Greenland ice cores provided the first evidence for rapid, high
amplitude temperature excursions during the last glacial period and
most recent deglaciation. Since their initial recognition,
time-equivalent events have now begun to be recognized around the
globe. Debate on the origin of these abrupt climate shifts is torn
between high-latitude explanations that invoke ice sheet decay and the
effects of meltwater on the ocean's deep circulation, and low latitude
models that invoke tropical ocean-atmosphere interactions. This talk
will review the current status of evidence for abrupt climate changes
around the world, and in particular from Cariaco Basin in the
Caribbean, a unique anoxic basin that has yielded the tropical
equivalent of the Greenland ice records.