Abrupt climatic changes in Europe during the last glacial–interglacial transition: the potential for testing hypotheses on the synchroneity of climatic events using tephrochronology

Abstract

Palaeoclimate changes in the North Atlantic region during the last glacial–interglacial transition (LGIT) were not only abrupt but were also spatially complex: the major climate shifts appear to have been time transgressive, with some areas experiencing cooling at the same time as others were experiencing warming. The construction of the data bases of palaeoclimatic information for this period is therefore far from straightforward, and requires exacting procedures for quantitative climate reconstruction, as well for the dating and correlation of site records. High-precision correlations of events that occurred within the LGIT are, however, difficult to effect using conventional methods of radiocarbon dating, biostratigraphy and lithostratigraphy. One method that offers considerable potential for solving issues of chronology and correlation, as well as for testing ideas about non-synchronous responses to climate variations during the LGIT, is tephrochronology. Recent discoveries of high concentrations of micro-tephra particles in LGIT sequences in northern Europe extend the region over which high-precision correlations will be possible.