The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation and Abrupt Climate Change

AMOC weakening as the Younger Dryas's proximate mechanism

what the source states

A review of paleoceanographic evidence concludes that multiple independent proxies support reduced Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation during the Younger Dryas, consistent with the cold reversal's North Atlantic pattern, while noting ongoing debate over the initiating freshwater forcing's routing and magnitude.

what we infer

The common ground both camps stand on — and the reason the impact is evidentially optional: the mechanism that actually produced the cold is well supported and has candidate initiators that require nothing from the sky.

limitations

• The initiating trigger remains genuinely open; 'known processes suffice' is a plausibility judgment, not a demonstration.