We present the first geochemically confirmed finding of the Laacher See Tephra (LST) on the Swedish mainland, now the northernmost extension of the LST. Sediments were sampled at the Körslättamossen fen, southernmost Sweden, and a high‐concentration cryptotephra occurrence (>65 000 shards cm−3) of the LST was found in a sequence of calcareous gyttja. Tephra identification was confirmed by geochemical analysis using field‐emission electron probe microanalysis and through comparison of the results with published LST data from proximal sites and distal sites north‐east of Laacher See. The LST has previously been divided into eruption phases suggested to have spread in several dispersal fans, but it was not possible to confidently determine the phase of the tephra here closer than to the MLST or ULST. The finding of the LST presented here further strengthens the potential of tephrochronological studies in the south Scandinavian region.
We present a revised chronology of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet’s glacial maximum during the Younger Dryas (Tautra event) in Mid‐Norway. Sediment records from palaeolakes near Leksvik show the occurrence of thick, laminated silt units with numerous dropstones between organic‐rich units and indicate that a proglacial lake was dammed between the Tautra ice margin and a local spillway. Ash beds and several radiocarbon‐dated plant macrofossil samples from corresponding stratigraphical sequences in different basins provide robust chronological constraints for the timing and duration of the proglacial lake and, consequently, the Tautra event. The existing chronological constraints on the Tautra event suggest that the glacial episode occurred at 12.9–12.6 ka. Our new chronology indicates that the Younger Dryas ice‐sheet re‐advance culminated close to 12.1 cal. ka BP, maintained this position for a maximum of 700 years and started retreating inland at c. 11.4 cal. ka BP. Our revised age for retreat from the Younger Dryas glacial maximum thus differs from the existing deglaciation chronology by approximately a thousand years, and hints at a similar late Younger Dryas glacial maximum throughout most of southern Norway.
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