Stockholm university

Research project Precise linking of late Quaternary palaeoclimate records in the North Atlantic region

This project aims to get a better understanding of rapid climate changes in the past and to compare climate signals preserved in different high-resolution climate archives in the North Atlantic region.

Fältarbete i Norge - Lomtjönnmyra

We are addressing this research question by analysing high-resolution palaeoclimate records spanning the time interval from the onset of the first warm period of the last deglaciation until the early Holocene (c. 14-8 ka BP). Several climate tipping points occur in this time frame and better understandings of these are critical for the paleoclimate and modelling communities. It has generally been assumed that major climate re-organisations were time-synchronous on continental and hemispheric scales but recent results suggest that both the onset as well as the termination of the Younger Dryas cold reversal may have been time-transgressive. Time-synchronous tephra markers will be used to line up palaeoclimate records and we will contribute with precisely linked palaeoclimate records which allow testing hypotheses regarding synchronous or non-synchronous responses to climate forcing.

Project description

Fieldwork has been performed at a number of study sites in southernmost Sweden and western Norway to sample sediments formed in peatlands and lakes during the Last Glacial–Interglacial Transition (c. 14-8 ka BP). Labwork was then performed to analyse the sediments by methods to estimate organic matter, organic and carbonate carbon, and elemental contents as well as to find datable macrofossils and to detect tephra occurrences. Among the detected tephras between the different study sites, identifications were made of the Fosen Tephra, the Hässeldalen Tephra, the Vedde Ash, and the Laacher See Tephra.  

The results from this project will be of major importance for both science and society. Our tephra-based correlations will provide useful information for the climate modelling community, especially as models now need to capture abrupt changes on short time-scales. A second benefit will be that a well-dated Late Quaternary tephra network will be developed for NW Europe. This will be of major importance for palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and for dating and correlation of peat, lake, marine sediment and ice-cores.

The relatively small eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 made us aware of the vulnerability of modern society. It is widely recognised that other volcanoes on Iceland may cause similar or even larger problems in future, especially since we now may enter a time period of increased volcanic activity on Iceland. An eruption from Katla is long overdue, and when it eventually erupts, it will cause severe problems for air-travel and other activities for months or years. To prepare for future events, we need to know more about past volcanic events that have affected North Europe and with this project we will increase the knowledge about past eruptions that have reached Scandinavia and Greenland.

Project members

Project managers

Stefan Wastegård

Professor i kvartärgeologi med inriktning mot kvartärstratigrafi

Department of Physical Geography
Jökulsárlón, Iceland, July 2012

Members

Simon Larsson

Senior lecturer

Department of Physical Geography
Portrait photograph of Simon Larsson

Stefan Wastegård

Professor i kvartärgeologi med inriktning mot kvartärstratigrafi

Department of Physical Geography
Jökulsárlón, Iceland, July 2012

Publications

Palaeolake sediment records reveal a mid‐ to late Younger Dryas ice‐sheet maximum in Mid‐Norway

Høgaas, F., Larsson, S.A., Klug, M., Olsen, L., Wastegård, S., 2021: Palaeolake sediment records reveal a mid‐ to late Younger Dryas ice‐sheet maximum in Mid‐Norway Boreas. doi:10.1111/bor.12543

The Laacher See Tephra discovered in southernmost Sweden

Larsson, S.A., Wastegård, S., 2018: The Laacher See Tephra discovered in southernmost Sweden Journal of Quaternary Science 33 (5), 477–481. doi:10.1002/jqs.3033

A high-resolution Lateglacial–Early Holocene tephrostratigraphy from southernmost Sweden with commen

Larsson, S.A., Wastegård, S., 2022: A high-resolution Lateglacial–Early Holocene tephrostratigraphy from southernmost Sweden with comments on the Borrobol–Penifiler tephra complex Quaternary Geochronology 67, 101239. doi: 10.1016/j.quageo.2021.101239