This discovery changes scientists’ understanding of how sudden climate shifts occurred near the end of the last Ice Age.
The study focuses on an unusual spike in platinum levels found deep within ice cores taken from Greenland’s massive ice sheet.
For years, this platinum anomaly puzzled researchers because platinum is often associated with extraterrestrial debris, leading many to believe a meteorite or comet strike triggered abrupt cooling at the end of the Bølling‑Allerød warm period, a climatic event known as the Younger Dryas.
However, an international team led by Professor James U. L. Baldini and colleagues from university earth sciences departments have now demonstrated that the platinum signal does not match space dust signatures and instead more closely resembles material from volcanic eruptions on Earth.
Importantly, the platinum spike appears to have occurred decades after the onset of cooling, which strongly suggests that the cooling was not caused by an impact event.
Instead, researchers propose that volcanic activity, possibly from large eruptive events, may have sent aerosols and particles into the atmosphere, affecting Earth’s climate and contributing significantly to the temperature drop known as the Younger Dryas.
This volcanic explanation fits both the chemical evidence in the ice cores and the timing of climate changes.
In explaining the new finding, scientists emphasize that while platinum anomalies remain striking signals in ice core records, they should no longer be automatically linked to extraterrestrial impacts.
The mistake of assuming space rocks were responsible has shaped climate debates for decades, and this research offers a more grounded and testable explanation.
Professor Baldini and his team argue that their work helps refine scientists’ tools for reading Earth’s climate history: rather than relying on dramatic cosmic scenarios, researchers can now consider Earth’s own volcanic system as a powerful driver of abrupt climate change during the last Ice Age.
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