sediment fluxes along the northeastern european margin inferring hydrological changes between 20 and 8 kyr abstract in an attempt to delineate past hydrographic conditions on the northeastern atlantic ocean margin along a latitudinal transect 37 63 n and link the eastern north atlantic ocean with the norwegian sea we have investigated planktonic and benthic stable oxygen isotopes as well as abundances and fluxes of planktonic and benthic foraminifera calcium carbonate organic carbon and detrital grains in six sediment cores studied by the enam project in our joint approach we focused on the major climatic events of the last 20 kyr that is the last glacial maximum lgm the heinrich event 1 h1 the younger dryas yd and the holocene climatic optimum hco simmax temperature estimates suggest glacial ssts off portugal similar to holocene values contradicting the proposed polar front position of climap project members 1976 besides increased planktonic and benthic foraminiferal fluxes in the norwegian sea and the faeroe islands cores point to nordic seas partially ice free with seasonally productive polynas multiple ird spikes observed at the faeroe islands and norwegian sea sites coeval with h1 suggest multiple pulses of the fenno scandian ice sheet at the same time the presence of ird on the portuguese margin cores confirms the southward influence of icebergs the increase in foraminiferal abundances and fluxes that parallel ird spikes at all sites suggests that times of increased productivity either succeed or occur simultaneously with the iceberg surges in the open north atlantic productivity conditions similar to those observed during h1 are also registered during the yd even though planktonic foraminiferal assemblages suggest less cold conditions

deglacial warming of the northeastern atlantic ocean correlation with the paleoclimatic evolution of the european continent abstract isotopic micropaleontologic and pollen analyses of deep sea cores from the bay of biscay and the northeastern atlantic ocean show that the deglacial warming of this oceanic area was closely correlated with the paleoclimatic evolution of the adjacent european continent temperatures were at least as warm as those of today in the bay of biscay between 13 300 and 11 000 b p coinciding with the combined bolling allerod warm continental events a major spread of polar water occurred between 11 000 and 10 000 b p during this event which coincides with the younger dryas continental cold event marine temperatures were almost as low as those of the last glacial maximum the final deglacial warming of the norteastern atlatntic ocean occurred during the following 3000 yr

late quaternary lithofacies provenance and depositional environments 12 30 cal ka north and south of the denmark strait this paper describes the lithofacies and chronology of cores from north and south of the denmark strait for a period when ice sheets flanked both sides of the strait a wide range of sediments have been recovered indicating a complex of depositional processes jm96 1229ggc1 1047 m water depth is from the base of the nw iceland slope at the southern edge of the blosseville basin whereas jm96 1226ggc4 retrieved sediments south of the sill in 1519 m of water additional information is based on jm96 1220ggc2 and 1221ggc2 which were recovered from the upper w iceland slope at 500 m water depth below the latra moraine of possible last glacial maximum age and upslope of jm96 1226 ams 14c dates indicate that jm96 1226 and 1229 span the last 10 to 27 32 ka bp whereas jm96 1220 and 1221 recovered sediments dated between ca 8 and 18 ka bp closely spaced radiocarbon dates on jm96 1229 indicate an erosional hiatus of 7 ky between 12 and 19 cal ka lithofacies descriptions are based on visual descriptions and x radiographs jm96 1229 consists of fine grained sediments sometimes graded with scattered ice rafted debris whereas jm96 1226 consists largely of beds of matrix supported diamicton provenance indicators mass magnetic susceptibility and geochemistry for jm96 1229 support the delivery of sediments from nw iceland but there is a substantial difference in these properties between sediments from the w iceland upper slope and the sediments in jm96 1226 south of the denmark strait this indicates that the diamictons on the floor of the strait did not derive entirely from the iceland ice sheet and adjacent upper slope the general absence of sediments 12 cal ka on the slopes and floor of the denmark strait indicates that denmark strait overflow waters inhibited sediment accumulation during the holocene between ca 12 and 30 cal ka however a combination of more proximal sediment sources ice sheets and reduced thermohaline activity resulted in the accumulation of sediments on the slopes and basin floors

first evidence of a distal early holocene ash layer in eastern mediterranean deep sea sediments derived from the anatolian volcanic province article i nfo a hitherto unknown distal volcanic ash layer has been detected in a sediment core recovered from the southeastern levantine sea eastern mediterranean sea radiometric stratigraphic and sedimentological data show that the tephra here termed as s1 tephra was deposited between 8970 and 8690 cal yr bp the high silica rhyolitic composition excludes an origin from any known eruptions of the italian aegean or arabian volcanic provinces but suggests a prevailing central anatolian provenance we compare the s1 tephra with proximal to medial distal tephra deposits from well known mediterranean ash layers and ash fall deposits from the central anatolian volcanic field using electron probe microanalyses on volcanic glass shards and morphological analyses on ash particles we postulate a correlation with the early holocene dikkartin dome eruption of erciyes dag volcano cappadocia turkey so far no tephra of the central anatolian volcanic province has been detected in marine sediment archives in the eastern mediterranean region the occurrence of the s1 tephra in the south eastern part of the levantine sea indicates a wide dispersal of pyroclastic material from erciyes dag more than 600 km to the south and is therefore an important tephrostratigraphical marker in sediments of the easternmost mediterranean sea and the adjacent hinterland

biogenic carbonate and ice rafted debris heinrich layer accumulation in deep sea sediments from a northeast atlantic piston core abstract biogenic carbonate mass accumulation rates show distinct quaternary glacial interglacial changes in a mid latitude northeast atlantic deep sea core during the last 208 kyr these were generally higher during interglacials averaging 2 2 g cm 2 kyr than during glacial periods with a maximum average of 1 2 g cm 2 kyr intervals containing high ice rafted debris have very low biogenic carbonate accumulation rates paleo primary productivity estimates based on biogenic carbonate accumulation rates are generally higher during interglacials averaging 80 gc m 2 yr than during glacials which average 49 gc m 2 yr maximum estimate short intervals with possibly reduced primary productivity correspond to heinrich layers which are the result of pulses of massive iceberg production and rapid melting in the north atlantic we identified thirteen heinrich layers in isotopic stages 7 to 2 they have calendar ages of about 201 189 182 183 164 167 146 149 142 128 131 64 67 52 54 40 43 29 31 21 and 15 kyr these heinrich layers contain large amounts of ice rafted debris including detrital carbonate low amounts of coccoliths and planktic foraminifera mainly neogloboquadrina pachyderma sinistral the upper five heinrich layers are almost barren of coccoliths and the fourth layer is also free of foraminifera the virtual absence of coccoliths is interpreted to reflect reduced coccolithophorid productivity in the photic zone due to low salinity of surface waters and to blockage of light by ice and suspended materials shed off by melting icebergs considering the limited use of other proxies such as organic carbon diatom and benthic foraminifera due to their very low content abundance in the sediments biogenic carbonate mass accumulation rates offer a workable paleo primary productivity proxy in open ocean sediments of the carbonate dominated northeast atlantic

circulation from a joint gravity field solution determination of the general ocean with the development of satellite altimetry it is possible to infer the geostrophic velocity of the surface ocean currents if the geoid and the position of the satellite are known accurately errors in current geoid models and orbit computations both due primarily to errors in the earth s gravity field model have limited the use of altimeter data for this purpose the objective of this investigation is to demonstrate that altimeter data can be used in a joint solution to simultaneously estimate the quasi stationary sea surface topography and the model for the gravity field satellite tracking data from twelve satellites were used along with seasat altimeter data for the solution the estimated model of compares well at long wavelengths with the hydrographic model of covariance analysis indicates that the geoid is separable from up to degree 9 at which point geoid error is comparable to the signal of

icelandic volcanic ash from the late glacial open air archaeological site of ahrenshoft la 58 d north germany abstract cryptotephra of icelandic origin from the open air archaeological site of ahrenshoft la 58 d kr nordfriesland schleswig holstein northern germany overlies a late glacial havelte lithic assemblage hitherto dated by 14 c and biostratigraphy to the earliest part of the late glacial interstadial gi 1e to gi 1c 3 peaks in ash shards are observed in two profiles major and minor element geochemistry indicates volcanic ash originating in the katla system precise correlation to previously described tephra is uncertain due to overlapping chemical characteristics the ahrenshoft 14 c determinations litho and bio stratigraphy encompass a broad age span for the cryptotephra bearing sediments from the end of the allerod to the preboreal the most plausible volcanic eruption correlates are the vedde ash younger dryas already known from the european mainland tephra af555 late younger dryas and the suduroy tephra preboreal boreal hitherto recorded only in the north atlantic region these three ash horizons have been dated to respectively 12 171 57 yr b2k in the ngrip ice core c 11 500 cal bp in scotland and c 8000 cal bp by radiocarbon from the faroe isles ongoing research on deposits from the type sites for the tephra layers may in the future differentiate these markers leading to better discrimination of the chemistries and a resolution of this question

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 foramin iferal data results from two outer shelf cores covering the last 13 6 k 14 c 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 14 c 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 bolling allerod 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

early to middle holocene silicic tephra horizons from the katla volcanic system iceland new results from the faroe islands comparatively few icelandic tephra horizons dated to the early part of the holocene have so far been detected outside iceland here i present several tephra horizons that have been recorded in a holocene peat sequence on the faroe islands geochemical analyses show that at least two dacitic and one rhyolitic tephra layers were erupted from the katla volcanic system on southern iceland between ca 8000 and 5900 cal yr bp the upper two layers can be correlated with the silk tephras described from southern iceland whereas the third dated to ca 8000 cal yr bp has a geochemistry virtually identical to the rhyolitic component of the vedde ash the results suggest that the late weichselian and early holocene eruption history of the katla volcano was probably more complex than inferred from iceland a new early holocene rhyolitic tephra dated to ca 10 500 cal yr bp probably originates in the snaefellsnes volcanic centre in western iceland these new findings may play an important role in developing a holocene tephra framework for northwest europe copyright 2002 john wiley sons ltd

magnetic characterisation and correlation of a younger dryas tephra in north atlantic marine sediments a technique for identifying non visible basaltic tephra rich horizons of younger dryas yd greenland stadial gs 1 age in northeast atlantic sediments using rapid non destructive magnetic measurements is presented three high resolution marine sediment cores have been studied in an e w transect across the hebridean margin st kilda basin md95 2007 barra fan md95 2006 and rockall trough md04 2822 magnetic susceptibilities and remanent magnetisations were measured at contiguous 1 cm resolution on bulk sediments in all three cores an interval with higher proportions of hard magnetic minerals coincides with a clearly defined peak in basaltic tephra shard 250 m counts which can be constrained to the early part of the yd gs1 based on faunal climate proxies electron microprobe analyses of the magnetically distinct basaltic tephra interval in all three cores displays the same major element geochemistry as published for the vedde basaltic i tab 1 i e sourced from the icelandic volcano katla the identification of transitional alkalic basaltic tephras within marine sediments could potentially be facilitated by magnetic analysis as a useful chronostratigraphic screening tool copyright 2009 john wiley sons ltd

towards a tephrochronology for the holocene of the north of ireland discrete layers of tephra have been found in both raised and blanket bogs in the north of ireland some of the layers have been identified to an icelandic source and in two cases specific eruptions of known radiocarbon age are suggested nine layers spanning the holocene are replicated in three lowland raised bogs one of the major layers has also been identified at a number of sites in two separate upland blanket peat systems and in a lake sediment

late weichselian vegetation climate and floral migration at liastemmen north rogaland south western norway palynological results from liastemmen indicate a tripartite division of the late weichselian in the pleniglacial period from deglaciation ca 14000 bp to ca 13000 bp artemisia dominated pioneer vegetation on disturbed mineral soil was strongly influenced by cold winters and katabatic winds the late weichselian interstadial ca 13000 bp ca 11000 bp comprises a salix shrub consolidation phase and from ca 12700 bp a tree birch phase in the last 500 years of this period july and january means are estimated to about 16 c and between 2 c and 6 c respectively in the younger dryas stadial ca 11000 bp ca 10200 bp artemisia dominated vegetation returns three brief climatic deteriorations ca 12 250 bp 11 700 bp and 11 300 bp unfavourable to woody vegetation on humus soils are demonstrated within the interstadial critical climatic factors include cool winters and strong winds exposing vegetation and soil to frost drought and erosion the oldest and strongest oscillation probably involving local deforestation is correlated with the older dryas deterioration boreal circumpolar eurasiatic and arctic alpine plants dominated the late glacial flora for the majority of the late glacial taxa a northward migration is demonstrated this may also apply for papaver radicatum pinguicula alpina and primula scandinavica all with bicentric distributions in norway today

erosion rate of a younger dryas cirque glacier at krakenes western norway an erosion rate of 0 5 to 0 6 mm a 1 is deduced for a younger dryas cirque glacier the erosion period of 700 a was determined from the laminated glaciolacustrine sediments in a small lake just outside the end moraine of the cirque and radiocarbon dates obtained below and above these sediments the volume of eroded bedrock was calculated from measurements of the deposited sediments of which the end moraine the glaciofluvial delta and the glaciolacustrine sediments are most important with a constant erosion rate the cirque could have formed in 83 to 125 000 a

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

late devensian and flandrian palaeoenvironmental changes on the scottish continental shelf west of the outer hebrides examination of two radiocarbon dated vibrocores taken from south of st kilda at a water depth of about 155 m a short distance within the maximum position of the late devensian dimlington stadial ice sheet suggests that the st kilda basin became free of glacier ice after 15250 yr bp sedimentation in a shallow low energy high arctic muddy environment continued until after 13500 yr bp there followed a higher energy temperate episode during which water depths were roughly about 40 m this is correlated with the latter part of the windermere interstadial and with the warmer interval known in shallow scottish seas about or a little before 11 000 yr bp the loch lomond younger dryas stadial is marked in the vibrocores by the return of muddy sediments and a cold water fauna relatively shallow water conditions seem to have persisted into the earliest flandrian when the water depth was still roughly 60 m corresponding to a sea level in the area 90 100 m below present it is suggested that pack ice was widespread in the northeast atlantic before the windermere interstadial and also during the loch lomond stadial when it transported shards of icelandic volcanic ash into the st kilda basin estimates of sea surface temperature for the last part of the windermere interstadial are close to those derived from the deep sea record for the same period

interdecadal modulation of the atlantic multi decadal oscillation amo on southwest china s temperature over the past 250 years the temperature gradient between southwestern china and indian ocean is one key driver of the indian summer monsoon suggesting the necessity to understand temperature variability in southwestern china contrary to the general warming experienced in most of china a few regions in southwestern china have undergone a cooling trend since the 1950s to place this cooling trend in a historical context this study develops an abies fabri tree ring width chronology in the sichuan basin the most populated region in southwest china the chronology spans from 1590 to 2012 with its reliable portion from 1758 to 2012 by far the longest in the sichuan basin to better extract regional climate signals encoded in tree rings with strong local disturbances we incorporate climate signals of nearby tree ring chronologies to generate a large scale tree ring chronology lsc the lsc shows higher correlations with temperature near the sampling site on mount emei and sea surface temperatures of the northern atlantic ocean than chronologies developed using traditional methods the highest correlations between the lsc and temperature are found from current february to july in the sichuan basin for the period 1901 1950 r 0 70 with a sharp decrease afterwards interdecadal variations of the lsc match well with atlantic multi decadal oscillation reconstructions except for the late nineteenth century and after 1980s this study provides evidence that southwest china is a transitional region both affected by the interdecadal temperature variations of the northern atlantic and asian areas although their influences weakened in recent possible due to enhanced human activities

a younger dryas ash bed in western norway and its possible correlations with tephra in cores from the norwegian sea and the north atlantic abstract a bed of volcanic ash up to 23 cm thick is found in lacustrine and marine sediments in western norway it is formally mamed the vedde ash bed and its age is approximately 10 600 yr b p i e mid younger dryas the bed consits of pure glass having a bimodal basaltic and rhyolitic somposition the geochemistry of the glass shards suggests an icelandic source by means of stratigraphic position and geochemistry the ash is correlated with ash zones found in cores from the continental shelf the norwegian sea and the north atlatic

three new distal tephras in sediments spanning the last glacial interglacial transition in scotland three new microtephras are reported from a number of lake sites from the inner hebrides and scottish mainland one occurs stratigrapically in the middle of greenland interstadial 1 gi 1 and has been named the penifiler tephra it is rhyolitic and possesses a geochemical signature that is very similar to that of the borrobol tephra which also occurs in three of the sequences reported here but which lies close to the lower boundary of gi 1 the second occurs stratigraphically in the early holocene below the saksunarvatn ash and is named the ashik tephra this tephra is geochemically bimodal with a rhyolitic component comparable to the an druim tephra that occurs later in the holocene and a basaltic component which is similar to the saksunarvatn ash a third tephra occurs stratigraphically above the saksunarvatn ash and is provisionally named the breakish tephra the consistent inter site correlation demonstrated for these new tephras at several sites enhances the regional tephrostratigraphic framework and increases the potential for correlating palaeoenvironmental events during gi 1 and the early holocene however the occurrence of multiple tephras with similar geochemistry in close stratigraphic and temporal proximity has implications for the rigour with which tephrostratigraphic investigations must be performed copyright 2006 john wiley sons ltd

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 bolling allerod 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

geochemistry dispersal volumes and chronology of holocene silicic tephra layers from the katla volcanic system iceland at least 12 silicic tephra layers silk tephras erupted between ca 6600 and ca 1675 yr bp from the katla volcanic system have been identified in southern iceland in addition to providing significant new knowledge on the holocene volcanism of the katla system which typically produces basaltic tephra the silk tephras form distinct and precise isochronous marker horizons in a climatically sensitive location close to both the atmospheric and marine polar fronts with one exception the silk tephras have a narrow compositional range with sio2 between 63 and 67 geochemically they are indistinguishable from ocean transported pumice found on beaches in the north atlantic region although they differ significantly from the silicic component of the north atlantic ash zone one naazo volumes of airborne silk tephra range from 0 05 to 0 3 km3 we present new isopach maps of the six largest layers and demonstrate that they originate within the katla caldera the apparently stable magma system conditions that produced the silk tephras may have been established as a consequence of the eruption of the silicic component of naazo ca 10 3 ka and disrupted by another large scale event the tenth century ad eldgja eruption ca 1 ka despite the current long repose silicic activity of this type may occur again in the future presenting hitherto unknown hazards copyright 2001 john wiley sons ltd

the tephrochronology of iceland and the north atlantic region during the middle and late quaternary a review the tephrochronology of iceland and the north atlantic region is reviewed in order to construct a unified framework for the last 400 kyr bp nearly all of the tephra layers described are also characterised geochemically a number of new tephra layers are analysed for the first time for their geochemical signature and a number of pre holocene tephra layers have been given an informal denotation the tephrostratigraphy of ash zone ii is highlighted where possible the rhyolitic tephra layers found outside iceland have been correlated to known icelandic tephra layers or to the volcanic source area the application of tephra fallout in various depositional environments is described and discussed copyright 2000 john wiley sons ltd

high resolution stratigraphy of the faeroe shetland channel and its relation to north atlantic paleoceanography the last 87 kyr abstract two piston cores from the faeroe shetland channel have been investigated for stratigraphic and paleoceanographic correlation with atlantic ocean and norwegian sea records the high resolution cores have been analyzed for the downcore distribution of planktic and benthic foraminifera and oxygen isotopes ams 14 c dates and the position of ash layers i and ii form the basis for the correlation core na81 10 covers the period from isotope stage 3 to recent stage 1 while core na81 04 covers isotope stages 5a to 1 the holocene is well represented in core na81 10 by 2 m of sediment whereas it is only 50 cm in core na81 04 which is situated directly under the main core of the norwegian sea deep water outflow the transition of isotope stage 2 to stage 1 is affected by dissolution and thus is less clearly represented ams 14 c dates show that termination ia begins at 16 ka and ends at about the 13 ka level the last glacial maximum lgm defined at 19 16 ka is characterized by an ird peak faunal planktic foraminifera maxima dated at 17 3 and 18 25 ka and a high percentage of globigerina quinqueloba apparently open water conditions and circulation within the norwegian sea prevailed at least from 22 5 to 14 8 ka during the greatest part of stage 2 including the lgm and well onto termination ia a preservation maximum is observed throughout stage 2 isotope stage 3 with a nearly complete record of isotope substages is well represented in both cores oxygen isotope depletion peaks correlate with fauna minima and in time to north atlantic heinrich events h5 h1 faunal data indicate that deep water is generated within the norwegian greenland sea repeatedly since 26 ka with stops prior to 26 ka 22 5 20 8 20 5 ka and between 14 9 and 13 ka h3 h2 and h1 all isotope depletion peaks since ca 50 ka are anticorrelated with fauna and are mainly controlled by surface salinity changes isotope stages and substages are directly correlated to fauna peaks and temperature between 87 and ca 50 ka the faeroe shetland channel record shows that repeated presences of atlantic surface water and deep convection alternating with convection shutdowns have occurred within the norwegian sea greenland sea from the beginning of stages 5a to 1

volcanic ash reveals time transgressive abrupt climate change during the younger dryas knowledge of regional variations in response to abrupt climatic transitions is essential to understanding the climate system and anticipating future changes global climate models typically assume that major climatic changes occur synchronously over continental to hemispheric distances the last major reorganization of the ocean atmosphere system in the north atlantic realm took place during the younger dryas yd an 1100 yr cold period at the end of the last glaciation within this region several terrestrial records of the yd show at least two phases an initial cold phase followed by a second phase of climatic amelioration related to a resumption of north atlantic overturning we show that the onset of climatic amelioration during the yd cold period was locally abrupt but time transgressive across europe atmospheric proxy signals record the resumption of thermohaline circulation midway through the younger dryas occurring 100 yr before deposition of ash from the icelandic vedde eruption in a german varve lake record and 20 yr after the same isochron in western norway 1350 km farther north synchronization of two high resolution continental records using the vedde ash layer 12 140 40 varve yr b p allows us to trace the shifting of the polar front as a major control of regional climate amelioration during the yd in the north atlantic realm it is critical that future climate models are able to resolve such small spatial and chronological differences in order to properly encapsulate complex regional responses to global climate change