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Younger Dryas
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Line graph showing changes in ice accumulation and temperature in central Greenland over the past 20,000 years, with the Younger Dryas period highlighted. The blue line represents ice accumulation (meters per year) and the red line represents temperature (degrees Celsius), both showing significant shifts during the Younger Dryas interval.
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Line graph showing changes in ice accumulation and temperature in central Greenland over the past 20,000 years, with the Younger Dryas period highlighted. The blue line represents ice accumulation (meters per year) and the red line represents temperature (degrees Celsius), both showing significant shifts during the Younger Dryas interval.
Younger Dryas event The Younger Dryas event was characterized by a substantial and relatively sudden drop in temperature between 12,900 and 11,600 years ago. In addition to cold regions, the evidence of this temperature change has been discovered in tropical and subtropical regions.

Younger Dryas

climatology
Also known as: Younger Dryas climate interval, Younger Dryas stadial(Show More)
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Younger Dryas, cool period between roughly 12,900 and 11,600 years ago that disrupted the prevailing warming trend occurring in the Northern Hemisphere at the end of the Pleistocene Epoch (which lasted from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). The Younger Dryas was characterized by cooler average temperatures that returned parts of Europe and North America to ice age conditions. The onset of the Younger Dryas took less than 100 years, and the period persisted for...

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