examination of late palaeolithic archaeological sites in northern europe for the preservation of cryptotephra layers we report the first major study of cryptotephra non visible volcanic ash layers on late palaeolithic archaeological sites in northern europe examination of 34 sites dating from the last termination reveals seven with identifiable cryptotephra layers preservation is observed in minerogenic and organic deposits although tephra is more common in organic sediments cryptotephra layers normally occur stratigraphically above or below the archaeology nearby off site palaeoclimate archives peat bogs and lakes 0 3 km distant were better locations for detecting tephra however in most cases the archaeology can only be correlated indirectly with such cryptotephras patterns affecting the presence absence of cryptotephra include geographic position of sites relative to the emitting volcanic centre the influence of past atmospherics on the quantity direction and patterns of cryptotephra transport the nature and timing of local site sedimentation sampling considerations and subsequent taphonomic processes overall while tephrostratigraphy has the potential to improve significantly the chronology of such sites many limiting factors currently impacts the successful application

succession of arboreal taxa during the late glacial in south eastern poland climatic implications abstract this paper presents and discusses vegetation changes between ca 14 910 and 11 620 cal bp which are recorded in the deposits of a small mire located in south eastern poland particular attention is paid to arboreal taxa changes in arboreal vegetation are reconstructed on the basis of pollen analysis including pollen accumulation rate par and analysis of plant macrofossils these being supported by radiocarbon chronology before the onset of the gi 1 warming 14 910 310 14 810 280 cal bp a mosaic of pinus and betula wood patches and or isolated stands of trees along with heliophilous juniperus thickets were dispersed within patches of herb steppe and tundra communities thermal amelioration at the gs 2 gi 1 transition ca 14 810 280 14 510 200 cal bp led to the spread of salix and to a lesser extent of tree birches betula pines pinus and hippophae rhamnoides in the light of par values from ca 14 550 210 cal bp there were open pine birch woodlands there which ca 14 270 160 cal bp turned into dense forests cold oscillations such as gi 1d gi 1c2 and gi 1b dated in the profile at ca 14 190 120 13 870 140 13 740 120 13 490 80 and 13 120 12 870 60 cal bp respectively are visible as declines in the par of arboreal taxa from ca 13 770 120 cal bp picea abies whose nearest glacial refugia were located in the western carpathians probably reached the site surroundings 50 n in the younger dryas gs 1 climate deterioration caused a decline in birch population in the first phase a slight retreat of forests and the simultaneous expansion of artemisia poaceae steppe communities and juniperus thickets the par values reflect a division of the younger dryas into two distinct phases an older phase more severe for tree populations probably due to longer and cooler winters and a younger phase with milder winters which begun ca 11 960 110 cal bp

a comparison of micro ct and thin section analysis of lateglacial glaciolacustrine varves from glen roy scotland abstract despite the prevalence of thin section analysis in studies of quaternary sediments there are limitations associated with the production of thin sections sediment modification and the inherently 2d view that a thin section affords non destructive and rapid scanning technologies such as x ray computed microtomography ct enable material samples to be visualised and analysed in 3d in a quaternary context however such techniques are in their infancy this paper assesses the optimum approach to ct analysis of quaternary sediments applying the method on lateglacial glaciolacustrine varves from glen roy scotland scan datasets are examined at each stage of the thin section process and comparisons are made between 2d ct images and thin sections for the recognition of 2d sediment features with further appraisal of 3d models to identify 3d sediment structures comparable sediment features are observed in 2d ct images and thin sections however the ct imaging resolution determines the precision of microfacies descriptions additional 3d structures are distinguished from volumetric models that are otherwise impossible to identify in thin section slides these 3d structures can locally alter sediment properties e g layer thickness as seen in 2d thin sections and or digital images although such variation cannot be detected with these media it has been demonstrated that clear benefits exist in understanding the 3d structure of quaternary sediments both prior to thin sectioning to avoid complicating e g deformation structures and after thin sectioning to establish the complex 3d context of 2d datasets it is recommended that ct and thin section techniques are applied in parallel in future studies which will profit from the integration of true 3d data it is also advised that samples are scanned soon after field sampling due to the significant modification of in situ sediment structures that can occur during thin section processing

a mid european decadal isotope climate record from 15 500 to 5000 years b p oxygen isotope ratios of precipitation delta18op inferred from deep lake ostracods from the ammersee southern germany provide a climate record with decadal resolution the record in detail shows many of the rapid climate shifts seen in central greenland ice cores between 15 000 and 5000 years before the present b p negative excursions in the estimated delta18op from both of these records likely reflect short weakenings of the thermohaline circulation caused by episodic discharges of continental freshwater into the north atlantic deviating millennial scale trends however indicate that climate gradients between europe and greenland changed systematically reflecting a gradual rearrangement of north atlantic circulation during deglaciation

orbital and millennial northern mid latitude westerlies over the last glacial period the northern mid latitude westerlies play an important role in the climate interactions between the low and high latitudes our understanding of the factors that control the latitudinal displacement of the westerlies remains incomplete due to insufficient climatic proxy here we present a latitudinal shift record of the westerlies in the eastern central asia over the past 70 000 years on the basis of the grain size of the loess sequence from the tacheng basin on millennial timescale the variation of the reconstructed westerlies resembles that of the greenland temperature and the atlantic meridional overturning circulation amoc indicating the role of the amoc on the westerlies on orbital time scale their variation is controlled by precession and insolation our analyses of the loveclim and ccsm3 models results show that the impact of insolation and amoc on the latitudinal shift of the westerlies is through changing the latitudinal temperature and pressure gradients

was the younger dryas triggered by a flood draining of a huge lake into the northern atlantic may have triggered a cold period 12 900 years ago the route taken by the flood waters remains unknown

the impact of the north atlantic ocean on the younger dryas climate in northwestern and central europe the main results of multiproxy climate reconstructions for the younger dryas and experiments carried out with an atmospheric general circulation model are discussed quantitative temperature inferences for northwestern and central europe show that winter conditions were remarkably extreme with values of 20 30 c below that of today annual temperature ranges with a continental signature 30 34 c were reconstructed for the entire study area compared with today the greatest cooling was experienced in the seaboard area the comparison of the climate reconstructions and simulation experiments indicates that sea ice in the north atlantic ocean played a decisive role in the climate of the study area by cooling the surface air temperatures and by controlling the position of the storm track surface air circulation was westerly even during younger dryas winters a slight northward shift of the mean atlantic sea ice margin during winter may explain the proposed subdivision of the younger drays into a phase of maximum cold and humidity succeeded by a less cold and relatively dry phase 1998 john wiley sons ltd

abrupt increase in greenland snow accumulation at the end of the younger dryas event the warming at the end of the last glaciation was characterized by a series of abrupt returns to glacial climate the best known of which is the younger dryas event1 despite much study of the causes of this event and the mechanisms by which it ended many questions remain unresolved1 oxygen isotope data from greenland ice cores2 4 suggest that the younger dryas ended abruptly over a period of about 50 years dust concentrations2 4 in these cores show an even more rapid transition 20 years this extremely short timescale places severe constraints on the mechanisms underlying the transition but dust concentrations can reflect subtle changes in atmospheric circulation which need not be associated with a large change in climate here we present results from a new greenland ice core gisp2 showing that snow accumulation doubled rapidly from the younger dryas event to the subsequent preboreal interval possibly in one to three years we also find that the accumulation rate change from the oldest dryas to the bo11ing allerod warm period was large and abrupt the extreme rapidity of these changes in a variable that directly represents regional climate implies that the events at the end of the last glaciation may have been responses to some kind of threshold or trigger in the north atlantic climate system

regional temperature atmospheric circulation and sea ice variability within the younger dryas event constrained using a speleothem from northern iberia precisely dated high resolution stable isotope and trace element data from a stalagmite from la garma cave northern spain reveal several stages of distinct climatic variability along the northern iberian atlantic margin and provide new constraints on the latitude of north atlantic westerlies during the younger dryas event yd westerly wind position reconstructed using sub annually resolved mg data as a proxy for sea spray contributions associated with wind strength at this coastal cave site during the early yd 12 85 12 15 kyr oscillated meridionally resembling the decadal scale component of the modern north atlantic oscillation nao northward repositioning of westerly storm tracks over northern iberia began at 12 15 kyr consistent with other high resolution wind proxy reconstructions from central and northern europe but occurred more gradually nearer the atlantic margin from 12 15 kyr to the yd termination atmospheric circulation resembled a persistently positive nao with westerlies reaching their maximum northward extent at 11 8 kyr reflected by a mg concentration minimum at this time air temperature reflected by our 18o data and iberian wind strength were predominantly coupled throughout the yd suggesting that temperature modulated sea ice extent and consequently controlled westerly wind latitude however our data suggest that abrupt warming at 12 1 kyr was followed by much more gradual northward shifts in westerly position and that a lag existed between the warming and sea ice retreat this gradual return of the westerlies to the north beginning at 12 1 kyr is consistent with inferred changes in wind strength at other european sites additionally atmospheric circulation inferred from our northern iberian wind strength proxy record generally tracked low frequency meridional shifts in intertropical convergence zone position corroborating past research that suggested closely coupled low and high latitude atmospheric teleconnections over this period

rapid environmental changes in southern europe during the last glacial period oxygen isotope records from greenland ice cores1 2 indicate numerous rapid climate fluctuations during the last glacial period north atlantic marine sediment cores show comparable variability in sea surface temperature and the deposition of ice rafted debris3 4 5 in contrast very few continental records of this time period provide the temporal resolution and environmental sensitivity necessary to reveal the extent and effects of these environmental fluctuations on the continents here we present high resolution geochemical physical and pollen data from lake sediments in italy and from a mediterranean sediment core linked by a common tephrochronology our lacustrine sequence extends to the past 102 000 years many of its features correlate well with the greenland ice core records demonstrating that the closely coupled ocean atmosphere system of the northern hemisphere during the last glacial4 extended its influence at least as far as the central mediterranean region numerous vegetation changes were rapid frequently occurring in less than 200 years showing that the terrestrial biosphere participated fully in last glacial climate variability earlier than 65 000 years ago our record shows more climate fluctuations than are apparent in the greenland ice cores together the multi proxy data from the continental and marine records reveal differences in the seasonal character of climate during successive interstadials and provide a step towards determining the underlying mechanisms of the centennial millennial scale variability

nanodiamond rich layer across three continents consistent with major cosmic impact at 12 800 cal bp abstracta major cosmic impact event has been proposed at the onset of the younger dryas yd cooling episode at 12 800 150 years before present forming the yd boundary ydb layer distributed over 50 million km2 on four continents in 24 dated stratigraphic sections in 10 countries of the northern hemisphere the ydb layer contains a clearly defined abundance peak in nanodiamonds nds a major cosmic impact proxy observed nd polytypes include cubic diamonds lonsdaleite like crystals and diamond like carbon nanoparticles called n diamond and i carbon the nd abundances in bulk ydb sediments ranged up to 500 ppb mean 200 ppb and that in carbon spherules up to 3700 ppb mean 750 ppb 138 of 205 sediment samples 67 contained no detectable nds isotopic evidence indicates that ydb nds were produced from terrestrial carbon as with other impact diamonds and were not derived from the impactor itself the ydb layer is also marked by abundance peaks in other impact related proxies including

is the gulf stream responsible for europe s mild winters is the transport of heat northward by the gulf stream and north atlantic drift and its subsequent release into the midlatitude westerlies the reason why europe s winters are so much milder than those of eastern north america and other places at the same latitude here it is shown that the principal cause of this temperature difference is advection by the mean winds south westerlies bring warm maritime air into europe and north westerlies bring frigid continental air into north eastern north america further analysis of the ocean surface heat budget shows that the majority of the heat released during winter from the ocean to the atmosphere is accounted for by the seasonal release of heat previously absorbed and not by ocean heat flux convergence therefore the existence of the winter temperature contrast between western europe and eastern north america does not require a dynamical ocean two experiments with an atmospheric general circulation model coupled to an ocean mixed layer confirm this conclusion the difference in winter temperatures across the north atlantic and the difference between western europe and western north america is essentially the same in these models whether or not the movement of heat by the ocean is accounted for in an additional experiment with no mountains the flow across the ocean is more zonal western europe is cooled the trough east of the rockies is weakened and the cold of north eastern north america is ameliorated in all experiments the west coast of europe is warmer than the west coast of north america at the same latitude whether or not ocean heat transport is accounted for in summary the deviations from zonal symmetry of winter temperatures in the northern hemisphere are fundamentally caused by the atmospheric circulation interacting with the oceanic mixed layer copyright 2002 royal meteorological society

land ice teleconnections of cold climatic periods during the last glacial interglacial transition independent calendar year chronologies are a basic requirement for the establishment of high resolution land ice teleconnections the annually laminated meerfelder maar record provides both an independent chronology established by varve counting and high resolution lithological proxy data for the period of the last glacial interglacial transition these data reveal a series of four periods of climatic deterioration coinciding with negative isotopic deviations in the grip record signal thus demonstrating the synchronicity of environment changes in western germany and temperature shifts in greenland the terrestrial data supports a further sub division of the event stratigraphy based on the grip core by introducing the cold event gi 1c2 between 13 500 and 13 400 calendar years bp multiproxy analyses reveal that the environmental response at meerfelder maar was not linear throughout the lateglacial but was modified by local processes a change in the response of the lake environment to climate deterioration was observed during sub stage gi 1b gerzensee oscillation the only event with gradual rather than abrupt transitions the two fold character of the younger dryas as seen in the grip record is more pronounced in the meerfelder maar record this lithological signal occurred with a delay of 60 years to the grip signal and has been linked to a shift in the catchment it is proposed that the trigger for this shift was a trend towards a more humid second half of the younger dryas

rapid oceanic and atmospheric changes during the younger dryas cold period the younger dryas event which began approximately 12 900 years ago was a period of rapid cooling in the northern hemisphere driven by large scale reorganizations of patterns of atmospheric and oceanic circulation 1 3 environmental changes during this period have been documented by both proxy based reconstructions 3 and model simulations 4 but there is currently no consensus on the exact mechanisms of onset stabilization or termination of the younger dryas 5 8 here we present high resolution records from two sediment cores obtained from lake krakenes in western norway and the nordic seas multiple proxies from lake krakenes are indicative of rapid alternations between glacial growth and melting during the later younger dryas meanwhile reconstructed sea surface temperature and salinity from the nordic seas show an alternation between sea ice cover and the influx of warm salty north atlantic waters we suggest that the influx of warm water enabled the westerly wind systems to drift northward closer to their present day positions the winds thus brought relatively warm maritime air to northern europe resulting in rising temperatures and the melting of glaciers subsequent input of this fresh meltwater into the ocean spurred the formation of sea ice which forced the westerly winds back to the south cooling northern europe we conclude that rapid alternations between these two states immediately preceded the termination of the younger dryas and the permanent transition to an interglacial state the impact of freshwater pulses released from northern hemisphere ice sheets on the north atlantic meridional overturning circulation has been suggested as a likely mechanism for the younger dryas cooling 7 11 in addition a responsive sea ice cover has been proposed as a mechanism that could rapidly alter the heat exchange between the ocean and atmosphere during the last glacial period 12 13 the roles of the ocean and the atmosphere in triggering the climate shifts around the younger dryas are much discussed 9 these hypotheses are difficult to resolve partly because the temporal resolution of most palaeoclimate archives is too coarse to enable the anatomy of the younger dryas stadial to be adequately described 14 to address these questions we here present a lake sediment record at sub annual resolution together with new data on the sea surface conditions of the norwegian atlantic current nwac throughouttheyoungerdryasstadial fig 1

palaeoclimate lags within the younger dryas a slowing atlantic overturning circulation during the last deglacial warming caused abrupt cooling in the northern hemisphere lake sediment records suggest that hydrological change in europe lagged the temperature drop by almost 200 years

introduction to this special section practical applications of anisotropy the use of seismic anisotropy is a topic that has evolved dramatically in the last 25 years in the oil and gas industry even though physicists who study waves and vibrations in solids have taught us that elastic properties of rocks should be described by a complex set of functions and parameters many years of seismic data processing were conducted assuming that the velocities in the subsurface rocks were isotropic and that the shear modulus was zero that the rocks could be treated as a liquid isotropic means that the value measured e g velocity is the same in all directions whether you consider angles of incidence or source receiver azimuths for a rock volume of interest

a spatially restricted younger dryas plateau icefield in the gaick scotland reconstruction and palaeoclimatic implications considerable research has been conducted in scotland to reconstruct younger dryas glaciers and palaeoclimatic conditions but our understanding remains incomplete in this contribution we examine the gaick a dissected plateau that extends over 520 km 2 in the central grampians scotland the extent and style of younger dryas glaciation in the gaick has been repeatedly contested although a model of extensive plateau icefield glaciation has become generally accepted this is despite well documented issues with key elements of the plateau icefield reconstruction we synthesise the results of recent geomorphological mapping in the gaick and recognise a distinct morphostratigraphic signature in the upper parts of the western catchments this differs markedly from sediment landform associations in other parts of the area and we argue this provides a strong indication of spatially restricted younger dryas 12 9 11 7 ka glaciation in the gaick our interpretation is independently supported by glacierisation threshold analysis which implies that the eastern gaick was unable to nourish younger dryas ice we therefore contest the accepted paradigm of extensive younger dryas glaciation in this area based on the geomorphological evidence and glacier surface profile modelling we reconstruct a 42 km 2 plateau icefield that yields an equilibrium line altitude of 751 46 m using this value a sea level precipitation value of 826 331 mm a 1 is inferred for the younger dryas which suggests considerably drier conditions than at present using recalculated glacier derived precipitation estimates from scotland we present regional climate analysis that corroborates arguments for a strong west east precipitation gradient across scotland

a new geochemical classification of sedimentary environments because of the relative constancy of ph in most subaqueous sediments and the general lack of measurability of eh these parameters are not practically useful for classifying sedimentary environments in their place a new classification is offered which derived from studies of modern sediments is based on the presence or absence of dissolved oxygen and dissolved sulfide in the sediments at the time of authigenic mineral formation sedimentary environments are first of all divided into oxic and anoxic depending upon the presence or absence of measurable dissolved oxygen anoxic environments in turn are divided into sulfidic and non sulfidic depending upon the presence of measurable dissolved sulfide anoxic nonsulfidic environments are further divided into postoxic or resulting from oxygen removal without sulfate reduction weakly reducing and methanic or resulting from complete sulfate reduction with consequent methane formation strongly reducing the environments are shown to succeed one another during early diagenesis in the order oxic post oxic sulfidic methanic iron and manganese minerals characteristic and stable in each environment are listed and discussed so that they may be used to distinguish the environments when studying the ancient geological record

freshwater outbursts to the oceans from glacial lake agassiz and their role in climate change during the last deglaciation abstract lake agassiz was the largest lake in north america during the last deglaciation as the laurentide ice sheet lis retreated large volumes of water stored in this proglacial lake were episodically released into the oceans these waters were variably routed to the gulf of mexico arctic ocean north atlantic ocean and hudson bay during this period the three largest cooling events in the northern hemisphere closely followed 4 of the 5 largest outbursts from lake agassiz 1 the younger dryas which was preceded by a release of 9500 km 3 2 the preboreal oscillation preceded by releases of 9300 km 3 and 5900 km 3 and 3 the 8 2 ka cold event preceded by a 163 000 km 3 outburst these are respectively fluxes of 0 30 sv 0 29 sv 0 19 sv and 5 2 sv if released in 1 year because the influx of freshwater reaching the north atlantic ocean can inhibit thermohaline circulation partly depending on whether the ocean was in a glacial interglacial or transitional mode of circulation we believe that at least these large outbursts from lake agassiz may have provided the triggers for changes in ocean circulation and in turn for widespread climate change

synchronous records of pco2 and δ14c suggest rapid ocean derived pco2 fluctuations at the onset of younger dryas just before the onset of the younger dryas yd cold event several stomatal proxy based pco2 records have shown a sharp increase in atmospheric co2 concentration pco2 of between ca 50 and 100 ppm followed by a rapid decrease of similar or even larger magnitude here we compare one of these records a high resolution pco2 record from southern sweden with the intcal13 record of radiocarbon d 14 c the two records show broadly synchronous fluctuations at the yd onset specifically the intcal13 record documents decreasing d 14 c just before the yd onset when pco2 peaks consistent with a source of old co2 from the deep ocean we propose that this fluctuation occurred due to a major ocean flushing event the cause of the flushing event remains speculative but could be related to the hypothesis of the glacial ocean as a thermobaric capacitor we confirm that the earth system can produce such large multidecadal timescale fluctuations in pco2 through simulating an artificial ocean flushing event with the genie earth system model we suggest that sharp transitions of pco2 may have remained undetected so far in ice cores due to inter firn gas exchange and time averaging the stomatal proxy record is a powerful complement to the ice core records for the study of rapid climate change

synchronized terrestrial atmospheric deglacial records around the north atlantic on the basis of synchronization of three carbon 14 c 14 dated lacustrine sequences from sweden with tree ring and ice core records the absolute age of the younger dryas preboreal climatic shift was determined to be 11 450 to 11 390 80 years before the present a 150 year long cooling in the early preboreal associated with rising delta 14 c values is evident in all records and indicates an ocean ventilation change this cooling is similar to earlier deglacial coolings and box model calculations suggest that they all may have been the result of increased freshwater forcing that inhibited the strength of the north atlantic heat conveyor although the younger dryas may have begun as an anomalous meltwater event

influence of seasonality on glacier mass balance and implications for palaeoclimate reconstructions climates inferred from former glacier geometries in some areas exhibit discrepancies with regional palaeoclimates predicted by general circulation models gcms and modelling of palaeoecological data possibly as a consequence of their differing treatments of climatic seasonality since glacier based climate reconstructions potentially offer an important tool in the calibration of gcms which themselves need validation if used to predict future climate scenarios we attempt to resolve mismatches between these techniques by 1 investigating the influence of seasonality on glacier mass balance and 2 refining the methodology used for the derivation of glacier based palaeoclimates focussing on the younger dryas stadial glaciation of scotland northeast atlantic we show that sea ice amplified seasonality led to a significantly drier climate than has been suggested by glacier based interpretations this was characterised by a relatively short ablation season and the survival of a more substantial winter snowpack we suggest that if palaeoglaciological studies were to account for changes in seasonal temperature and precipitation variability their results would agree more closely with the cold arid northeast atlantic palaeoenvironment predicted by atmospheric modelling and northwest european pollen studies and would therefore provide more accurate constraints for gcm calibration

does the trigger for abrupt climate change reside in the ocean or in the atmosphere two hypotheses have been put forward to explain the large and abrupt climate changes that punctuated glacial time one attributes such changes to reorganizations of the ocean s thermohaline circulation and the other to changes in tropical atmosphere ocean dynamics in an attempt to distinguish between these hypotheses two lines of evidence are examined the first involves the timing of the freshwater injections to the northern atlantic that have been suggested as triggers for the global impacts associated with the younger dryas and heinrich events the second has to do with evidence for precursory events associated with the heinrich ice rafted debris layers in the northern atlantic and with the abrupt dansgaard oeschger warmings recorded in the santa barbara basin

irregular glacial interstadials recorded in a new greenland ice core the greenland ice sheet offers the most favourable conditions in the northern hemisphere for obtaining high resolution continuous time series of climate related parameters profiles of 18o 16o ratio along three previous deep greenland ice cores1 3 seemed to reveal irregular but well defined episodes of relatively mild climate conditions interstadials during the mid and late parts of the last glaciation but there has been some doubt as to whether the shifts in oxygen isotope ratio were genuine representations of changes in climate rather than artefacts due to disturbed stratification here we present results from a new deep ice core drilled at the summit of the greenland ice sheet where the depositional environ ment and the flow pattern of the ice are close to ideal for core recovery and analysis the results reproduce the previous findings to such a degree that the existence of the interstadial episodes can no longer be in doubt according to a preliminary timescale based on stratigraphic studies the interstadials lasted from 500 to 2 000 years and their irregular occurrence suggests complexity in the behaviour of the north atlantic ocean circulation

past circulation along the western iberian margin a time slice vision from the last glacial to the holocene abstract fifteen iberian margin sediment cores distributed between 43 12 n and 35 53 n have been used to reconstruct spatial and temporal sub surface circulation along the iberian margin since the last glacial period time slice maps of planktonic foraminiferal derived summer sea surface temperature sst and export productivity pexp were established for specific time intervals within the last 35 ky the holocene recent and last 8 ky younger dryas yd heinrich stadials hs 1 2a 2b 3 and the last glacial maximum lgm the sst during the holocene shows the same latitudinal gradient along the western iberian margin as present day with cold but productive areas that reflect the influence of coastal upwelling centers the lgm appears as a slightly less warm but more productive period relative to the holocene and present day conditions suggesting that sea level minima forced a westward displacement of the coastal upwelling centers possibly accompanied by a strengthening of northward winds during the yd a longitudinal thermal front is depicted at 10 w with cold polar waters offshore and warmer subtropical waters inshore suggesting that the subtropical paleo iberian poleward current more likely flowed at a more inshore location masking the local sst signal and amplitude of variation a substantial cooling and drop in productivity is observed during all hs in particular hs1 and hs3 reflecting the penetration of icebergs derived meltwater these most extreme southward extensions of very cold waters define a strong sst gradient that marks a possible paleo azores front higher production south of this front was likely fed by frontal nutrient advection

lacustrine carbonates of iberian karst lakes sources processes and depositional environments abstract carbonates are the main components of iberian quaternary lake sediments in this review we summarize the main processes controlling carbonate deposition in extant iberian lakes located in mesozoic and tertiary carbonate dominated regions and formed through karstic activity during the late quaternary the lakes relatively small 1 ha to 118 ha and relatively shallow zmax 11 to 40 m provide examples of the large variability of sedimentary facies depositional environments and carbonate sources hydrology is dominated by groundwater inflow except those directly connected to the fluvial drainage nine lakes have been selected for this review and the main facies in palustrine littoral and profundal environments described and interpreted clastic carbonates occur in all iberian lakes due to the carbonate composition of the bedrocks surface formations and soils of the watersheds low temperatures and dilute meteoric waters seem responsible for the low carbonate content of sediments in high elevation lakes in the glaciated terrains in the pyrenees and the cantabrian mountains clastic carbonates are dominant in small karst lakes with functional inlets where sediment infill is dominated by fining upward sequences deposited during flood events re working of littoral carbonates is common in shallow environments and during low lake level stages in most lakes endogenic carbonate production occurs in two settings i littoral platforms dominated by chara and charophyte meadows and ii epilimnetic zone as biologically mediated calcite precipitates continuous preservation of varves since the mid holocene only occurs in one of the deeper lakes montcortes lake up to 30 m where calcite laminae textures massive fining upward and coarsening upward reflect seasonal changes in limnological conditions however varves have been formed and preserved in most of the lakes during short periods associated with increased water depth and more frequent meromictic conditions most iberian lakes are in a mature stage and karstic processes are not very active an outstanding example of a lake with intense karstic activity is banyoles lake where increased spring discharge after long rainy periods causes large remobilization and re suspension of the sediments accumulated in the deepest areas leading to the deposition of thick homogeneous layers homogeinites the iberian karst lake sequences underline the large variability of facies carbonate sources and depositional environments in small lake systems they illustrate how lake types evolve through the existence of a lake basin at centennial or even smaller time scales hydrology is the paramount control on facies and depositional environment patterns distribution and lake evolution and consequently a lake classification is proposed based on hydrology and sediment input a correct interpretation of carbonate sources and depositional history is a key for using lake sequences as archives of past global changes

northern hemisphere storm tracks in present day and last glacial maximum climate simulations a comparison of the european pmip models abstract extratropical weather systems are an essential feature of the midlatitude climate and global circulation at the last glacial maximum lgm the formation of regions of high transient activity referred to as storm tracks is strongly affected by the presence of large ice sheets over northern america and scandinavia and by differences in sea surface temperature sst distributions in the framework of the palaeoclimate modelling intercomparison project simulations of the lgm climate have been run with a wide range of atmospheric general circulation models agcms using the same set of boundary conditions allowing a valuable comparison between simulations of a climate very different from the present one in this study the authors focus on the storm track representation in the models and its relationship with the surface temperatures the mean flow and the precipitation storm tracks are described using transient eddy diagnostics such as mean sea level pressure variance and three dimensional

high resolution late glacial chronology for the gerzensee lake record switzerland δ18o correlation between a gerzensee stack and ngrip oxygen isotope variations were analyzed on bulk samples of shallow water lake marl from gerzensee switzerland in order to evaluate major and minor climatic oscillations during the late glacial to highlight the overall signature of the gerzensee 18o record 18o records of four parallel sediment cores were first correlated by synchronizing major isotope shifts and pollen abundances then the records were stacked with a weighting depending on the differing sampling resolution to develop a precise chronology the 18o stack was then correlated with the ngrip 18o record applying a monte carlo simulation relying on the assumption that the shifts in 18o were climate driven and synchronous in both archives the established chronology on the gicc05 time scale is the basis for 1 comparing the 18o changes recorded in gerzensee with observed climatic and environmental fluctuations over the whole north atlantic region and 2 comparing sedimentological and biological changes during the rapid warming with smaller climatic variations during the bolling allerod period the 18o record of gerzensee is characterized by two major isotope shifts at the onset and at the termination of the bolling allerod warm period as well as four intervening negative shifts labeled gi 1e2 d c2 and b which show a shift of one third to one fourth of the major 18o shifts at the beginning and end of the bolling allerod despite some inconsistency in terminology these oscillations can be observed in various climatic proxies over wide regions in the north atlantic region especially in reconstructed colder temperatures and they seem to be caused by hemispheric climatic variations

biogeochemical and micro facial fingerprints of ecosystem response to rapid late glacial climatic changes in varved sediments of meerfelder maar germany the response of a lacustrine ecosystem to climatic changes from 13 500 to 10 800 bp was studied in a varve dated sediment profile of lake meerfelder maar western germany bulk biogeochemical parameters stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes of sedimentary organic matter and micro facies analysis are used for a detailed investigation of the lake s development from the allerod interstadial al to the younger dryas stadial yd and into the early holocene preboreal varve micro facies reveal rapid changes in composition and seasonal structure of the depositional environment mainly in temporal accordance with changes of terrestrial biozones the respective responses of bulk proxy parameters bi decadal resolution indicate different sensitivities to diverse climatic changes a prominent transition took place within two decades at the al yd boundary 12 690 12 670 bp increased flux of nutrients released from redeposited littoral sediments and shorter yd summer seasons led to an acceleration and concentration of lacustrine primary production with reduced discrimination against 13c high lacustrine primary production was further favored by relatively warm yd summer temperatures at 12 240 varve years bp from 1 year to the next a regular deposition of detrital layers in spring set in which is related to local hydrologic threshold processes amplifying the response to increased snowmelt discharge this distinct change in the middle of the yd is clearly detected by varve micro facies but not equally recorded in organic bulk proxy data especially carbon isotope ratios remain constant and indicate a negligible effect of this process on the productivity of lacustrine algae the yd preboreal transition 11 645 11 585 bp is marked by a characteristic change in micro facies throughout this transition stable carbon isotope ratios strongly decline while the accumulation of opal and organic matter om remained constant this is seen as an increasing importance of spring and autumn for gross primary production at the onset of the holocene

testing climate proxy stationarity throughout the holocene an example from the varved sediments of lake meerfelder maar germany abstract lake meerfelder maar germany provides a varved record from the last glacial interglacial transition back to ca 1500 years bp this study shows results for the holocene sequence from new cores collected in 2009 based on varve counting microfacies and micro xrf analyses the main goal of combining those analyses is to provide a new approach for interpreting long term palaeolimnological proxy data and testing the climate proxy stationarity throughout the current interglacial period varve counting provides a new independent holocene chronology mfm2012 with an estimated counting error of 1 0 5 and supported by 14 c dating varve structure and thickness and geochemical composition of the varves give information about the main environmental processes that affect the lake and its catchment as well as the possible climate variability behind varves are couplets of i a spring summer laminae composed of monospecific diatom blooms and ii an autumn winter sub layer made of minerogenic material and reworked sediments thickness of the varves and sub layers reflect lake variability and allow seasons to be distinguished as well as seasonal proxies changes in the winter minerogenic influx into the lake are reflected by ti intensities and the si ti ratio as an indicator for diatom concentration which can be used as a proxy for water circulation during the early spring long term variability of geochemical composition shows a reduction of the detrital material input ti at 5000 varve yrs bp and a visible sensitivity to water mixing si ti during the late holocene variations of ti intensities during the early and mid holocene do not show a clear relationship with climate in contrast higher values of the si ti ratio together with thicker varves have been interpreted as wind stress phases which coincide with centennial variability of european cold wet episodes during the late holocene our findings show that a long term change in the lake and or variability of the climate system can influence proxy sensitivity of a lacustrine record

abrupt climate change an alternative view hypotheses and inferences concerning the nature of abrupt climate change exemplified by the dansgaard oeschger d o events are reviewed there is little concrete evidence that these events are more than a regional greenland phenomenon the partial coherence of ice core y 18 o and ch4 is a possible exception claims however of d o presence in most remote locations cannot be distinguished from the hypothesis that many regions are just exhibiting temporal variability in climate proxies with approximately similar frequency content further suggestions that d o events in greenland are generated by shifts in the north atlantic ocean circulation seem highly implausible given the weak contribution of the high latitude ocean to the meridional flux of heat a more likely scenario is that changes in the ocean circulation are a consequence of wind shifts the disappearance of d o events in the holocene coincides with the disappearance also of the laurentide and fennoscandian ice sheets it is thus suggested that d o events are a consequence of interactions of the windfield with the continental ice sheets and that better understanding of the wind field in the glacial periods is the highest priority wind fields are capable of great volatility and very rapid global scale teleconnections and they are efficient generators of oceanic circulation changes and more speculatively of multiple states relative to great ice sheets connection of d o events to the possibility of modern abrupt climate change rests on a very weak chain of assumptions

geomorphology of coal seam fires abstract coal fires occur in underground natural coal seams in exposed surface seams and in coal storage or waste piles the fires ignite through spontaneous combustion or natural or anthropogenic causes they are reported from china india usa south africa australia and russia as well as many other countries coal fires lead to loss of a valuable resource coal the emission of greenhouse relevant and toxic gases and vegetation deterioration a dangerous aspect of the fires is the threat to local mines industries and settlements through the volume loss underground surface collapse in coal fire areas is common thus coal fires are significantly affecting the evolution of the landscape based on more than a decade of experience with in situ mapping of coal fire areas worldwide a general classification system for coal fires is presented furthermore coal seam fire geomorphology is explained in detail the major landforms associated with and induced by these fires are presented the landforms include manifestations resulting from bedrock surface fracturing such as fissures cracks funnels vents and sponges further manifestations resulting from surface bedrock subsidence include sinkholes trenches depressions partial surface subsidence large surface subsidence and slides additional geomorphologic coal fire manifestations include exposed ash layers pyrometamorphic rocks and fumarolic minerals the origin evolution and possible future development of these features are explained and examples from in situ surveys as well as from high resolution satellite data analyses are presented the geomorphology of coal fires has not been presented in a systematic manner knowledge of coal fire geomorphology enables the detection of underground coal fires based on distinct surface manifestations furthermore it allows judgments about the safety of coal fire affected terrain additionally geomorphologic features are indicators of the burning stage of fires finally coal fire geomorphology helps to explain landscape features whose occurrence would otherwise not be understood although coal fire induced thermal anomalies and gas release are also indications of coal fire activity as addressed by many investigators no assessment is complete without sound geomorphologic mapping of the fire induced geomorphologic features

high resolution sediment and vegetation responses to younger dryas climate change in varved lake sediments from meerfelder maar germany abstract this work focuses on a 1900 year section of varved sediments from lake meerfelder maar mfm extending from the late allerod to the preboreal varve counting provides the chronological framework and determines the length of younger dryas to 1025 1090 years a strong relation between climate change environment response and depositional processes has been found in consequence varve microfacies variations are a sensitive proxy for environment changes these are reflected for example in erosion processes within the lake s catchment minerogenic input and lake productivity diatom blooms the observed varve changes have been quantified by multiproxy analyses of physical and chemical sediment parameters with a resolution of between 8 and 40 years depending on sedimentation rate in addition high resolution palynological investigations provide the biostratigraphical subdivision based on changes in the vegetation occurring during the same time interval varve observations reveal that environment changes at the beginning and the end of the younger dryas occurred within 20 50 years furthermore sediment and vegetation changes were synchronous within the actual precision of the mfm and grip chronologies divergence of only a few decades terrestrial responses in western europe occurred quasi synchronous to temperature changes in greenland

a new windstorm proxy from lake sediments a comparison of geological and meteorological data from western germany for the period 1965 2001 1 the feasibility of detecting windstorm layers in lake sediments is explored by comparing quartz grain size data from a freeze core obtained from the schalkenmehrener maar eifel region western germany to recent meteorological wind data the schalkenmehrener maar is appropriate for such a calibration study because the morphological settings of the lake allow the conservation of windstorm layers in particular there is no fluvial sediment inflow and long term wind measurements are available from nearby stations the age model for the uppermost 30 cm of the sediment core is based on measurements of 137cs and 210pb concentrations an ultra high resolution grain size analysis is performed digitally on thin sections and reveals distinct 1 mm thick layers with increased quartz grain content and sharp gaussian grain size distributions which are shifted to larger grain sizes compared to the normal lake sediment in order to compare the occurrence of these layers with meteorological wind data a windstorm index is developed combining data from meteorological stations in the eifel region and reanalyses from the european centre for medium range weather forecast a statistical evaluation of matches between the windstorm index and the core s silt fraction data indicates that the sediment layers very likely coincide with the major windstorm events in the eifel region during the last decades six historical storm are identified this pilot study identifies the main requirements and proposes a novel methodological approach for using sediment data from lakes with similar settings as the schalkenmehrener maar as a new proxy to reconstruct the windstorm record of the geological past

an abrupt wind shift in western europe at the onset of the younger dryas cold period the younger dryas cold reversal during the last glacial termination is one of the most abrupt climate change events observed in the northern hemisphere analyses of varved lake sediments from western germany suggest that storminess in the north atlantic region increased within a single year at this time providing a mechanistic link between a decrease in the meridional overturning circulation and western european cooling the younger dryas cooling 12 700 years ago is one of the most abrupt climate changes observed in northern hemisphere palaeoclimate records1 2 3 4 annually laminated lake sediments are ideally suited to record the dynamics of such abrupt changes as the seasonal deposition responds immediately to climate and the varve counts provide an accurate estimate of the timing of the change here we present sub annual records of varve microfacies and geochemistry from lake meerfelder maar in western germany providing one of the best dated records of this climate transition5 our data indicate an abrupt increase in storminess during the autumn to spring seasons occurring from one year to the next at 12 679 yr bp broadly coincident with other changes in this region we suggest that this shift in wind strength represents an abrupt change in the north atlantic westerlies towards a stronger and more zonal jet changes in meridional overturning circulation alone cannot fully explain the changes in european climate6 7 we suggest the observed wind shift provides the mechanism for the strong temporal link between north atlantic ocean overturning circulation and european climate during deglaciation

an annually resolved record of western european vegetation response to younger dryas cooling abstract the regional patterns and timing of the younger dryas cooling in the north atlantic realm were complex and are mechanistically incompletely understood to enhance understanding of regional climate patterns we present molecular biomarker records at subannual to annual resolution by mass spectrometry imaging msi of sediments from the lake meerfelder maar covering the allerod younger dryas transition these analyses are supported by conventional extraction based molecular isotopic analyses which both validate the imaging results and constrain the sources of the target compounds the targeted fatty acid biomarkers serve as a gauge of the response of the local aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem to climate change based on the comparison of our data with existing data from meerfelder maar we analyse the short term environmental evolution in western europe during the studied time interval and confirm the previously reported delayed hydrological response to greenland cooling however despite a detected delay of western european environmental change of 135 years our biomarker data show statistically significant correlation with deuterium excess in greenland ice core at annual resolution during this time transgressive cooling this suggests a coherent atmospheric forcing across the north atlantic realm during this transition we propose that western european cooling was postponed due to major reorganization of the westerlies that were intermittently forcing warmer and wetter air masses from lower latitudes to western europe and thus resulted in delayed cooling relative to greenland

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

the role of seasonality in abrupt climate change abstract a case is made that seasonality switches dominated by wintertime were instrumental in abrupt climate changes in the north atlantic region during the last glaciation and into the holocene the primary evidence comes from mismatches between mean annual temperatures from greenland ice cores in comparison with snowline changes in east greenland northern europe and north america the most likely explanation is a shutdown or reduction in strength of the conveyor this allows the spread of winter sea ice across the north atlantic thus causing the northern region to experience much colder winters because they mimic the greenland temperature rather than the snowline signal changes in the atlantic intertropical convergence zone and the asian monsoon may also share a winter linkage with greenland thus the paleoclimate record is consistent with the notion that a huge continental sector of the northern hemisphere stretching from greenland to asia was close to an extreme winter threshold during much of the last glaciation winter climate crossed this threshold repeatedly with marked changes in seasonality that may well have amplified and propagated a signal of abrupt change throughout the hemisphere and into the tropics

mountain glacier evolution in the iberian peninsula during the younger dryas abstract we review the evolution of glaciers in the iberian mountains during the younger dryas 12 9 11 7 ka following the chronology of greenland stadial 1 gs1 and compare with available environmental and climate data to investigate glacier dynamics during cold stadial episodes the best examples of younger dryas moraines are found in the central pyrenees involving short ice tongues up to 4 km in length in the highest massifs above 3000 m a s l of the southern versant small cirque glaciers and rock glaciers formed during the yd occurred in other pyrenean massifs in the cantabrian range and in the gredos and guadarrama sierras central range as indicated by several rocky polished thresholds that were ice free at the beginning of the holocene although some former rock glaciers were re activated during the younger dryas glacial activity was limited in the southernmost part of the iberian peninsula sierra nevada most iberian records show vegetation changes during the yd characterized by a forest decline and an expansion of shrubs mainly juniperus and steppe herbs although the vegetation response was not homogeneous because of variable resilience among ecosystems available records also document a variable lake response in terms of hydrology and productivity with a decrease in sedimentation rates and organic productivity in most high altitude lakes and increases in salinity and relatively lower lake levels at lower altitudes the impact of the younger dryas on the coastal environment was almost negligible but it was responsible for a brief cessation in sea level rise high resolution analyses of new speleothem records have documented a double structure for the yd with an earlier drier phase followed by a relatively more humid period the review of geomorphological evidence demonstrates a strong latitudinal control of glacial activity during the yd with more intense development in the northern than in the southern regions the increase in humidity during the second phase of the yd in southern latitudes could have been a decisive factor for glacier advance in the northern iberian mountains

tracing the laacher see tephra in the varved sediment record of the trzechowskie palaeolake in central northern poland abstract tephrochronological studies of partly varved sediments of trzechowskie palaeolake in central northern poland led to the finding of the late allerod laacher see tephra lst from the eifel volcanic field for the first time in a very distal site ca 840 km ene from its volcanic source the detection of glass shards of the lst involved a comprehensive combination of techniques i e biostratigraphical constrains high resolution xrf core scanning and areal xrf mapping of impregnated sediment slabs as well as detailed visual inspection of sediments the major element chemistry of volcanic glass confirmed the laacher see tephra composition in trzechowskie palaeolake sediments suggesting a deposition from the middle laacher see tephra mlst c or upper laacher see tephra ulst dispersal fans the finding of the lst in this palaeolake enables direct synchronisation with other high resolution archives in north central europe i e lake meerfelder maar rehwiese palaeolake to investigate regional variations of environmental responses at the onset of the younger dryas along a west east transect through north central europe