Currently available evidence suggests that the hypothesis that the Laacher See eruption triggered the Younger Dryas has considerable merit . Earlier , the hypothesis was dismissed based on the timing of the Laacher See Tephra relative to the clearest signs of climate change associate with the Younger Dryas Event within various Central European varved lake deposits . This set the scene for the development of the Younger Dryas Impact Hypothesis and the meltwater pulse hypothesis . However , more recent research places the very large eruption of the Laacher See volcano at 12,880 years BP , coinciding with the initiation of North Atlantic cooling into the Younger Dryas . Although the eruption was about twice size as the 1991 Mount Pinatubo eruption , it contained considerably more sulfur , potentially rivalling the climatologically very significant 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in terms of amount of sulfur introduced into the atmosphere . Evidence exists that an eruption of this magnitude and sulfur content occurring during deglaciation could trigger a long-term positive feedback involving sea ice and oceanic circulation , resulting in a cascade of climate shifts across the North Atlantic and the globe . Further support for this hypothesis appears as a large volcanogenic sulfur spike within Greenland ice , coincident with both the date of the Laacher See eruption and the beginning of cooling into the Younger Dryas as recorded in Greenland . The mid-latitude westerly winds may have tracked sea ice growth southward across the North Atlantic as the cooling became more pronounced , resulting in time transgressive climate shifts across northern Europe and explaining the lag between the Laacher See Tephra and the clearest ( wind-derived ) evidence for the Younger Dryas in central European lake sediments
1815 eruption of Mount Tambora
1815 eruption of Mount Tambora
Younger Dryas