Randomized trial explores volcanic eruptions' impact on global cooling during the Younger Dryas, suggesting alternative mechanisms.
Os ratios align across multiple depositional environments and correlate with a cluster of major bipolar volcanic eruptions (~12.98 to 12.87 thousand years) documented in Greenland and Antarctic ice cores whose cumulative radiative forcing exceeds the most volcanically active intervals of the Common Era. The magnitude and hemispheric asymmetry of this volcanic activity imply forcing of sufficient magnitude capable of disrupting the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and triggering rapid Northern Hemisphere cooling. These findings provide multiproxy, regionally consistent evidence for a volcanically driven perturbation at the onset of the YD, offering a robust alternative to impact-based explanations.
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Yobo et al. (2026) studied this question.
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