The Younger Dryas occurred ~13 ka BP and is an iconic millennial-scale climate anomaly. However, the cause of the event is still ambiguous. Here, we propose that the event was triggered by a large, sulfur-rich eruption of the Laacher See volcano (Germany). The eruption's direct (sulfate aerosol-induced) cooling effects lasted less than 5 years, and we suggest these were amplified and extended by a sea-ice–ocean circulation positive feedback, leading to the event's characteristic features.

Here we reconstruct ice sheet and paleoceanographic configurations in the East Antarctic Wilkes Land margin based on a multi-proxy study conducted in late Oligocene (26–25 Ma) sediments from IODP Site U1356. The new obliquity-forced glacial–interglacial sedimentary model shows that, under the high CO2 values of the late Oligocene, ice sheets had mostly retreated to their terrestrial margins and the ocean was very dynamic with shifting positions of the polar fronts and associated water masses.

We document Southern Ocean surface ocean conditions and changes therein during the Oligocene and Miocene (34–10 Myr ago). We infer profound long-term and short-term changes in ice-proximal oceanographic conditions: sea surface temperature, nutrient conditions and sea ice. Our results point to warm-temperate, oligotrophic, ice-proximal oceanographic conditions. These distinct oceanographic conditions may explain the high amplitude in inferred Oligocene–Miocene Antarctic ice volume changes.

The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) is a transient global warming event associated with a doubling of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations. Here we document a major increase in sediment accumulation rates on a subtropical continental margin during the PETM, likely due to marked changes in hydro-climates and sediment transport. These high sedimentation rates persist through the event and may play a key role in the removal of carbon from the atmosphere by the burial of organic carbon.

We find a rapid increase in simulated dust deposition between 6 and 4 ka BP that is fairly consistent with an abrupt change in dust deposition that was observed in marine sediment records at around 5 ka BP. This rapid change is caused by a rapid increase in simulated dust emissions in the western Sahara due to a fast decline in vegetation cover and a locally strong reduction of lake area. Our study identifies spatial and temporal heterogeneity in the transition of the North African landscape.

We show the seasonal δ¹⁸O data from the NEEM site in northwestern Greenland over the last 150 years. We found that the NEEM summer δ¹⁸O signal correlates well with summer temperature in western coastal Greenland, while the NEEM winter δ¹⁸O signal correlates well with sea ice concentration in Baffin Bay. In contrast with the winter δ¹⁸O data from central/southern Greenland, we find no linkage of NEEM winter δ¹⁸O to winter NAO.

Eastern equatorial Pacific (EEP) thermocline dynamics during the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation (iNHG; ~ 2.5 Ma) currently remain unclear. In light of this uncertainty, we generated geochemical, faunal and sedimentological data for EEP Site 849 (~ 2.75–2.4 Ma). We recorded a thermocline depth change shortly before the final phase of the iNHG, which supports the hypothesis that tropical thermocline shoaling may have contributed to substantial Northern Hemisphere ice growth.

We present 2500 years of winter temperatures, using a sediment record from Gullmar Fjord analyzed for stable oxygen isotopes in benthic foraminifera. Reconstructed temperatures are within the annual temperature variability recorded in the fjord since the 1890s. Results show the warm Roman and Medieval periods and the cold Little Ice Age. The record also shows the recent warming, which does not stand out in the 2500-year perspective and is comparable to the Roman and Medieval climate anomalies.