Was the ‘4.2 ka event’, known from many natural archives, unique in the Holocene? A paper just published in Nature Communications entitled ‘The 4.2 ka event is not remarkable in the context of Holocene climate variability’ is an attempt to answer this question. The co-author of the article is Maurycy Żarczyński from our department. The analysis results of more than 1,100 diverse paleoclimatic data sets indicate that short-term changes in (hydro)climatic conditions are unsurprising from the Holocene perspective. In contrast to the 8.2 ka event, the 4.2 ka event fits into the expected dynamics of change. Perhaps the validity of the current Holocene distribution should, therefore, be considered. We invite you to read the article, which is available as open access.
The Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange, project number BPN/BEK/2021/1/00133 funded Maurycy’s involvement.
McKay N.P, Kaufman D.S., Arcusa S.H., Kolus H.R., Edge D.C., Erb M.P, Hancock C.L., Routson C.C., Żarczyński M., Marshall L.P., Roberts G.K., Telles F., 2024, The 4.2 ka event is not remarkable in the context of Holocene climate variability, Nature Communications, 15, 6555, LINK