Earth's most dramatic climate change happened in just one year 12,700 yrs back

Washington, August 2 : A team of scientists has suggested the most dramatic climate change in Earth's history was brought about 12,700 years ago, in just one year's time, with temperatures plummeting 3 to 4 degrees Celsius.

Thirteen thousands years ago, Europe was much like it is today - cool but temperate, with great forests carpeting the land.

Though ice sheets were still present at Finland and Sweden, but for much of the continent, the last Ice Age was a distant memory.

But, all of a sudden, the climate went haywire.

Warm Gulf Stream currents that brought heat from the equator up toward the pole began to fail. Temperatures plummeted 3 to 4 degrees Celsius, and stayed that way for a millennium.

Now, according to a report in Discovery News, scientists believe they've pinpointed the exact time the northern hemisphere was plunged back into a deep freeze.

Examining sediments preserved at the bottom of a remote lake in western Germany, they found that what's known as the Younger Dryas cold period took just a year to sweep across the continent, starting in the autumn, 12,679 years ago.

Led by Achim Brauer of the German Research Center for Geosciences in Potsdam, Germany, the team believes such a quick, profound change in climate could only have been brought about by a shift in winds across the northern hemisphere.

Today, prevailing winds in the northern hemisphere above the tropics tend to blow from the southwest to the northeast.

As it travels the air passes over the Gulf Stream, a warm ribbon of water pouring northward from the tropics. The balmy air brings heat to Europe, which otherwise would be chilly.

The same was probably true just before the Yonger Dryas set in.

But as the vast Ice Age glaciers retreated, their melt water flowed into the northern reaches of the Atlantic Ocean. The injection of fresh water made the sea easier to freeze, and a new skin of ice began advancing south.

The warm conveyor belt of Gulf Stream waters soon ebbed to a trickle. And as the sea ice advanced, the winds shifted into a west-east pattern. Within a year, the breezes that warmed Europe had vanished.

"The Younger Dryas continues to surprise us in providing a message as to how quickly climate change can occur," said Daniel Sigman of Princeton University, who is a co-author on the study.

According to Richard Alley of Pennsylvania State University, "The hypothesis on this paper is I think a very nice one."

Winds tend to blow parallel to temperature gradients, and the gradient between sea ice and open water can be very sharp, up to 40 degrees C.

The sea ice border probably extended in a rough west to east direction, and the winds would've followed it, bringing cold air to much of Europe.

ANI