The last deglaciation, 20,000–10,000 years ago, was a period of global warming and rapidly shrinking ice sheets. It was also climatically unstable and retreats were interrupted by re-advances. Retreat rates and timing relative to climatic changes have therefore been difficult to establish. We here study a suite of 12 marine sediment cores from Storfjorden and Storfjorden Trough, Svalbard. The purpose ...

The precise reason for the differences and out-of-phase relationship between the abrupt Dansgaard- Oeschger warmings in the Nordic seas and Greenland ice cores and the gradual warmings in the southcentral Atlantic and Antarctic ice cores is poorly understood. Termed the bipolar seesaw, the differences are apparently linked to perturbations in the ocean circulation pattern. Here we show that ...

The climate of the last glaciation was interrupted by numerous abrupt temperature fluctuations, referred to as Greenland interstadials and stadials. During warm interstadials the meridional overturning circulation was active transferring heat to the north, whereas during cold stadials the Nordic Seas were ice-covered and the overturning circulation was disrupted. Meltwater discharge, from ice sheets ...