What happened during the Younger Dryas period?

The Younger Dryas occurred during the transition from the last glacial period into the present interglacial (the Holocene). During this time, the North American, or Laurentide, ice sheet was rapidly melting and adding freshwater to the ocean.

How did the Younger Dryas affect humans?

The warmer and wetter climate in the Southern Hemisphere also helped human migration into South America. At the same time the Younger Dryas in the Northern Hemisphere forced populations either to return to a nomadic lifestyle or seek refuge in a few hospitable areas.

What caused the Loch Lomond Stadial?

A sudden cooling of the atmosphere in the Northern Hemisphere happened around 12,900 years ago, called the Younger Dryas, which caused the ice caps to expand and form the Loch Lomond Stadial ice masses shown in the map below3.

What is the meaning of Younger Dryas?

Younger Dryas, also called Younger Dryas stadial, 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).

Why is the Younger Dryas important?

The Younger Dryas is a period significant to the study of the response of biota to abrupt climate change and to the study of how humans coped with such rapid changes.

Where was the Younger Dryas impact?

The Younger Dryas impact hypothesis (YDIH) or Clovis comet hypothesis posits that fragments of a large (more than 4 kilometers in diameter), disintegrating asteroid or comet struck North America, South America, Europe, and western Asia around 12,800 years ago.

Is there an older Dryas?

The Older Dryas was a stadial (cold) period between the Bølling and Allerød interstadials (warmer phases), about 14,000 years Before Present), towards the end of the Pleistocene. Its date is not well defined, with estimates varying by 400 years, but its duration is agreed to have been around 200 years.