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Ice-sheet variability around the North Atlantic Ocean during the last deglaciation

Nature volume 392, pages 373–377 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Millennial-scale variability in the flux of ice-rafted detritus to North Atlantic sediments during the last glacial period has been interpreted to reflect a climate-forced increase in the discharge of icebergs from ice-sheet margins surrounding the northern North Atlantic Ocean1. But the relationship between ice-sheet variability and climate change is not clear, as both the sources of ice-rafted detritus and the ice-marginal processes are varied and complex2,3,4. Terrestrial records are helpful in unravelling this complexity because they can demonstrate the scale of ice-sheet oscillations, and whether the ice sheet (or sector) was advancing or retreating with respect to climate change. Here we constrain the age and anatomy of a prominent readvance of the British Ice Sheet in the northern Irish Sea region at ∼14 14C kyr BP(∼16.4 calendar kyr BP). The analysis indicates that the British Ice Sheet participated in an iceberg discharge episode known as Heinrich event 1. Comparison with other terrestrial and marine ice-sheet records suggests that the dynamic collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet beginning at 14.6–15.0 14C kyr BP1,4 (∼17.2–17.6 calendar kyr BP)5 initiated varied responses from other ice-sheet margins around the northern North Atlantic region. These observations support the argument that the release of icebergs and meltwater during Heinrich event 1 disrupted the North Atlantic thermohaline circulation6,7,8, leading to a delay or reversal of deglaciation of the Northern Hemisphere and at least as far south as 40° S for two to three thousand years5,9,10, suggesting a climate forcing and response similar to that of the ensuing Younger Dryas ‘cold snap’11,12.

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Figure 1: a, Deglacial records in the north Irish Sea basin.
Figure 2: Records spanning the interval from 14–21 calendar kyr (12–17.7 14C kyr BP, using the calibration of ref. 5) showing varied responses of the climate system at Heinrich event 1 (H1).

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. Johnsen for the GRIP data, T. Sowers for the Byrd data, D. Bowen and A.áMix for discussion, and R. Alley and J. T. Andrews for reviewing the manuscript. This work was supported by the NSF (P.U.C.), and in part by the EC Environment and Climate Programme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Studies, University of Ulster, Coleraine, County Londonderry, BT52 1SA, Northern Ireland, UK

    A. Marshall McCabe

  2. Department of Geosciences, Oregon State University, Corvallis, 97331, Oregon, USA

    Peter U. Clark

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Correspondence to A. Marshall McCabe.

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McCabe, A., Clark, P. Ice-sheet variability around the North Atlantic Ocean during the last deglaciation. Nature 392, 373–377 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/32866

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