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Letter

Nature Geoscience 1, 520–523 (1 August 2008) | doi:10.1038/ngeo263

An abrupt wind shift in western Europe at the onset of the Younger Dryas cold period

Achim Brauer , Gerald H. Haug , Peter Dulski , Daniel M. Sigman & J|[ouml]|rg F. W. Negendank

The Younger Dryas cooling 12,700 years ago is one of the most abrupt climate changes observed in Northern Hemisphere palaeoclimate records. Annually laminated lake sediments are ideally suited to record the dynamics of such abrupt changes, as the seasonal deposition responds immediately to climate, and the varve counts provide an accurate estimate of the timing of the change.