Late-glacial climatic oscillation in Atlantic Canada equivalent to the Allerød/younger Dryas event

Abstract

Attempts1–5 to relate late-glacial events in northeastern North America to the well-documented climato- and chrono-stratigraphy of Europe and the British Isles6 have not been considered convincing because the evidence presented was from isolated sites, and could therefore be interpreted as local fluctuations not related to a general, widespread climatic change7–10. However, recent palyno-logical studies in northeastern North America postulating a late-glacial climatic oscillation11–15 have caused renewed interest in relating such an oscillation to the Allerod/younger Dryas event. We have extended our preliminary results from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick13,14, and here present the evidence for a climatic event in Atlantic Canda. This event involved a warming trend before 11,000 yr BP that was interrupted by a cold period which persisted until the abrupt Holocene warming at ∼10,000 yr BP. We propose a possible mechanism to link this event with that of Europe.