India, June 16 -- Researchers studying seabed sediments off Nova Scotia have found the first direct evidence that the Gulf Stream shifted hundreds of kilometres north during the Younger Dryas, a sudden cold snap 13,000 years ago.

While Europe and Greenland froze, Atlantic Canada warmed by up to 5degC, revealing how Atlantic circulation can rapidly reorganise and foreshadowing future Amoc weakening.

Around 13,000 years ago, as the world was emerging from the grip of the last ice age, much of the North Atlantic region plunged back into near-glacial conditions.

Sea ice expanded across the North Atlantic, reaching as far south as the Shetland Islands. Glaciers began to regrow in the Scottish Highlands, while winter temperatures across Euro...