc-49e3-b2fc-4b76cc890306; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1712651114

Centennial-scale mineral dust peaks in last glacial Greenland ice cores match the timing of lowest Greenland temperatures, yet little is known of equivalent changes in dust-emitting regions, limiting our understanding of dust−climate interaction. Here, we present the most detailed and precise age model for European loess dust deposits to date, based on 125 accelerator mass spectrometry 14 C ages from Dunaszekcso, } Hungary. The record shows that variations in glacial dust deposition variability on centennial–millennial timescales in east central Europe and Greenland were synchronous within uncertainty. We suggest that precipitation and atmospheric circulation changes were likely the major influences on European glacial dust activity and propose that European dust emissions were modulated by dominant phases of the North Atlantic Oscillation, which had a major influence on vegetation and local climate of European dust source regions.