Two-step deglaciation at the oxygen isotope stage 6/5E transition: the Zeifen-Kattegat climate oscillation 

Quaternary Science Reviews, Vol. 15, No. 1, p. 63-75, 1996 

M.-S. Seidenkrantz
GEOTOP, Université du Québec à Montréal, C.P. 8888, succ. A, Montréal, Québec, H3C 3P8, Canada.
L. Bornmalm
Department of Marine Geology, University of Göteborg, Allegt. 41, S-40232, Göteborg, Sweden.
S.J. Johnsen
Geofysisk Afdeling, Niels Bohr Instituttet for Astronomi, Fysik og Geofysik, Københavns Universitet
K.L. Knudsen
Department of Earth Sciences, University of Aarhus, DK-8000, Århus C, Denmark.
A. Kuijpers
Geological Survey of Denmark, Thoravej 8, DK-2400, Copenhagen NV, Denmark.
S.-E. Lauritzen and C. Schweger
Department of Geology, University of Bergen, N-5007, Bergen, Norway.
S.A.G. Leroy and I. Mergeal
Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T62 2H2, Canada.
B. Van Vliet-Lanoë
Paléontologie et Paléographie, UCL, PL.L. Pasteur 3, B-1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.

ABSTRACT.
Comparison of marine, lacustrine, and terrestrial records from twenty-four sites suggests the existence of a 'Younger Dryas'-type climate oscillation just prior to the Oxygen Isotope Stage 6/5e boundary. These records include results from biostratigraphic, pedostratigraphic, and speleothem studies, as well as analyses of stable isotope compositions of marine records and ice cores. The climate oscillation is named after the warm Zeifen Interstadial and the cold Kattegat Stadial. The Zeifen Interstadial may be related to a major meltwater pulse in the Baffin Bay-Labrador Sea-Norwegian Sea region. The climate oscillation is presumably in part a result of a variation in ocean circulation, especially in the strength of the North Atlantic Drift, but changes in the atmospheric circulation also played an important role. The geographically widespread distribution of the oscillation suggests that the two-step deglaciation influenced both the northern and southern hemispheres.