Tephrochronology of Sweden – tying the bag together

The aim of the project is to get a better understanding of rapid climate changes in the past and to compare climate signals preserved in different high-resolution climate archives.

We will address this research question by analysing high-resolution palaeoclimate records spanning the Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (c. 14-8 ka BP) in SW Sweden.

This time period is characterized by rapid high-amplitude changes of similar magnitudes as those projected for the 21st century.

Several climate tipping points occur in this time frame and better understandings of these are critical for the paleoclimate and modelling communities.

Tephrochronology is a powerful tool in the efforts to understand the behaviour of the climate system in the past considering its combined spatial and temporal advantages.

We will use several time-synchronous tephra markers from eruptions in Iceland and Germany to line up palaeoclimate records to test hypotheses regarding synchronous or non-synchronous responses to climate forcing.

We will investigate lake sediment sequences and uplifted marine clays and use well-dated tephra markers to line up and compare palaeoclimate records and to quantify changes in the marine reservoir ages.

State-of-the-art techniques will be used for tephra identification, most notably CT-scanning that has a unique potential to overcome restrictions with traditional tephra techniques and will optimize the efficiency and accuracy of tephra isochron detection.