14C and Other Parameters During the Younger Dryas Cold Phase

Abstract

Pollen analysis as well as 18O/16O results on lake marl show that the Younger Dryas climatic period, between about 11,000 and 10,300 BP, was the last vigorous cold phase of the Wurm Glacial. Detailed 14C analyses from a peat bog near Wachseldorn (Switzerland) point to a 14C anomaly in this period. Further indication of a 14C anomaly is given by the observation that, during the Younger Dryas period, the sedimentation rates in several lakes apparently were higher than in adjacent periods; an explanation might be that the 14C time scale was compressed between 11,000 and 10,000 BP, ie, the atmospheric 14C/C ratio varied. If real, this suggested 14C variation would probably be connected to the climatic events during this transition period from Later Glacial to Postglacial.