Timing of abrupt climate change at the end of the Younger Dryas interval from thermally fractionated gases in polar ice

Researchers have developed a new technique for identifying rapid past temperature changes based on the principle of thermal diffusion. In thermal diffusion, gas mixtures are fractionated in a temperature gradient according to their mass. This approach has been used to investigate the timing of sudden climate change at the end of the Younger Dryas interval. It was established that the rise in atmospheric methane concentrations at the end of the Younger Dryas interval started between 0 and 30 years after a sudden temperature rise.