Time period with a return to glacial conditions c. 12,900–11,700 years ago
Evolution of temperatures in the postglacial period, after the Last Glacial Maximum, showing very low temperatures for the most part of the Younger Dryas, rapidly rising afterwards to reach the level of the warm Holocene, based on Greenland ice cores.[1]
The Younger Dryas, which occurred circa 12,900 to 11,700 years Before Present (BP),[2] was a stadial (cooling) event which marked a return to glacial conditions, temporarily reversing the climatic warming of the preceding Late Glacial Interstadial (also known as the Bølling–Allerød interstadial, which spanned from 14,670 to 12,900 BP.).[3] The Younger Dryas was the most severe and longest lasting of several interruptions to the warming of the Earth's climate. The end of the Younger Dryas marks the beginning of the current Holocene epoch.
The change was relatively sudden, took place over decades, and resulted in a decline of temperatures in Greenland by 4–10 °C (7.2–18 °F),[4] and advances of glaciers and drier conditions over much of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. A number of hypotheses have been put forward about the cause, and the hypothesis historically most supported by scientists is that the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, which transports warm water from the Equator towards the North Pole, was interrupted by an influx of fresh, cold water from North America into the Atlantic.[5] However, several issues do exist with this hypothesis, one of which is the lack of a clear geomorphological route for the meltwater. In fact, the originator of the meltwater hypothesis, Wallace Broecker, stated in 2010 that "The long-held scenario that the Younger Dryas was a one-time outlier triggered by a flood of water stored in proglacial Lake Agassiz has fallen from favor due to lack of a clear geomorphic signature at the correct time and place on the landscape".[6] A volcanic trigger has been proposed more recently,[7] and the presence of anomalously high levels of volcanism immediately preceding the onset of the Younger Dryas has been confirmed in both ice cores[8] and cave deposits.[9]
The Younger Dryas did not affect the climate equally worldwide, but the average worldwide temperature changed drastically. For example, in the Southern Hemisphere and some areas of the Northern Hemisphere, such as southeastern North America, a slight warming occurred.[10]
The Younger Dryas is named after an indicator genus, the alpine-tundra wildflower Dryas octopetala, as its leaves are occasionally abundant in late glacial, often minerogenic-rich sediments, such as the lake sediments of Scandinavia.
^Zalloua & Matisoo-Smith 2017.
^Rasmussen et al. 2006.
^Clement & Peterson 2008.
^Buizert, C.; Gkinis, V.; Severinghaus, J.P.; He, F.; Lecavalier, B.S.; Kindler, P.; et al. (5 September 2014). "Greenland temperature response to climate forcing during the last deglaciation". Science. 345 (6201): 1177–1180. Bibcode:2014Sci...345.1177B. doi:10.1126/science.1254961. ISSN 0036-8075. PMID 25190795. S2CID 206558186. Retrieved 18 September 2023.
^Meissner, K.J. (2007). "Younger Dryas: A data to model comparison to constrain the strength of the overturning circulation". Geophysical Research Letters. 34 (21): L21705. Bibcode:2007GeoRL..3421705M. doi:10.1029/2007GL031304.
^Broecker, Wallace S.; Denton, George H.; Edwards, R. Lawrence; Cheng, Hai; Alley, Richard B.; Putnam, Aaron E. (1 May 2010). "Putting the Younger Dryas cold event into context". Quaternary Science Reviews. 29 (9): 1078–1081. Bibcode:2010QSRv...29.1078B. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.02.019. ISSN 0277-3791.
^Baldini, James U. L.; Brown, Richard J.; Mawdsley, Natasha (4 July 2018). "Evaluating the link between the sulfur-rich Laacher See volcanic eruption and the Younger Dryas climate anomaly". Climate of the Past. 14 (7): 969–990. Bibcode:2018CliPa..14..969B. doi:10.5194/cp-14-969-2018. ISSN 1814-9324.
^Abbott, P.M.; Niemeier, U.; Timmreck, C.; Riede, F.; McConnell, J.R.; Severi, M.; Fischer, H.; Svensson, A.; Toohey, M.; Reinig, F.; Sigl, M. (December 2021). "Volcanic climate forcing preceding the inception of the Younger Dryas: Implications for tracing the Laacher See eruption". Quaternary Science Reviews. 274: 107260. Bibcode:2021QSRv..27407260A. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107260.
^Sun, N.; Brandon, A. D.; Forman, S. L.; Waters, M. R.; Befus, K. S. (31 July 2020). "Volcanic origin for Younger Dryas geochemical anomalies ca. 12,900 cal B.P." Science Advances. 6 (31): eaax8587. Bibcode:2020SciA....6.8587S. doi:10.1126/sciadv.aax8587. ISSN 2375-2548. PMC 7399481. PMID 32789166.
^Carlson, A.E. (2013). "The Younger Dryas Climate Event" (PDF). Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Vol. 3. Elsevier. pp. 126–134. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 March 2020.
stadial, often known as the Oldest Dryas. The Oldest Dryas occurred about 1,770 calibrated years before the YoungerDryas and lasted about 400 calibrated...
The YoungerDryas impact hypothesis (YDIH) proposes that the onset of the YoungerDryas (YD) cool period (stadial) at the end of the Last Glacial Period...
Dryas octopetala, the mountain avens, eightpetal mountain-avens, white dryas or white dryad, is an Arctic–alpine flowering plant in the family Rosaceae...
Peninsula and the White Sea were free from ice during the YoungerDryas. Before the YoungerDryas, deglaciation had not been uniform and small ice sheet...
Age, occurred from the end of the Last Interglacial to the end of the YoungerDryas, encompassing the period c. 115,000 – c. 11,700 years ago. The LGP is...
the YoungerDryas cold spell. The end of the YoungerDryas has been dated to about 9640 BCE (11,654 calendar years BP). The end of the YoungerDryas is...
Oldest, Older, and YoungerDryas are three stadials that occurred during the warming since the Last Glacial Maximum. The Older Dryas occurred between the...
hunter culture (or technocomplex) in north-central Europe during the YoungerDryas, the last spell of cold at the end of the Weichsel glaciation resulting...
Hancock seeks an explanation for his catastrophe in the controversial YoungerDryas impact hypothesis, suggesting that around 10,800 BC the fragments of...
attributed to Clovis culture hunting, severe climatic phases like the YoungerDryas, or some combination of the two. The American mastodon has a last recorded...
Marine chemical fluxes during the Holocene were lower than during the YoungerDryas, but were still considerable enough to imply notable changes in the...
incorporates ideas from the Comet Research Group, including the controversial YoungerDryas impact hypothesis, which has been comprehensively refuted, and which...
That interrupted the thermohaline circulation, creating the brief YoungerDryas cold epoch and a temporary re-advance of the ice sheet, which did not...
Look up Dryas or dryas in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Dryas may refer to: Dryas (plant), a genus of plants Dryas, a monotypic genus of butterflies...
Oldest Dryas (stadial), the Bølling oscillation (interstadial), the Older Dryas (stadial), the Allerød oscillation (interstadial) and finally the Younger Dryas...
vegetation of this period is referred to as Dryas flora, after its flagship species, the mountain avens (Dryas octopetala). Unlike, for example, the North...
accelerating about 15,000 years ago Oldest Dryas – Abrupt climatic cooling event during the last glacial retreat Older Dryas – Geological period of the Earth Bølling–Allerød...
BP. As with the Younger and Older Dryas events, the stratigraphic layer is marked by abundance of the pollen and other remains of Dryas octopetala, an...
Glacial Period that was destroyed in a natural cataclysm during the YoungerDryas. Its few survivors then travelled the world introducing agriculture...
the Older Dryas and the YoungerDryas (c. 12,900–11,650 BP). In northern Scotland, the glaciers were thicker and deeper during the Older Dryas than the...
around 12,750-12,600 years Before Present, following the onset of the YoungerDryas. On 29 August 1927, the first in place evidence of Pleistocene humans...
sapiens to around 10,500 to 7,000 BCE. The receding of the ice after the YoungerDryas cold phase of the Quaternary around 9700 BCE, heralds the beginning...
America's Great Basin during the YoungerDryas, 12,900–11,600 calendar years ago". Quaternary International. HUMANS AND YOUNGERDRYAS: DEAD END, SHORT DETOUR,...
400 years Before Present, which were coincident with the onset of the YoungerDryas cooling period, as well as the emergence of the hunter-gatherer Clovis...
Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse, YoungerDryas, Dansgaard–Oeschger events, Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene–Eocene...
familiaris) from a wolf ancestor (Canis lupus) at least 15,000 years ago. The YoungerDryas that occurred 12,900 years ago was a period of intense cold and aridity...
before the YoungerDryas based on its last appearance in California as opposed to other regions where megafauna declined by the YoungerDryas. Biology portal...
the state of Guanajuato, Mexico, by proponents of the controversial YoungerDryas impact hypothesis, which is now refuted by earth scientists and planetary...
Global Information