Holocene loess deposition in Iceland: Evidence for millennial-scale atmosphere-ocean coupling in the North Atlantic

Abstract

We present the first detailed record of Holocene climate variation from Icelandic eolian soil deposits. Seven cold and windy episodes occurred in Iceland during the past 10 k.y., including the well-documented Little Ice Age (0.6‐0.1 ka) and the 8.2 ka event. These windy events are associated with enhanced drift-ice discharge into the North Atlantic, and several are associated with evidence for cold and windy climate in central Greenland and diminution of deep-water formation in the North Atlantic. Although the Arctic Oscillation‐North Atlantic Oscillation (AO‐NAO) has been invoked to explain other climate teleconnections in the North Atlantic, our paleorecord of windiness in Iceland is not consistent with a persistent negative phase of the AO‐NAO.