CL
Climate: Past, Present & Future

Paleoclimate

When a major climate event goes almost unnoticed: the elusive 8.2 ka signal in southern France stalagmites

and April 2, 2026
When a major climate event goes almost unnoticed: the elusive 8.2 ka signal in southern France stalagmites
Graphical abstract of our study highlighting the elusive expression of the 8.2 ka event in southern France, based on speleothem multiproxy evidence from the Ardèche region.

  Around 8,200 years ago, the climate of the Northern Hemisphere experienced an abrupt disturbance. In Greenland ice cores, the signal is unmistakable: a rapid drop in temperatures, followed by a gradual return to previous conditions. This episode, which lasted about 150 years, is known as the 8.2 ka event (“ka” meaning thousand years before 1950). It is often described as the most prominent ...[Read More]

20 years of Climate of the Past: A journey through two decades of paleoclimate research

and November 13, 2025
20 years of Climate of the Past: A journey through two decades of paleoclimate research

Twenty years ago, a small group of scientists set out to create a journal dedicated entirely to understanding Earth’s climate history. That journal, Climate of the Past (CP), was launched in 2005 as an international open-access journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU), and over the past two decades it has become a cornerstone for the paleoclimate community. From geological eras to the last ...[Read More]

The rabbit and the tortoise – what does a glacial cycle need to be a glacial cycle?

June 2, 2025
The rabbit and the tortoise – what does a glacial cycle need to be a glacial cycle?
Figure 1. Erratic boulder from the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone in Yellowstone National Park. Credit to Michael Poland (from usgs.gov).

The climate is not what it used to be and it will never be the same again. This is what the models say. Where does this knowledge come from? In short, we learn it from the clues that nature left on the planet since its formation. And it is precisely with these observations where our story begins. Since the beginnings of mountaineering, many visitors of the Alps and other mountain ranges have wonde ...[Read More]

Past climate of the Central North Atlantic, insights from ancient soils in the Azores volcanic islands

September 19, 2023
Past climate of the Central North Atlantic, insights from ancient soils in the Azores volcanic islands
Highlight: Field photo of a paleosol (red level) developed in a pumice-rich pyroclastic deposit, partially eroded, and covered by a lava flow (Northern shore of São Miguel Island, in the Azores Archipelago)

The Atlantic Ocean, a climate driver for Europe and North America The climate of both Europe and North America is influenced by the conditions of the Atlantic Ocean. This teleconnection between the ocean and the atmosphere has been the focus of great interest, especially in the context of ongoing global warming. For instance, Cresswell-Clay et al. (2022) noted an expansion of the North Atlantic Os ...[Read More]