Evidence of Abrupt Climate Change Uncovered Just South of Wooster

Greg Wiles (second from left) joins recent Wooster graduate Brian Lutz, University of Cincinnati professor Tom Lowell, and another Wooster student in taking core samples from the frozen surface of Browns Lake near Shreve, Ohio.

WOOSTER, Ohio - Evidence of an abrupt change in temperature some 8,000 years ago has been corroborated at a site just a few miles from The College of Wooster's campus. Scientists from Wooster and the University of Cincinnati tested samples from Browns Lake bog near Shreve and discovered strong dust flux - white layers within the background of black mud - which indicate wind-blown silt resulting from a catastrophic change in temperature. The samples from the bog were extracted by students in Greg Wiles' Climate Change class, who, with Tom Lowell of the University of Cincinnati, cored the lake.

This change was originally recognized in Greenland ice cores, which revealed a decrease of five degrees during a period of three decades - an extremely rapid rate by geologic standards. "This is the most profound cooling we have witnessed in the last 10,000 years," said Wiles, associate professor of geology at Wooster and an expert in climate change. "To see such a clear record of abrupt climate change in the Midwest is a strong reminder of how an unstable climate can react. We are not certain how these profound changes occur, but when they do, it causes us to be wary of future climate change, such as the warming period we are now experiencing."

Lowell, with help from another Wooster student, Josh Michaels, helped to "fingerprint" the white layers by comparing them with known loess (windblown glacial silts). Their conclusion was that the sediment was consistent with a strong cooling and profound drying of the landscape.

In this "Day After Tomorrow" scenario, vegetation would have perished according to Wiles, creating a massive dust-bowl-like landscape for 100 years or more. The recent discovery is chronicled in a paper due out in the January issue of Quaternary Research that lists recent College of Wooster graduate Brian Lutz as the lead author.

"No one knows for sure how the temperature can change so abruptly," said Wiles. "Scientists are working to find this missing piece to the puzzle."

And some of the clues might be right here in Wayne County.