Rapid Climate Change - Central Greenland Climate

Modified from Alley R et al. (1993) Nature 362: 527-529.

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Caption: The termination of the Younger Dryas cold event some 11.6k years ago was an abrupt climatic shift. In this record, from Central Greenland, it is manifested as a warming of around 15 °C, accompanied by a doubling in annual precipitation volume, occurring in less than a decade. Shown here are accumulation and oxygen isotope (shown as temperature) records from the GISP2 ice core for the period between 18 and 10 kyr B.P.

Alley, R. et al (1993) "Abrupt increase in Greenland snow accumulation at the end of the Younger Dryas event" Nature, 362, 527-229.