8.2 kiloyear event during the Neolithic Subpluvial
6200 BCE
to 5801 BCE
The 8.2 kiloyear event is the term that climatologists have adopted for a sudden decrease in global temperatures that occurred approximately 8,200 years before the present, or c. 6200 BCE, and which lasted for the next two to four centuries.
A rapid cooling in 8,200 BP was first identified by Swiss botanist Heinrich Zoller in 1960, who named the event the Misox oscillation (for the Val Mesolcina).
It is also known in Norway as the Finse event.
Bond et al.
argued that the origin of the 8.2 kiloyear event is linked to a 1,500-year climate cycle; it correlates with Bond event 5.
Milder than the Younger Dryas cold spell that preceded it, but more severe than the Little Ice Age that will follow, the 8.2 kiloyear cooling is a significant exception to general trends of the Holocene climatic optimum.
The strongest evidence for the event comes from the North Atlantic region; the disruption in climate shows clearly in Greenland ice cores and in sedimentary and other records of the temporal and tropical North Atlantic.
It is less evident in ice cores from Antarctica and in South American indices.
The effects of the cold snap are global, however, most notably in changes in sea level during the relevant era.The initial meltwater pulse may have raised sea levels by as much as 1.2 meters (4 ft.), but the cooling that follows allows a glacial advance and consequent marine regression.
After two centuries, or by 8,000 ybp (6000 BCE), global sea level has dropped by 14 m (46 ft).
After this point, however, milder climate conditions reassert themselves; by 7,800 ybp (5800 BCE) the global climate returns to pre-event levels.
