At the Younger Dryas-Preboreal transition, a high-resolution core from
the northeastern Norwegian Sea reveals a two-step warming of sea surf
ace temperatures dated at respectively 10 200-10 000 and 9700-9500 C-1
4 yr B.P. (11450-11 350 and 11 150-11 000 cal. Sr B.P.). Warming was i
nterrupted by a period having stable temperatures and a reduction in s
ea surface salinity, and we suggest that this pause in warming was tri
ggered by an increase in freshwater supply that mag have hampered the
North Atlantic heat conveyor. The freshwater influx correlates to an a
tmospheric cooling over both the Greenland ice sheet and northwest Eur
ope and to cooling of surface temperatures in the Nordic seas. Freshwa
ter may have been supplied from the waning Fennoscandian ice sheet.