On the coast of the Arctic Ocean traces the huge flood that caused the last short, in geological terms, a period of cooling 13,000 years ago. In the period geologists call the Younger Dryas from the surface of the North American continent began to flow down streams of cold water from the melting glacier. As a result of these changes in the last few decades, temperatures in northern Europe has fallen by more than 10 degrees Celsius, large areas of forests were replaced by tundra.
Apparently, the cold snap is due to the fact that water from melted ice first accumulated in a large tank at the border of Canada and the United States today, and then the water began to descend sharply into the ocean. According to one theory, the cold water running down the bed of the present St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean, stopping the warm North Atlantic current, which caused a chain of climate change, which led to a short cold snap that gripped the entire northern hemisphere.
On the other hand, water flows in a southerly direction along the course of the current Mississippi, wrote sunhome. ru However, studies have shown stones taken from the bed of the Mackenzie River, conducted under the direction of Julian Merton of the University of Sussex in Brighton in the UK, the main stream of cold water at this time heading to the Arctic Ocean.
According to the research participant, the geologist James Teller, the data obtained allow to review the sequence of events in a given geological period.
