The marine 14C age of the Vedde Ash Bed along the west coast of Norway

Articulated molluscs, sea urchins and barnacle fragments close to the Vedde Ash Bed in a shallow marine deposit on the west coast of Norway have been ¹⁴C dated. The weighted mean of four dates from a sediment slice 8 cm thick centred on the Vedde Ash Bed is 10920 ± 24 ¹⁴C yr BP. The most accurate ¹⁴C age of the Vedde Ash from terrestrial plant macrofossils is 10310 ± 50 yr BP. The difference is the ¹⁴C reservoir age for coastal water at the west coast of Norway during the mid‐Younger Dryas and equals 610 ± 55 yr. This is 230 yr older than the reservoir age for the Bølling/Allerød and for the present day in this area. The result supports earlier conclusions of a higher reservoir age for the Younger Dryas in the North Atlantic and Nordic Seas, although our reservoir age of 610 ± 55 yr is a few hundred years younger. This suggests that the ¹⁴C reservoir age at Vedde Ash time may increase from coastal water towards the open North Atlantic and Nordic Seas. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Extent, timing, and climatic implications of glacier advances Mount Rainier, Washington, U.S.A., at the pleistocene/holocene transition

The North Atlantic Younger Dryas climatic reversal did not cause a glacier advance on Mount Rainier. The glaciers on Mount Rainier seem to have advanced in response to regional or local shifts in climate. However, the Younger Dryas climatic reversal may have affected the Mount Rainier area, causing a cold, but dry, climate unfavorable to glacier advances. Glaciers in the vicinity of Mount Rainier advanced twice during late glacial/early Holocene time. Radiocarbon dates obtained from lake sediments adjacent to the corresponding moraines are concordant, indicating that the ages for the advances are closely limiting. The first advance occurred before 11,300 ¹⁴C yr BP (13,200 cal yr BP). During the North Atlantic Younger Dryas event, between 11,000 and 10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP (12,900 and 11,600 cal yr BP), glaciers retreated on Mount Rainier, probably due to a lack of available moisture, but conditions may have remained cold. The onset of warmer conditions on Mount Rainier occurred around 10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP (11,600 cal yr BP). Organic sedimentation lasted for at least 700 years before glaciers readvanced between 9800 and 8950 ¹⁴C yr BP (10,900 and 9950 cal yr BP).     

Late Younger Dryas and early Holocene palaeoenvironments in the Skagerrak,eastern North Atlantic: a multiproxy study

Erbs‐Hansen, D. R., Knudsen, K. L., Gary, A. C., Jansen, E., Gyllencreutz, R., Scao, V. & Lambeck, K. 2011: Late Younger Dryas and early Holocene palaeoenvironments in the Skagerrak, eastern North Atlantic: a multiproxy study. Boreas, 10.1111/j.1502‐3885.2011.00205.x. ISSN 0300‐9843 A high‐resolution study of palaeoenvironmental changes through the late Younger Dryas and early Holocene in the Skagerrak, the eastern North Atlantic, is based on multiproxy analyses of core MD99‐2286 combined with palaeowater depth modelling for the area. The late Younger Dryas was characterized by a cold ice‐distal benthic foraminiferal fauna. After the transition to the Preboreal (c. 11 650 cal. a BP) this fauna was replaced by a Cassidulina neoteretis‐dominated fauna, indicating the influence of chilled Atlantic Water at the sea floor. Persisting relatively cold bottom‐water conditions until c. 10 300 cal. a BP are presumably a result of an outflow of glacial meltwater from the Baltic area across south‐central Sweden, which led to a strong stratification of the water column at MD99‐2286, as also indicated by C. neoteretis. A short‐term peak in the C/N ratio at c. 10 200 cal. a BP is suggested to indicate input of terrestrial material, which may represent the drainage of an ice‐dammed lake in southern Norway, the Glomma event. After the last drainage route across south‐central Sweden closed, c. 10 300 cal. a BP, the meltwater influence diminished, and the Skagerrak resembled a fjord with a stable inflow of waters from the North Atlantic through the Norwegian Trench and a gradual increase in boreal species. Full interglacial conditions were established at the sea floor from c. 9250 cal. a BP. Subsequent warm stable conditions were interrupted by a short‐term cooling around 8300–8200 cal. a BP, representing the 8.2 ka event.     

Rapid late-glacial atmospheric CO2 changes reconstructed from the stomatal density record of fossil leaves

The Younger Dryas stadial (11 000-10 000 yr BP) was an abrupt return to a glacial climate during the termination of the last glaciation. We have reconstructed atmospheric CO₂ concentrations from a high-resolution sequence of fossil Salix herbacea leaves through this climatic oscillation from Kråkenes, western Norway, using the relationship between leaf stomatal density and atmospheric CO₂ concentration. High Allerød CO₂ values (median 273 ppmv) decreased rapidly during 130–200 ¹⁴C-years of the late Allerød to ca. 210 ppmv at the start of the Younger Dryas. They then increased steadily through the Younger Dryas, reaching typical interglacial values once more (ca. 275 ppmv) in the Holocene. The rapid late Allerød decrease in CO₂ concentration preceded the Younger Dryas temperature drop, possibly by several decades. This striking pattern of changes has not so far been recorded unambiguously in temporally coarse measurements of atmospheric CO₂ from ice cores. Our observed late-glacial CO₂ changes have implications for global modelling of the ocean-atmosphere-biosphere over the last glacial-interglacial transition.     

Towards a climate event stratigraphy for New Zealand over the past 30 000 years (NZ‐INTIMATE project)

It is widely recognised that the acquisition of high‐resolution palaeoclimate records from southern mid‐latitude sites is essential for establishing a coherent picture of inter‐hemispheric climate change and for better understanding of the role of Antarctic climate dynamics in the global climate system. New Zealand is considered to be a sensitive monitor of climate change because it is one of a few sizeable landmasses in the Southern Hemisphere westerly circulation zone, a critical transition zone between subtropical and Antarctic influences. New Zealand has mountainous axial ranges that amplify the climate signals and, consequently, the environmental gradients are highly sensitive to subtle changes in atmospheric and oceanic conditions. Since 1995, INTIMATE has, through a series of international workshops, sought ways to improve procedures for establishing the precise ages of climate events, and to correlate them with high precision, for the last 30 000 calendar years. The NZ‐INTIMATE project commenced in late 2003, and has involved virtually the entire New Zealand palaeoclimate community. Its aim is to develop an event stratigraphy for the New Zealand region over the past 30 000 years, and to reconcile these events against the established climatostratigraphy of the last glacial cycle which has largely been developed from Northern Hemisphere records (e.g. Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), Termination I, Younger Dryas). An initial outcome of NZ‐INTIMATE has been the identification of a series of well‐dated, high‐resolution onshore and offshore proxy records from a variety of latitudes and elevations on a common calendar timescale from 30 000 cal. yr BP to the present day. High‐resolution records for the last glacial coldest period (LGCP) (including the LGM sensu stricto) and last glacial–interglacial transition (LGIT) from Auckland maars, Kaipo and Otamangakau wetlands on eastern and central North Island, marine core MD97‐2121 east of southern North Island, speleothems on northwest South Island, Okarito wetland on southwestern South Island, are presented. Discontinuous (fragmentary) records comprising compilations of glacial sequences, fluvial sequences, loess accumulation, and aeolian quartz accumulation in an andesitic terrain are described. Comparisons with ice‐core records from Antarctica (EPICA Dome C) and Greenland (GISP2) are discussed. A major advantage immediately evident from these records apart from the speleothem record, is that they are linked precisely by one or more tephra layers. Based on these New Zealand terrestrial and marine records, a reasonably coherent, regionally applicable, sequence of climatically linked stratigraphic events over the past 30 000 cal. yr is emerging. Three major climate events are recognised: (1) LGCP beginning at ca. 28 000 cal. yr BP, ending at Termination I, ca. 18 000 cal. yr BP, and including a warmer and more variable phase between ca. 27 000 and 21 000 cal. yr BP, (2) LGIT between ca. 18 000 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, including a Lateglacial warm period from ca. 14 800 to 13 500 cal. yr BP and a Lateglacial climate reversal between ca. 13 500 and 11 600 cal. yr BP, and (3) Holocene interglacial conditions, with two phases of greatest warmth between ca. 11 600 and 10 800 cal. yr BP and from ca. 6 800 to 6 500 cal. yr BP. Some key boundaries coincide with volcanic tephras. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Timing and duration of North American glacial lake discharges and the Younger Dryas climate reversal

Radiocarbon-dated sediment cores from the Champlain Valley (northeastern USA) contain stratigraphic and micropaleontologic evidence for multiple, high-magnitude, freshwater discharges from North American proglacial lakes to the North Atlantic. Of particular interest are two large, closely spaced outflows that entered the North Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence estuary about 13,200–12,900 cal yr BP, near the beginning of the Younger Dryas cold event. We estimate from varve chronology, sedimentation rates and proglacial lake volumes that the duration of the first outflow was less than 1 yr and its discharge was approximately 0.1 Sv (1 Sverdrup = 10⁶ m³ s⁻¹). The second outflow lasted about a century with a sustained discharge sufficient to keep the Champlain Sea relatively fresh for its duration. According to climate models, both outflows may have had sufficient discharge, duration and timing to affect meridional ocean circulation and climate. In this report we compare the proglacial lake discharge record in the Champlain and St. Lawrence valleys to paleoclimate records from Greenland Ice cores and Cariaco Basin and discuss the two-step nature of the inception of the Younger Dryas.     

Calendar year age estimates of Allerød–Younger Dryas sea‐level oscillations at Os,western Norway

A detailed shoreline displacement curve documents the Younger Dryas transgression in western Norway. The relative sea‐level rise was more than 9 m in an area which subsequently experienced an emergence of almost 60 m. The sea‐level curve is based on the stratigraphy of six isolation basins with bedrock thresholds. Effort has been made to establish an accurate chronology using a calendar year time‐scale by ¹⁴C wiggle matching and the use of time synchronic markers (the Vedde Ash Bed and the post‐glacial rise in Betula (birch) pollen). The sea‐level curve demonstrates that the Younger Dryas transgression started close to the Allerød–Younger Dryas transition and that the high stand was reached only 200 yr before the Younger Dryas–Holocene boundary. The sea level remained at the high stand for about 300 yr and 100 yr into Holocene it started to fall rapidly. The peak of the Younger Dryas transgression occurred simultaneously with the maximum extent of the ice‐sheet readvance in the area. Our results support earlier geophysical modelling concluding a causal relationship between the Younger Dryas glacier advance and Younger Dryas transgression in western Norway. We argue that the sea‐level curve indicates that the Younger Dryas glacial advance started in the late Allerød or close to the Allerød–Younger Dryas transition. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Late-glacial climate in the Maritimes Region, Canada, reconstructed from mutual climatic range analysis of fossil Coleoptera

Mean July and January temperatures are reconstructed from radiocarbon-dated fossil beetle assemblages from late-glacial sites in the Maritimes Region of eastern Canada. Fossil-bearing sediments date from 12 700 ¹⁴ C yr BP (14 950 cal yr BP) to younger than 10 800 ¹⁴ C yr BP (12 730 cal yr BP), spanning a period which includes stratigraphic, palynological, chironomid and coleopteran evidence for a climatic deterioration during the Younger Dryas in North America. Mutual Climatic Range data suggest several 'events' in the coleopteran record from the Maritimes that appear similar to climate events recorded in the GRIP ice-core record, including the (Younger Dryas) cooling event from GI-1a to GS-1 beginning c. 12 650 GRIP yr BP Some of the major temperature oscillations of Greenland Interstadial 1 may also be reflected in the coleopteran record of the Maritimes.     

Postglacial climate and vegetation history, north-central Kola Peninsula, Russia: pollen and diatom records from Lake Yarnyshnoe-3

A sediment core from Lake Yarnyshnoe-3 (69°04'N; 36°04'E), an emerged coastal lake from the tundra of the north-central Kola Peninsula, has been analyzed for fossil pollen and diatoms. The pollen record shows the Younger Dryas event marked by increasing Artemisia coupled with decreases in Poaceae, Cyperaceae and Salix at c. 10 700 to 10 000 BP. This core provides the first well-defined palynological record of the Younger Dryas event on the Kola Peninsula. Stomates from Pinus were recovered from the core interval between 8000 and 6000 BP. The stomates, coupled with elevated values of pine pollen, indicate that Pinus sylvestris grew near the arctic coastline of the central Kola Peninsula in the middle Holocene. However, the small number of stomates suggests that pines were not plentiful. The diatom record from the core reflects basin isolation from the sea and indicates additional limnological changes during the climate transition between c. 5000 and 4000 BP. The broadly similar climate and vegetation history on the north-central Kola Peninsula and in Fennoscandia demonstrates the propagation of late glacial and Holocene climate events from the North Atlantic region into the Eurasian Arctic.     

A high-resolution diatom record of late-Quaternary sea-surface temperatures and oceanographic conditions from the eastern Norwegian Sea

Core MD95‐2011 was taken from the eastern Vøring Plateau, near the Norwegian coast. The section between 250 and 750 cm covers the time period from 13 000 to 2700 cal. yr BP (the Lateglacial and much of the Holocene). Samples at 5 cm intervals were analysed for fossil diatoms. A data‐set of 139 modern sea‐surface diatom samples was related to contemporary sea‐surface temperatures (SSTs) using two different numerical methods. The resulting transfer functions were used to reconstruct past sea‐surface temperatures from the fossil diatom assemblages. After the cold Younger Dryas with summer SSTs about 6°C, temperatures warmed rapidly to about 13°C. One of the fluctuations in the earliest Holocene can be related to the Pre‐Boreal Oscillation, but SSTs were generally unstable until about 9700 cal. yr BP. Evidence from diatom concentration and magnetic susceptibility suggests a change and stabilization of water currents associated with the final melting of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet at c. 8100 cal. yr BP. A period of maximum warmth between 9700 and 6700 cal. yr BP had SSTs 3–5°C warmer than at present. Temperatures cooled gradually until c. 3000 cal. yr BP, and then rose slightly around 2750 cal. yr BP. The varimax factors derived from the Imbrie & Kipp method for sea‐surface‐temperature reconstructions can be interpreted as water‐masses. They show a dominance of Arctic Waters and Sea Ice during the Younger Dryas. The North Atlantic current increased rapidly in strength during the early Holocene, resulting in warmer conditions than previously. Since about 7250 cal. yr BP, Norwegian Atlantic Water gradually replaced the North Atlantic Water, and this, in combination with decreasing summer insolation, led to a gradual cooling of the sea surface. Terrestrial systems in Norway and Iceland responded to this cooling and the increased supply of moisture by renewed glaciation. Periods of glacial advance can be correlated with cool oscillations in the SST reconstructions. By comparison with records of SSTs from other sites in the Norwegian Sea, spatial and temporal changes in patterns of ocean water‐masses are reconstructed, to reveal a complex system of feedbacks and influences on the climate of the North Atlantic and Norway.     

Rapid bottom-water circulation changes during the last glacial cycle in the coastal low-latitude NE Atlantic

Previous paleoceanographic studies along the NW African margin focused on the dynamics of surface and intermediate waters, whereas little attention has been devoted to deep-water masses. Currently, these deep waters consist mainly of North Atlantic Deep Waters as part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). However, this configuration was altered during periods of AMOC collapse. We present a high-resolution reconstruction of bottom-water ventilation and current evolution off Mauritania from the last glacial maximum into the early Holocene. Applying redox proxies (Mo, U and Mn) measured on sediments from off Mauritania, we describe changes in deep-water oxygenation and we infer the evolution of deep-water conditions during millennial-scale climate/oceanographic events in the area. The second half of Heinrich Event 1 and the Younger Dryas were recognized as periods of reduced ventilation, coinciding with events of AMOC reduction. We propose that these weakening circulation events induced deficient deep-water oxygenation in the Mauritanian upwelling region, which together with increased productivity promoted reducing conditions and enhanced organic-matter preservation. This is the first time the effect of AMOC collapse in the area is described at high resolution, broadening the knowledge on basin-wide oceanographic changes associated with rapid climate variability during the last deglaciation.     

Paleoceanographic evolution of the SW Svalbard margin (76°N) since 20,000 C yr BP

Two cores from the southwestern shelf and slope of Storfjorden, Svalbard, taken at 389 m and 1485 m water depth have been analyzed for benthic and planktic foraminifera, oxygen isotopes, and ice-rafted debris. The results show that over the last 20,000 yr, Atlantic water has been continuously present on the southwestern Svalbard shelf. However, from 15,000 to 10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP, comprising the Heinrich event H1 interval, the Bølling-Allerød interstades and the Younger Dryas stade, it flowed as a subsurface water mass below a layer of polar surface water. In the benthic environment, the shift to interglacial conditions occurred at 10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP. Due to the presence of a thin upper layer of polar water, surface conditions remained cold until ca. 9000 ¹⁴C yr BP, when the warm Atlantic water finally appeared at the surface. Neither extensive sea ice cover nor large inputs of meltwater stopped the inflow of Atlantic water. Its warm core was merely submerged below the cold polar surface water.     

Atlantic surface water inflow to the Nordic seas during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition (mid–late Younger Dryas and Pre‐Boreal periods, 12 450–10 000 a BP)

The inflow of Atlantic Water to the Nordic seas from mid–late Younger Dryas to earliest Holocene (12 450–10 000 a BP) is reconstructed on the basis of a high‐resolution core (LINK14) from 346 m water depth on the east Faroe shelf. We have analysed the distribution of planktic and benthic foraminifera, stable isotopes and ice‐rafted debris (IRD), and calculated absolute temperatures and salinities by transfer functions. During the investigated time period there was almost continuous inflow of Atlantic Water to the Nordic seas. Deposition of IRD during the mid–late Younger Dryas and Pre‐Boreal coolings indicates the presence of melting icebergs and that summer sea surface temperatures were low. The east–west temperature gradient across the Faroe–Shetland Channel was much steeper than today. The cold conditions around the Faroe Islands are attributed to stronger East Greenland and East Icelandic currents than at present. The near‐continuous inflow of Atlantic Water is consistent with published evidence suggesting that deep convection took place in the Nordic seas, although the convection sites probably had shifted to a more easterly position than at present. Around the time of deposition of the Saksunarvatn Tephra c. 10 350 a BP, sea surface temperatures increased to the present level. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Holocene climate in the subarctic fjord Malangen, northern Norway: a multi-proxy study

A Holocene sedimentary record from the deep-silled Malangen fjord in northern Norway reveals regional changes in sedimentary environment and climate. Down-core analysis of two sediment cores includes multi-core sensor logging, grain size, x-radiography, foraminifera, oxygen isotopes, dinoflagellates, pollen, trace elements and radiocarbon datings. The cores are located just proximal to the submarine Younger Dryas moraine complex, and reveal the deglaciation after Younger Dryas and the postglacial evolution. Five sedimentary units have been identified. The oldest units, V and IV, bracket the Younger Dryas glacial readvance in the fjord between 12 700 cal. years BP and 11 800 cal. years BP. This is followed by deposition of glaciomarine sediments (units IV and III) starting around 12 100 cal. years BP. Glaciomarine sedimentation ceased in the fjord c. 10 300 cal. years BP and was replaced by open marine sedimentation (units II and I). A rapid stepwise warming occurred during the Preboreal. Onset of surface water warming lagged bottom water warming by several hundred years. The δ[Formula: See Text]O record indicates a significant, gradual bottom water cooling (c. 4°C) between 8000 and 2000 cal. years BP, a trend also supported by the other proxy data. Other records in the region, as well as GCM simulations, also support this long-term climatic evolution. Superimposed on this cooling were brief warmings around 6000 cal. years BP and 2000 cal. years BP. The long-term change may be driven by orbitally forced reduction in insolation, whereas the short-term changes may be linked to for example solar forcing, meltwater and NAO changes all causing regional changes in the North Atlantic heat transport.     

Palaeoenvironments in the Skagerrak-Kattegat basin in the eastern North Sea during the last deglaciation

The study of a c. 18 m thick Late Weichselian- Early Holocene (isotope stage 2/1) marine succession (original water depth 100–150 m) from the Skagen 3 borehole, northern Denmark, has led to a better understanding of the palaeoenvironmental changes during the last deglaciation. The palaeoenvironmental interpretation is based on benthic foraminifera, stable isotope composition and lithology, whereas the chronostratigraphy and sedimentation rates are based on AMS radiocarbon dates. Marine conditions were established in the area at between 15 000 and 14 500 BP (reservoir corrected ¹⁴C years), and the first influence of Atlantic water masses imported through the Norwegian Channel is registered from 13 100 BP to 10 900BP (the Bølling- Allerrad interstadial complex). This was followed by the Younger Dryas cooling event between 10 900 and 10 100 BP. The hydrographic change at the Pleistocene-Holocene transition after the Younger Dryas occurred in two stages. Arctic/subarctic deep-water assemblages persisted continuously at Skagen after the first stage at 10 200 BP, while cold boreal assemblages existed in shallower water environments in the Kattegat-Skagerrak basin during the same period of time. The slight warming in the early Holocene seems to have been interrupted by a short-term cooling at about 9700–9600 BP. Finally, at 9600 BP the arrival of warm Atlantic water masses created full-interglacial conditions in the whole region.     

The Skógar Tephra, a Younger Dryas marker in North Iceland

A composite stratigraphical sequence, the Fnjóskadalur Sequence, reveals ten cycles of glacier advances and formation of ice-dammed lakes in Fnjóskadalur in central North Iceland. Chemical analyses of the Skógar Tephra, with its type locality in this valley, have enabled a correlation with Ash zone I in deep sea sediments of the North Atlantic and with the Vedde Ash Bed on land in western Norway, where it is dated to 10,600 BP. The Skógar Tephra is composed of two layers, a basaltic tephra (STP-1) and a rhyolitic tephra (STP-2) erupted almost simultaneously from two different Icelandic volcanoes. The STP-1 tephra originates from the Katla volcano in South Iceland, and the öræfajökull volcano in Southeast Iceland is considered a plausible source of the STP-2 tephra. This new dating of the Skógar Tephra puts the three youngest glacier advances of the Fnjóskadalur Sequence within a 1000 year period between 10,600 and 9650 BP. The redated Late Weichselian glacial history now extracted from the Fnjóskadalur Sequence shows that glaciers in North Iceland were more extended in Younger Dryas and Preboreal times than previously assumed. This fits with the revised deglaciation pattern which has evolved in recent years.     

Post-Clovis survival of American Mastodon in the southern Great Lakes Region of North America

The end of the Pleistocene in North America was marked by a wave of extinctions of large mammals, with the last known appearances of many species falling between ca. 11,000–10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP. Temporally, this period overlaps with the Clovis Paleoindian cultural complex (11,190–10,530 ¹⁴C yr BP) and with sudden climatic changes that define the beginning of the Younger Dryas chronozone (ca. 11,000–10,000 ¹⁴C yr BP), both of which have been considered as potential proximal causes of this extinction event. Radiocarbon dating of enamel and filtered bone collagen from an extinct American Mastodon (Mammut americanum) from northern Indiana, USA, by accelerator mass spectrometer yielded direct dates of 10,055 ± 40 ¹⁴C yr BP and 10,032 ± 40 ¹⁴C yr BP, indicating that the animal survived beyond the Clovis time period and into the late Younger Dryas. Although the late survival of this species in mid-continental North America does not remove either humans or climatic change as contributing causes for the late Pleistocene extinctions, neither Clovis hunters nor the climatic perturbations initiating the Younger Dryas chronozone were immediately responsible for driving mastodons to extinction.     

Response of chironomids to Late Quaternary environmental change in the Taitao Peninsula,southern Chile

An Erratum has been published for this article in Journal of Quaternary Science 17(7) 2002, 721. There is conflicting evidence concerning the extent and timing of late Quaternary climate variability in southern South America and how this may be linked to climate change in the Northern Hemisphere. Critical unresolved questions include whether or not a cool period occurred in southern South America during the Younger Dryas Chronozone (YDC) (11 000–10 000 ¹⁴C yr BP; 13 000–11 200 yr BP), and the timing of wet and dry phases during the Holocene. To date most evidence is from glacial, pollen and beetle records but, in an attempt to resolve these questions, we have used chironomid midges as an independent proxy in one of the first studies of its kind in Patagonia. We investigated the dynamics of midge assemblages during the Late‐glacial and Holocene at Lago Stibnite on the Taitao Peninsula, southern Chile (46°S). Changes in the midge assemblage suggest that the climate may have become cooler and drier during the YDC. During the Holocene there were cyclical changes in the midge assemblage that may have been in response to trophic change and/or to changes in precipitation when conditions appear to have been drier than today at 9400–6300 ¹⁴C yr BP and 2400–1600 ¹⁴C yr BP. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Late‐glacial and Holocene palaeoceanography of the North Icelandic shelf

High‐resolution gravity cores and box cores from the North Icelandic shelf have been studied for palaeoceanographic history based on lithological and biostratigraphical foraminiferal data. Results from two outer shelf cores covering the last 13.6 k ¹⁴C yr BP are presented in this paper. The sediments accumulated in north–south trending basins on each side of the Kolbeinsey Ridge at water depths of ca. 400 m. Sedimentation rates up to 1.5 m kyr⁻¹ are observed during the Late‐glacial and Holocene. The Vedde and Saksunarvatn tephras are present in the cores as well as the Hekla 1104. A new tephra, KOL‐GS‐2, has been identified and dated to 13.4 k ¹⁴C yr BP, and another tephra, geochemically identical to the Borrobol Tephra, has been found at the same level. At present, the oceanographic Polar Front is located on the North Icelandic shelf, which experiences sharp oceanographic surface boundaries between the cold East Icelandic Current and the warmer Irminger Current. Past changes in sedimentological and biological processes in the study area are assumed to be related to fluctuations of the Polar Front. The area was deglaciated before ca. 14 kyr BP, but there is evidence of ice rafting up to the end of the GS‐1 (Greenland Stadial 1, Younger Dryas) period, increasing again towards the end of the Holocene. Foraminiferal studies show a relatively strong GS‐2 (pre‐13 kyr BP) palaeo‐Irminger Current, followed by severe cooling and then by unstable conditions during the remainder of the GI‐1 (Greenland Interstadial 1, Bølling–Allerød) and GS‐1 (Younger Dryas). Another cooling event occurred during the Preboreal before the Holocene current system was established at about 9 kyr BP. After a climatic optimum between 9 and 6 kyr BP the climate began to deteriorate and fluctuate. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Late Weichselian shore displacement in Halland, southwestern Sweden: relative sea-level changes and their glacio-isostatic implications

An analysis of Late Weichselian sediments from basins in southern and central Halland, southwestern Sweden was carried out. Together with evaluation of previously reported data from the area (isolated basins, highest shore levels, glaciofluvial delta levels, periglacial features, and early Holocene shore levels), this has provided the basis for constructing shore displacement curves for the area, covering the approximate time interval 14 000–9000 BP. There is a general fall in relative sea level (RSL) during this period. The average regression rate until the late Younger Dryas ( c . 10 300 BP) is 15–20 mm/yr. During the Younger Dryas the regression is possibly interrupted by minor transgressive phases. The RSL fall is rapid between c . 10 300 and 9500 BP. A halted glacio-isostatic rebound during the Younger Dryas, as the result of glacier growth, is suggested as a cause of the observed pattern of RSL change. Previously reported transgressive events during the early late-glacial phase are discussed with regard to global eustatic rise, glacio-isostatic loading and glaciolacustrine damming events.