Rain driven by receding ice sheets as a cause of past climate change

2009/11/09 by Ian Eisenman, Cecilia M. Bitz, Eli Tziperman · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Environmental Science · #Geology and Paleoclimatology Research #Methane Hydrates and Related Phenomena #Geological formations and processes

paper · doi:10.1029/2009pa001778

openalex publication_date 2009/11/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

The Younger Dryas cold period, which interrupted the transition from the last ice age to modern conditions in Greenland, is one of the most dramatic incidents of abrupt climate change reconstructed from paleoclimate proxy records. Changes in the Atlantic Ocean overturning circulation in response to freshwater fluxes from melting ice are frequently invoked to explain this and other past climate changes. Here we propose an alternative mechanism in which the receding glacial ice sheets cause the atmospheric circulation to enter a regime with greater net precipitation in the North Atlantic region. This leads to a significant reduction in ocean overturning circulation, causing an increase in sea ice extent and hence colder temperatures. Positive feedbacks associated with sea ice amplify the cooling. We support the proposed mechanism with the results of a state‐of‐the‐art global climate model. Our results suggest that the atmospheric precipitation response to receding glacial ice sheets could have contributed to the Younger Dryas cooling, as well as to other past climate changes involving the ocean overturning circulation.

Citations

• Weaker Gulf Stream in the Florida Straits during the Last Glacial Maximum
• Was the Younger Dryas Triggered by a Flood?
• Timing of abrupt climate change at the end of the Younger Dryas interval from thermally fractionated gases in polar ice
• Seasonal temperatures in Britain during the past 22,000 years, reconstructed using beetle remains
• Arctic freshwater forcing of the Younger Dryas cold reversal
• Abrupt increase in Greenland snow accumulation at the end of the Younger Dryas event
• Collapse and rapid resumption of Atlantic meridional circulation linked to deglacial climate changes
• Global Younger Dryas?
• Structural Stability of Turbulent Jets
• The Younger Dryas cold interval as viewed from central Greenland
• Sensitivity of a global climate model to an increase of CO2concentration in the atmosphere
• Abrupt climate change: An alternative view
• A “triple sea‐ice state” mechanism for the abrupt warming and synchronous ice sheet collapses during Heinrich events

Cited by

• Younger Dryas [wikipedia]