Abstract
The Younger Dryas (YD) cold event was discovered in Denmark by Hartz and Mithers in 1904 and the term coined by Hartz in 1912. It was identified as a lacustrine clay bed containing plant macrofossils of an Arctic flora, including Dryas octopetala, and lying between Allerød and Holocene gyttjas containing a warmer flora with birch trees. The YD is unique in the sense that it is the largest and most abrupt climate change on Earth since the Last Glacial Maximum and thus within the reach of radiocarbon dating. Yet, I consider it is part of a regular Dansgaard‐Oeschger event. The term has been used for a climate event and for lithostratigraphical, biostratigraphical and several other stratigraphical units. I prefer using it as a geochronological and chronostratigraphical unit, i.e. that the YD represents a specific period of geological time and the rocks and sediments formed during this period. In the type area of southern Scandinavia, the YD chron represents the age and duration of the cold event.
Highlights
The Younger Dryas (YD) cold event was discovered in Denmark by Hartz and Mithers in 1904 and the term coined by Hartz in 1912
Japetus Steenstrup invited Nathorst to Denmark and together they soon found a similar flora in clay pits close to Copenhagen, and later Steenstrup discovered it in a number of clay pits in Denmark whereas Nathorst added 30 sites in Scania (Nathorst 1893)
In lacustrine sediments in Scandinavia, and in most of NW Europe, the units defined by Hartz are identified by litho- and pollen stratigraphy, and it is fascinating that the lithological boundaries currently used for the YD in lacustrine sediments in Scandinavia are exactly the same as those originally described by Harz (Fig. 1)
Summary
J. 2021 (January): The discoveryof the Younger Dryas, and comments on the current meaning and usage of the term. The Younger Dryas (YD) cold event was discovered in Denmark by Hartz and Mithers in 1904 and the term coined by Hartz in 1912. It was identified as a lacustrine clay bed containing plant macrofossils of an Arctic flora, including Dryas octopetala, and lying between Allerød and Holocene gyttjas containing awarmer florawith birch trees. In a longer time perspective the YD is, in my opinion, not unique but part of a regular Dansgaard-Oeschger event including the period Bølling-YD (Mangerud et al 2010). In this paper, I will not discuss the climate processes that formed the YD but describe how and when the YD was discovered, as a general background for scientists using the term, and give some short comments on current usage and stratigraphical meaning of the term
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