The Younger Dryas event occurred from 12,900 to 11,600 years ago and produced estimated cooling of 4–8 °C (7.2–14.4 °F) in northern Europe and eastern North America.
Notes on verification
Multiple independent, credible sources (Britannica, Wikipedia, EBSCO) corroborate both the timeframe and cooling magnitude, consistent with mainstream paleoclimate consensus, though exact temperature figures vary slightly by proxy source. [cascade flags: wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=unverified indep_score=0.375 clusters=1 claim_tier=notable] [kind-backfill 2026-09-16: kind=empirical eligibility=high] [harvest 2026-09-28: +2 source(s) on new hosts; tier unverified->gold indep=0.983 clusters=3]
Sources
- Climate change - Abrupt Changes, Earth History, Impacts (seed:history_and_archaeology)
- https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/earth-and-atmospheric-sciences/younger-dryas (corroboration)
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1040618211001480 (corroboration)
- https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2007869117 (verification:paleoclimate)