Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-k8lnt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T02:02:34.583Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Charcoal in soils of the Allerød-Younger Dryas transition were the result of natural fires and not necessarily the effect of an extra-terrestrial impact

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 2016

T. van der Hammen  and
B. van Geel
T. van der Hammen
Affiliation:
Apartado 090, CHIA (Cundinamarca), Colombia

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

During the warm Bølling-Allerød interstadial, tree species migrated from their refugia in southern Europe northwards into the area within the present temperate climatic zone. It is evident from high levels of charcoal in fossil records in this region that, especially during the later part of the Bølling-Allerød interstadial, many fires occurred. The start of the Younger Dryas was characterised by rapid and intense cooling and rising water tables, with catastrophic effects on the vegetation. Thermophilous pine trees could not survive the cold Younger Dryas climate. Dead wood provided an abundant source of fuel for intense, large-scale fires seen in many records as a concentration of charcoal particles in so-called ’Usselo-soils’ dated to ca 10,950 14C BP. A similar trend in increased charcoal indicating increased burning is seen at many sites across North America at this time and it has been suggested by Firestone et al. (2007) that this was caused by an explosion of extra-terrestrial material over northern North America, causing the Younger Dryas climate cooling and Megafaunal extinction. We argue that there is no need to invoke an extraterrestrial cause to explain the charcoal in the fossilized soils. The volume of forest trees that died as a result of the cold Younger Dryas climate would easily have supplied sufficient fuel for intense, large-scale fires and can be used to account for the concentration of charcoal particles. As soils were no longer covered by dense vegetation, much erosion occurred during the Younger Dryas and therefore, at many places, Usselo soils, rich in charcoal, were preserved under aeolian sand dunes.

Information

Type
Geo (Im) pulse
Information
Netherlands Journal of Geosciences , Volume 87 , Issue 4 , December 2008 , pp. 359 - 361
Copyright
Copyright © Stichting Netherlands Journal of Geosciences 2008

References

Björck, S., Walker, M.J.C., Cwynar, L., Johnsen, S.J., Knudsen, K-L., Lowe, J.J., Wohlfarth, B. & INTIMATE Members, 1998. An event stratigraphy for the Last Termination in the North Atlantic region based on the Greenland Ice Core record: a proposal by the INTIMATE group. Journal of Quaternary Science 13: 283–292.3.0.CO;2-A>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bohncke, S.J.P., 1993. Lateglacial environmental changes in the Netherlands: spatial and temporal patterns. Quaternary Science reviews 12: 707–712.Google Scholar
Brauer, A., Hang, G.H., Dulski, P., Sigman, D.M. & Negendank, J.F.W., 2008. An abrupt wind shift in western Europe at the onset of the Younger Dryas cold period. Nature Geoscience 1: 520–523.Google Scholar
Firestone, R.B., West, A., Kennett, J.P., Becker, L., Bunch, T.E., Revay, Z.S., Schultz, P.S., Belgya, T., Kennett, D.J., Erlandson, J.M., Dickenson, O.J., Goodyear, A.C., Harris, R.S., Howard, G.A., Kloosterman, J.B., Lechler, P., Mayewski, P.A., Montgomery, J., Poreda, R., Darrah, T., Que Hee, S.S., Smith, A.R., Stich, A., Topping, W., Wittke, J.H. & Wolbach, W.S., 2007. Evidence for an extraterrestrial impact 12,900 years ago that contributed to the megafaunal extinctions and the Younger Dryas cooling. PNAS 104: 16016–16021.Google Scholar
Haynes, C.V., 2008. Younger Dryas ’black mats’ and the Rancholabrean termination in North America. PNAS 105: 6520–6525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hoek, W.Z., 1997. Late-glacial and early Holocene climatic events and chronology of vegetation development in the Netherlands. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 6: 197–213.Google Scholar
Hoek, W.Z., 2008. The Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition, Episodes 31: 226–229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iversen, J., 1947. Plantevӕkst, Dyreliv og Klima i det senglaciale Danmark. Geologiska Föreningens i Stockholm Fòrhandlingar 69: 67–78.Google Scholar
Kasse, C., 1999. Late Pleniglacial and Lateglacial aeolian phases in the Netherlands. In: Schirmer, W, editor, Dunes and fossil soils. GeoArchaeoRhein 3: 61–82.Google Scholar
Kasse, C., 2002. Sandy aeolian deposits and environments and their relation to climate during the Last Glacial Maximum and Lateglacial in northwest and central Europe. Progress in Physical Geography 26: 507–532.Google Scholar
Kloosterman, J.B., 2007. Correlation of the Late Pleistocene Usselo Horizon (Europe) and the Clovis Layer (North America). Eos Trans. AGU 88 (23), Jt. Assem. Suppl., Abstract PP43A-02.Google Scholar
Lowe, J.J., Rasmussen, S.O., Björck, S., Hoek, W.Z., Steffensen, J.P., Walker, M.J.C., Yu, Z. and the INTIMATE group, 2008. Synchronisation of palaeoenvironmental events in the North Atlantic region during the Last Termination: a revised protocol recommended by the INTIMATE group. Quaternary Science Reviews 27: 6–17.Google Scholar
Manikowska, B., 1994. État des études des processus éoliens dans la région de Loóz (Pologne Centrale). Biuletyn Peryglacjalny 33, 107–131.Google Scholar
Marlon, J.R., Bartlein, P.J., Walsh, M.K., Harrison, S.P., Brown, K.J., Edwards, M.E., Higuera, P.E., Power, M.J., Anderson, R.S., Briles, C., Brunelle, A., Carcaillet, C., Daniels, M., Hu, F.S., Lavoie, M., Long, C., Minckley, T., Richard, P.J.H., Shafer, D.S., Tinner, W., Jr.Umbanhowar, C.E., & Whitlock, C. Wildfire responses to abrupt climate change in North America. PNAS (in press).Google Scholar
Schlaak, N., 1997. Äolische Dynamik im brandenburgischen Tiefland seit dem Weichselspätglazial. Arbeitsberichte Geographisches Institut, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Heft 24, 58 pp.Google Scholar
Steffensen, J.P., Andersen, K.K., Bigler, M., Clausen, H.B., Dahl-Jensen, D., Fischer, H., Goto-Azuma, K., Hansson, M., Johnsen, S.J., Jouzel, J., Masson-Delmotte, V., Popp, T., Rasmussen, S.O., Rothlisberger, R., Ruth, U., Stauffer, B., Siggaard-Andersen, M.-L., Sveinbjörnsdottir, A.E., Svensson, A. & White, J.W.C., 2008. High-resolution Greenland ice core data show abrupt climate change happens in few years. Science 321: 680–684.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van der Hammen, T., 1951. Late-glacial flora and periglacial phenomena in the Netherlands. Leidse Geologische Mededelingen 17: 71–183.Google Scholar
Van Geel, B., Coope, G.R & van der Hammen, T., 1989. Palaeoecology and stratigraphy of the Lateglacial type section at Usselo (the Netherlands). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 60: 25–129.Google Scholar
Walker, M.J.C., Björck, S. & Lowe, J.J., 2001. Integration of ice core, marine and terrestrial records (INTIMATE) from around the North Atlantic region: an introduction. Quaternary Science Reviews 20: 1169–1174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yu, Z.C. & Eicher, U., 1998. Abrupt climate oscillations during the last deglaciation in central North America. Science 282: 2235–2238.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed