Nature 323, 247 - 250 (18 September 1986); doi:10.1038/323247a0

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

Robert J. Mott^*, Douglas R. Grant^*, Ralph Stea^† & Serge Occhietti^‡

^*Geological Survey of Canada, 601 Booth St, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0E8.
^†Nova Scotia Department of Mines and Energy, PO Box 1087, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3J 2X1.
^‡Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, Succ. A, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3P8.

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 Allerød/younger Dryas event. We have extended our preliminary results from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick^13,14, 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.

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