The timing of regional Lateglacial events and post-glacial sedimentation rates from Lake Superior

We analyze both new and previously published paleomagnetic records of secular variation (PSV) from Lake Superior sediment cores and compare these records to correlated rhythmite (varve) thickness records to determine post-glacial sedimentation rates and to reassess the termination of glaciolacustrine varves in the basin. The results suggest that offshore sedimentation rates have exhibited considerable spatial variation over the past 8000 years, particularly during the mid-Holocene. We attribute offshore, mid-Holocene sedimentation changes to alterations in whole basin circulation, perhaps precipitated by a greater dominance of the Gulf of Mexico air mass during the summer season. Nearshore bays are characterized by high sedimentation rates for at least 1000 years after varve cessation and during a period between around 4500 and 2000 cal. BP. After 2000 cal. BP, sedimentation rates subsided to earlier rates. The increases between 4500 and 2000 cal. BP are probably due to lake level fall after the Nipissing II highstand.The older glaciolacustrine varve thickness records suggest that the influx of glacially derived sediment ended abruptly everywhere in the lake, except near the Lake Nipigon inlets. Multiple sediment cores reveal 36 anomalously thick varves, previously ascribed to the formation of the Nakina moraine, which were deposited just prior to varve cessation in the open lake. The PSV records support the observation that the cessation of these thick varves is a temporally correlative event, occurring at 9035±170 cal. BP (calibrated years before 1950, ca 7950–8250 ¹⁴C BP). This date would correlate to the eastern diversion of Lake Agassiz and glacial meltwater into Lake Ojibway.     

Sedimentation in a deep glacier-fed lake—Lake Tekapo, New Zealand

ABSTRACT Surface sediments, cores and seismic reflection profiling delineate sedimentary environments and processes of sedimentation in Lake Tekapo. Sedimentation is dominated by the Godley River which forms an extensive delta in the northern third of the lake. Delta growth accounts for 55% of annual sediment deposition. In winter sandy muds are deposited at the top of the delta slope, where they may move under gravity as a surficial slide. Oversteepening of the upper slope also generates deep seated failures. The entire 20 km² of delta slope is subjected to rotational slumping which episodically reworks large volumes of sediment. Down the delta slope sedimentation rates decrease, surface sediments get finer and varves become better developed.
In the lake basin sediments are parallel bedded varves, which contain typical winter-summer annual cycles as well as minor, non-annual flood varves. Annual varve thickness and semi-annual varve frequency are determined by variations in the discharge of the Godley River. Sedimentation in the basin accounts for 40% of the budget and sedimentation rates decrease with distance from the delta, except at the distal end of the basin, where turbid underflows are stopped by the rising lake floor. Beyond the basin, sedimentation rates decrease abruptly. Coriolis deflection of inflowing river water increases sedimentation rates down the eastern shore. The remaining 5% of the sediment is deposited on the lateral slopes and shoulders where sediments form a thin muddy veneer over basement, which occasionally slumps to the basin floor.     

Late Pleistocene and early Holocene drainage events in the eastern Fehmarn Belt and Mecklenburg Bight,SW Baltic Sea

The Fehmarn Belt is a key area for the Late Pleistocene and Holocene development of the Baltic Sea as it was a passage for marine and fresh water during its different stages. The pre‐Holocene geological development of this area is presented based on the analysis of seismic profiles and sedimentary gravity cores. Late Pleistocene varve sediments of the initial Baltic Ice Lake were identified. An exceptionally thick varve layer, overlain by a section of thinner varves with convolute bedding in turn covered by undisturbed varves with decreasing thicknesses is found in the Fehmarn Belt. This succession, along with a change in varve geochemistry, represents a rapid ice‐sheet withdrawal and increasingly distal sedimentation in front of the ice margin. Two erosional unconformities are observed in the eastern Mecklenburg Bight, one marking the top of the initial Baltic Ice Lake deposits and the second one indicating the end of the final Baltic Ice Lake. These unconformities join in Fehmarn Belt, where deposits of the final Baltic Ice Lake are missing due to an erosional hiatus related to a lake‐level drop during its final drainage. After this lake‐level drop, a lowstand environment represented by river deposits developed. These deposits are covered by lake marls of Yoldia age. Tilting of the early glacial lake sediments indicates a period of vertical movements prior to the onset of the Holocene. Deposits of the earliest stages of the Baltic Sea have been exposed by ongoing erosion in the Fehmarn Belt at the transition to the Mecklenburg Bight.     

A 750-yr record of autumn snowfall and temperature variability and winter storminess recorded in the varved sediments of Bear Lake, Devon Island, Arctic Canada

The varve record from High Arctic, proglacial Bear Lake reveals a regionally coherent hydroclimatic signal as well as complexities due to changing hydroclimatic and limnologic conditions. Varve formation is strongly dependent on underflows that exhibit variability in strength during the past 750 yr. Periods with reduced underflow sedimentation and accumulation rates fail to produce varves in the distal part of the lake. Isolated coarse silt and sand grains occur in 80% of the varves and are interpreted to be niveo-aeolian in origin. Coarse (>500 μm) sand grains deposited on the lake ice by strong winter winds are notably less common since A.D. 1850, likely due to reduced storminess. Regression of the varve thickness record with meteorological records indicates high correlations with autumn (September and October) temperatures and total monthly snowfall. These correlations are best at times when underflow activity is sufficiently strong to produce varves throughout the lake. The close association with warmer temperatures and snow-bearing synoptic systems moving north in Baffin Bay suggests that the primary climate signal in the varves is varying autumn snow pack that controls nival discharge in the following year. The similarity between the other records of melt season temperature and sea-ice cover and the Bear Lake record suggests that summer and autumn conditions were generally similar across the Baffin Bay region through much of the last millennium.     

Centennial-scale oscillations in oxygen and carbon isotopes of endogenic calcite from a 15,500 varve year record of the Piànico interglacial

The palaeolake record from Piànico (Southern Alps) comprises a sequence of 15,500 continuous calcite varves formed during peak interglacial conditions around 400 ka ago. The varved nature of these deposits allows precise sub-sampling of five varve year intervals for stable isotope analyses. All samples consist of calcite precipitated in the epilimnion of the lake, with contents of detrital carbonate below 4%. Four significant negative δ¹⁸O oscillations occurred during the upper half of the interglacial. The most prominent of these oscillations has an amplitude of −1.1‰ and lasted 780 varve years. The three other oscillations are shorter (125–195 varve years) and of lower amplitude (0.4–0.9‰). An additional major drop in δ¹⁸O occurs 315 varve years before the end of continuous calcite precipitation in the lake. This shift marks the end of long interglacial conditions and the beginning of harsher climate conditions and glacier advances in the Southern Alps. In contrast, the four δ¹⁸O oscillations within the period of continuous formation of calcite varves reflect natural intra–interglacial climate dynamics.     

A local clay-varve chronology and proglacial sedimentary environment in glacial Lake Peipsi, eastern Estonia

Ten cores consisting of varved clay from the northern part of Lake Peipsi in eastern Estonia have been correlated using varve thickness variations and specific marker varves into a 375-year floating varve chronology. Continuous sedimentation during gradual ice recession is concluded from a clear transition from proximal to distal varves. Cyclic variations in varve thickness are caused mainly by thickness changes of clayey winter layers. This is interpreted to indicate increased influx of finer material due to faster melting of the glacier. The cyclic pattern of thickness change is explained by alternating periods of increased and decreased melting of the ice. Simultaneous accumulation of varved clay in glacial Lake Peipsi and in the Luga and Neva basins of Russia is concluded from the good visual correlation between the mean varve thickness diagrams for the three chronologies. Because the varve chronologies from northwestern Russia have been tentatively correlated to the Swedish varve chronology, the timing of the clay accumulation in glacial Lake Peipsi is placed between c . 13 500 and 13 100 varve years BP.     

衡阳盆地始新世含鱼地层的成因分析

衡阳市郊五马归槽始新世鱼化石保存在黑色湖相纹层中。根据纹层序列的对比,发现该地的鱼化石均为同一层位;根据鱼化石在纹层序列中的具体位置及鱼化石的保存状况,笔者推测鱼群的死亡并非由于季节更替,而是由气候干旱引起的湖水盐度升高所控制;黑白纹层的变化是由大气降雨所致。     

Lake Mullsjön - a key site for understanding the final stage of the Baltic Ice Lake east of Mt. Billingen

The deglaciation pattern at Mt. Billingen, within the Middle Swedish end moraine zone, and its relationship with dramatic water level changes in the Baltic Ice Lake is a classic topic of Swedish Quaternary Geology. Based on data west of Mt. Billingen, the authors (in two earlier papers) presented a stratigraphic model associated with this subject. This study is an attempt to test the model east of Mt. Billingen, i.e. inside the Baltic Ice Lake itself. Lake Mullsjon is situated 30 km southeast of the drainage area of the Baltic Ice Lake and within the final drainage zone. About 8 m of Late Weichselian sediments (mostly varved clay) were recovered from the lake and analysed from different stratigraphic viewpoints, including lithology, grainsize, varve chronology, and pollen. These analyses show that the site was deglaciated in the later part of the Allerød Chronozone. Shortly thereafter the first drainage of the Baltice Ice Lake took place but without isolating Lake Mullsjon. After a short period of disturbed sedimentation varved clay continued to form as the glacier receded for another 120 varve years until the onset of the Younger Dryas cooling, as registered both in the pollen and in the varve stratigraphies. After c. another 120 varve years our analyses suggest that the Baltic Ice Lake was dammed once again. About 230 varve years of further ice readvance followed west of Mt. Billingen, while the ice margin in the east was more or less stationary. Rapid melting set in, at first producing coarse varves, but soon the clay was thin-varved and fine. This continued for 140 varve years until suddenly the lake became isolated. At this isolation thick beds of silty-sandy deposits were deposited on the lake floor. The isolation is dated to 10,400–10,500 ¹⁴C years B.P., which corresponds to the assumed age of the final drainage of the Baltic Ice Lake. It was also isolated at the same time as lakes (on the same isobase) situated 20 m lower, but west of Mt. Billingen, were raised above sea level. This strongly suggests that Lake Mullsjön was isolated as an effect of the drainage of the Baltic Ice Lake. Significant differences between the clay-varve and the ¹⁴C chronologies are also presented.     

Seasonal controls on sediment transport and deposition in Lake Ohau,South Island,New Zealand: Implications for a high‐resolution Holocene palaeoclimate reconstruction

Laminated sediments in Lake Ohau, Mackenzie Basin, New Zealand, offer a potential high‐resolution climate record for the past 17 kyr. Such records are particularly important due to the relative paucity of detailed palaeoclimate data from the Southern Hemisphere mid‐latitudes. This paper presents outcomes of a study of the sedimentation processes of this temperate lake setting. Hydrometeorological, limnological and sedimentological data were collected over a 14 month period between 2011 and 2013. These data indicate that seasonality in the hydrometeorological system in combination with internal lake dynamics drives a distinct seasonal pattern of sediment dispersal and deposition on a basin‐wide scale. Sedimentary layers that accumulate proximal to the lake inflow at the northern end of the lake form in response to discrete inflow events throughout the year and display an event stratigraphy. In contrast, seasonal change in the lake system controls accumulation of light (winter) and dark (summer) laminations at the distal end of the lake, resulting in the preservation of varves. This study documents the key processes influencing sediment deposition throughout Lake Ohau and provides fundamental data for generating a high‐resolution palaeoclimate record from this temperate lake.     

Microfacies of detrital event layers deposited in Quaternary varved lake sediments of the Piànico-Sèllere Basin (northern Italy)

A Quaternary interglacial lake sediment record from the Piànico-Sèllere Basin (northern Italy) consists of biochemical calcite varves with intercalated detrital layers. At the end of the Piànico Interglacial, continuous varve formation was replaced by predominantly detrital sedimentation. However, 427 varve-years before this shift, an abrupt increase in the frequency and thickness of detrital layers occurred. Microfacies analyses reveal a total of 152 detrital layers, ranging from 0·2 to 20·15 mm in thickness, deposited during the last 896 years of the Piànico Interglacial. Three microfacies types are distinguished: (i) graded layers, (ii) non-graded silt layers, and (iii) matrix-supported layers. The position of detrital layers within an individual varve provides additional information on the season in which they have been deposited. Microfacies analyses in combination with varve counting further enabled precise varve-to-varve correlation of the detrital layers for two sediment sections cropping out ca 130 m apart. The detailed intra-basin correlation allows the source regions of detrital layers to be inferred. Moreover, micro-erosion at sub-millimetre scale has been established. Of the described facies types, only the accumulation of summer and spring graded and non-graded silt layers abruptly increased before the end of interglacial varve formation whereas non-graded winter silt and matrix-supported layers are randomly distributed over the entire study period. Heavy rainfalls are assumed to have triggered spring and summer graded layers, so that the occurrence of these layers is thought to be a proxy for extreme precipitation events in the past.     

The varve-related ice-dammed lake events in Glen Roy and vicinity: a new interpretation

This paper presents a new interpretation of the sequence of events in Glen Roy and vicinity during the Loch Lomond Stadial that can be inferred from a detailed varve record constructed by Palmer et al. (2010). 300 years of Younger Dryas glacier advance in the Scottish Highlands are recorded by very thin varves formed in an ice-dammed lake up to 35 km long. At a varve site now occupied by Loch Laggan the lake stood permanently at 260 m, but in Glen Roy varves were also laid down in a lake at 325 m and, later, 350 m caused by glacier advance. Initial ice retreat recorded by a gradual increase in varve thickness was soon followed by much thicker varves. The varve sequences are interrupted by a sand bed caused by sudden drainage of the 350 m lake. The major varves of the Glen Roy sequence show that storminess was still increasing in intensity at least 160 years after glacier retreat had begun. At the Loch Laggan site 15 cm of deformed sediments register an earthquake that produced 3 m faulted uplift of all three Glen Roy shorelines, a response to the abrupt removal of 5 km³ of water when the 260 m lake was catastrophically drained by jökulhlaup. The deformed sediments are immediately followed by varves deposited in a local lake, ice-dammed lake sedimentation now having ceased, having lasted more than 460 years.     

湖泊沉积物年纹层的研究方法及其意义

文章总结了前人对湖泊沉积物年纹层类型的划分,并根据年纹层的形成过程和组分特征分为3个大类,即碎屑年纹层、生物成因年纹层(如硅藻年纹层等)和化学成因年纹层(如方解石年纹层、菱铁矿年纹层、黄铁矿年纹层、蒸发盐年纹层等)。介绍了目前应用于湖泊沉积物年纹层研究的主要方法和技术包括:1)新鲜沉积物表面照相、X射线照相技术;2)光学显微镜观察;3)数字化图像分析;4)扫描电子显微镜技术等。而岩相学大薄片是目前年纹层研究工作中应用非常广泛的材料,对目前制作大薄片比较普遍采用的快速冷冻-冷冻干燥和水-丙酮-环氧树脂交换这两种方法进行了介绍并比较了各自的优劣。湖泊沉积物年纹层研究的古环境意义主要体现在两个方面,一是提供了高精度的纹层年代学时间标尺,在诸如气候突变事件的时限、大气¹⁴C浓度变化、火山灰层定年、古地磁场长期变化主曲线重建等方面有重要意义;二是年纹层性质研究如年纹层厚度和年纹层微相变化本身所蕴藏的高分辨率古气候环境变化信息,在太阳活动周期、ENSO等气候事件的研究中也有重要意义。最后,文章简单介绍了我国东北龙岗火山区四海龙湾玛珥湖沉积物中年纹层的特征并展望了其研究潜力。     

高分辨率古环境指示器--湖泊纹泥研究综述

作为高分辨率古环境指示器,湖泊纹泥在重建晚第四纪特别是近代全球环境变化中具有特殊的地位和意义。纹泥携带的各种季节信息反映了区域生物学、地球化学、沉积学对季节性驱动力的响应,而且纹泥本身可以提供反映沉积环境和气候变化的精确计年,近３０年来湖泊纹发展历史表明,纹泥的应用主要集中于以下三个方面：纹波计年、纹泥厚度变化和纹泥沉积物分析,其中纹 精确测年是一切应用的基础。可以看出,在古环境研究中,纹泥作为一     

Glaciomarine varves in late-Pleistocene clays near Göteborg, southwestern Sweden

Cyclic variations in the grain size, colour, carbonate content and organic content are interpreted as the result of proximal glaciomarine varve deposition along a fjord-like valley in southwestern Sweden. The sedimentological factors which allow varve development in this generally inhibiting environment arc considered by analogy with modern examples. Density stratification which is best developed during the spring and summer period of high discharge is suggested to have an essential influence on the cyclic character. Since sedimentation is interpreted to have occurred primarily from meltwater overflow the degree of mixing and salinity-induced coagulation largely governs fine-sediment sorting. Although these varves are not as well defined or as easily correlated as classical varves, they are considered useful in many comparable applications.     

Depositional processes and the inferred history of ice-margin retreat associated with the deglaciation of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet: The sedimentary record from Flathead Lake,northwest Montana,USA

A series of piston cores from Flathead Lake, Montana, USA and a new radiocarbon date from the sedimentary record provide the basis for describing sedimentary processes related to deglaciation of the Flathead Lobe of the Cordilleran Ice Sheet and for interpreting the retreat history of the lobe. The oldest part of Flathead Lake sediment core records is Late Pleistocene in age and consists of cm-scale rhythmites of silt and clay, interpreted here as annual varves. Each varve contains a light-colored coarser-grained portion, inferred to represent deposition during peak annual runoff, and a darker-colored finer-grained portion interpreted to represent sediment accumulation during seasonal low-flow conditions. The coarser-grained portions, especially in the stratigraphically older sections of each core, contain sedimentary structures that reflect traction transport. Based on these sedimentary structures, their facies characteristics, and their spatial distribution within the lake, we interpret the thicker, light-colored portion of each varve to be deposited by hyperpycnal flows caused by seasonal melt events rather than more classic turbidity currents.Immediately overlying Late Pleistocene rhythmites in all Flathead Lake cores is a unique, significantly coarser-grained dm-scale silt bed with a median grain size up to 50 µm. This silt bed has a sharp, locally erosional base and fines upward but does not contain any other sedimentary structures. In contrast to the rhythmites, we interpret this silt bed to represent a single, short-lived catastrophic sedimentation event generated by a large glacial outburst flood. Overlying this distinct bed are several other cm-scale beds of mainly silt that exhibit a basal upward-coarsening followed by an upward-fining median grain size profile. We interpret these beds and their grain size trends as reflecting the rising and falling hydrograph limbs of outburst floods derived from more distal sources located in the upstream parts of the upper Flathead watershed.The sediment record from Flathead Lake, together with results from geologic and geomorphologic 1:24,000 scale mapping around the lake margins, provide a series of constraints regarding the paleogeographic evolution of the area during deglaciation. Overall upward-thinning and upward-fining of the varved portion of the sediment core records reflects northward retreat of the southern Flathead Lobe ice margin starting at latest 14,475 ± 150 cal yr BP, the depositional age of the oldest varve in any of our cores. The depositional age of silt beds overlying the varved records is constrained as between 14,150 ± 150 cal yr BP and 13,180 ± 120 cal yr BP. Within the available chronostratigraphic constraints, the outburst floods interpreted to have delivered this silt to the Flathead Lake basin also downcut a bedrock nick point below the Flathead Lake outlet, oriented a series of large boulders downstream, and deposited a series of large flood bars on the lower Flathead River floodplain.     

Global Radiation and Onset of Stratification as Forcing Factors of Seasonal Carbonate and Organic Matter Flux Dynamics in a Hypertrophic Hardwater Lake (Sacrower See,Northeastern Germany)

A 2-year (October 2003–October 2005) high-resolution sediment trap study was conducted in Sacrower See, a dimictic hardwater lake in northeastern Germany. Geochemical and diatom data from sediment trap samples were compared with a broad range of limnological and meteorological parameters to quantify the impact of single parameters on biochemical calcite precipitation and organic matter production. Our goals were to disentangle how carbonaceous varves and their sublaminae form during the annual cycle to better understand the palaeorecords and to detect influences of dissolution, resuspension as well as of global radiation and stratification on lake internal particle formation. Total particle fluxes in both investigated years were highest during spring and summer. Sedimentation was dominated by autochthonous organic matter and biochemically precipitated calcite. Main calcite precipitation occurred between April and July and was preceded and followed by smaller flux peaks caused by resuspension during winter and blooms of the calcified green algae Phacotus lenticularis during summer. In some of the trap intervals during summer up to 100% of the precipitated calcite was dissolved in the hypolimnion. High primary production due to stable insolation conditions in epilimnic waters began with stratification of the water column. Start and development of stratification is closely related to air and water surface temperatures. It is assumed that global radiation influences the onset and stability of water column stratification and thereby determining the intensity of primary production and consequently of timing and amount of calcite precipitation which is triggered by phytoplanktonic CO₂ consumption. Sediment fluxes of organic matter and calcite are also related to the winter NAO-Index. Therefore these fluxes will be used as a proxy for ongoing reconstruction of Holocene climate conditions.     

Palynological studies in the western arm of Lake Superior

Lake Superior sediments contain pollen whose changes through time can be corelated with dated pollen diagrams from small lakes in the region. A core collected in 1972 from the deep trough (265 m) off Silver Bay (47° 09′N, 91°20′W) penetrated 6.25 cm of taconite tailings, 55 cm of postglacial silty clay, and 93.5 cm of late-glacial varves. Seven levels in the core were dated by stratigraphic and palynological techniques. The varves stopped forming about 9000 years ago, probably when glacial ice retreated to the north shore. The last 100 varves accumulated at about 10 mm/yr, but the average net sedimentation rate subsequently slowed to 0.05 mm/yr until the time of settlement about 1890. The sedimentation rate then increased by a factor of 10, to 0.5 mm/yr until 1956 when taconite processing began. The postsettlement interval can be recognized by marked increases of ragweed and chenopod pollen that result from land disturbance caused by forest clearance and agriculture. The postsettlement interval is also present at the top of six cores from four other sites in western Lake Superior, collected in water from 25–140 m deep. The postsettlement sedimentation rate varies from 0.1–0.8 mm/yr, suggesting that man has greatly increased sediment yield to the lake in the last 80 years.     

Methods for preparing and counting biochemical varves

Four different preparation and counting methods for biochemical varves were compared in order to assess counting errors and to standardize these techniques. The properties of two embedding methods, namely the shock-freeze, freeze-dry and the water-acetone-epoxy-exchange method, are discussed. Varve counts were carried out on fresh sediment and on sediment thin-sections, on the latter by manual and by automated counting using image-analysis software. Counting on fresh sediment and using image-analysis generally underestimated the number of varves, especially in sections with inconspicuous varves. A comparison between multiple varve counts carried out by a single analyst and different analysts showed no significant differences in the mean varve counts.     

New insights into lake responses to rapid climate change: the Younger Dryas in Lake Gościąż, central Poland

The sediment profile from Lake Gościąż in central Poland comprises a continuous, seasonally resolved and exceptionally well-preserved archive of the Younger Dryas (YD) climate variation. This provides a unique opportunity for detailed investigation of lake system responses during periods of rapid climate cooling (YD onset) and warming (YD termination). The new varve record of Lake Gościąż presented here spans 1662 years from the late Allerød (AL) to the early Preboreal (PB). Microscopic varve counting provides an independent chronology with a YD duration of 1149+14/–22 years, which confirms previous results of 1140±40 years. We link stable oxygen isotopes and chironomid-based air temperature reconstructions with the response of various geochemical and varve microfacies proxies especially focusing on the onset and termination of the YD. Cooling at the YD onset lasted ~180 years, which is about a century longer than the terminal warming that was completed in ~70 years. During the AL/YD transition, environmental proxy data lagged the onset of cooling by ~90 years and revealed an increase of lake productivity and internal lake re-suspension as well as slightly higher detrital sediment input. In contrast, rapid warming and environmental changes during the YD/PB transition occurred simultaneously. However, initial changes such as declining diatom deposition and detrital input occurred already a few centuries before the rapid warming at the YD/PB transition. These environmental changes likely reflect a gradual increase in summer air temperatures already during the YD. Our data indicate complex and differing environmental responses to the major climate changes related to the YD, which involve different proxy sensitivities and threshold processes.     

Timing of the first drainage of the Baltic Ice Lake synchronous with the onset of Greenland Stadial 1

Glacial varves can give significant insights into recession and melting rates of decaying ice sheets. Moreover, varve chronologies can provide an independent means of comparison to other annually resolved climatic archives, which ultimately help to assess the timing and response of an ice sheet to changes across rapid climate transitions. Here we report a composite 1257‐year‐long varve chronology from southeastern Sweden spanning the regional late Allerød–late Younger Dryas pollen zone. The chronology was correlated to the Greenland Ice‐Core Chronology 2005 using the time‐synchronous Vedde Ash volcanic marker, which can be found in both successions. For the first time, this enables secure placement of the Lateglacial Swedish varve chronology in absolute time. Geochemical analysis from new varve successions indicate a marked change in sedimentation regime accompanied by an interruption of ice‐rafted debris deposition synchronous with the onset of Greenland Stadial 1 (GS‐1; 12 846 years before AD 1950). With the support of a simple ice‐flow/calving model, we suggest that slowdown of sediment transfer can be explained by ice‐sheet margin stabilization/advance in response to a significant drop of the Baltic Ice Lake level. A reassessment of chronological evidence from central‐western and southern Sweden further supports the hypothesis of synchronicity between the first (penultimate) catastrophic drainage of the Baltic Ice Lake and the start of GS‐1 in Greenland ice‐cores. Our results may therefore provide the first chronologically robust evidence linking continental meltwater forcing to rapid atmosphere–ocean circulation changes in the North Atlantic.