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The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00812-7, Eastern Mediterranean deep-intermediate convection was highly sensitive to varying inputs of fresh water fluxes associated with increased rainfall during the African Humid period (15-6 kyr Before Present). Here we investigate changes in the water-outflow from the Eastern Mediterranean Sea since the last deglaciation using neodymium isotope ratios. Our results indicate enhanced outflow during the Younger Dryas, two times higher than present-day outflow and about three times higher than during the last Sapropel. We propose that the increased outflow into the western Mediterranean over the Younger Dryas was the result of the combined effect of 1) enhanced climate-driven convection in the Aegean Sea and 2) reduced convection of western deep water during this period. Our results provide solid evidence for an enhanced Younger Dryas westward flow of Eastern Mediterranean sourced waters in consonance with an intensification of Mediterranean water-outflow during a weakened state of the Atlantic circulation. Outflow from east to west Mediterranean during the Younger Dryas was twice that of the present-day and likely resulted from greater convection in the Aegean Sea, suggests neodymium isotope analysis from a Strait of Sicily sediment core., European Research Council (ERC) European Commission 683237, Generalitat de Catalunya 2017 SGR 315, Universitat de Barcelona, Universita degli studi di Palermo, ISMAR-CNR (Napoli) NDT-6-2016