Volcanic climate forcing preceding the inception of the Younger Dryas: Implications for tracing the Laacher See eruption

Climatic warming from the last glacial maximum to current interglacial period was punctuated by a ?1300 years long cold period, commonly referred as Younger Dryas (YD). Several hypotheses have been proposed for mechanism triggering abrupt inception of YD, including freshwater forcing, an extra-terrestrial impact, and aerosols volcanic eruptions. Here, we use synchronised sulphate sulphur records both Greenland Antarctic ice cores reconstruct forcing between 13,200–12,800 BPGICC05 (years before 1950 CE on Ice Core Chronology 2005; GICC05). This continuous reconstruction stratospheric injections highlights ?110-year cluster four major bipolar signals alongside several smaller events just prior YD inception. The cumulative Northern Hemisphere aerosol burden radiative this exceeds most volcanically active periods during Common Era, which experienced notable multidecadal scale cooling attributed effects. Laacher See eruption (LSE), recently redated 13,006 ± 9 cal BP, falls within our time window study has trigger but direct imprint LSE in thus far proved elusive. Comparison simulated deposition mid- high-sulphur LSE-type emission scenarios ice-core estimated interhemispheric asymmetry ratios allows 13,025 12,975 be plausible candidates LSE. magnitude persistence directly preceding need consider their future analyses climate model experiments used explore mechanisms that triggered or similar events.