Interstadial rise and Younger Dryas demise of Scotland's last ice fields

Bromley, G., Putnam, A., Borns Jr, H., Lowell, T., Sandford, T., & Barrell, D. (2018). Interstadial Rise and Younger Dryas Demise of Scotland's Last Ice Fields. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 33(4), 412-429. doi:10.1002/2018PA003341

Abstract

Establishing the atmospheric expression of abrupt climate change during the last glacial termination is key to understanding driving mechanisms. In this paper, we present a new 14C chronology of glacier behavior during late-glacial time from the Scottish Highlands, located close to the overturning region of the North Atlantic Ocean. Our results indicate that the last pulse of glaciation culminated between ~12.8 and ~12.6 ka, during the earliest part of the Younger Dryas stadial and as much as a millennium earlier than several recent estimates. Comparison of our results with existing minimum-limiting 14C data also suggests that the subsequent deglaciation of Scotland was rapid and occurred during full stadial conditions in the North Atlantic. We attribute this pattern of ice recession to enhanced summertime melting, despite severely cool winters, and propose that relatively warm summers are a fundamental characteristic of North Atlantic stadials.

Publisher

American Geophysical Union

Rights

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Ireland

cbn

Collections

Geography (Scholarly Articles)