The melting of a giant North American ice sheet 13,000 years ago caused the Gulf Stream to shut down and triggered rapid cooling on a global scale, suggests new research.

The Big Freeze or Younger Dryas occurred suddenly when the world was just coming out of a glacial period. Temperatures were rising between 15,000 years ago and 13,000 years ago, when suddenly the trend reversed and glacial conditions returned for another 1,400 years.

The cause, say scientists at the University of Sheffield, was a flood triggered by the melting of the Laurentide ice sheet, which covered much of North America. The flood caused fresh water to mix with salt water in the Arctic Ocean, causing more sea-ice to form and move into the North Atlantic, shutting down the Gulf Stream.

With the Gulf Stream halted, warm water failed to circulate across the Atlantic, causing temperatures in Europe to plunge.

A photo from 2004 shows coastal erosion of mud-rich permafrost along the Beaufort Sea coastline at Drew Point in Alaska. (Gary Clow/Handout/Reuters)

The Sheffield scientists are basing their findings on signs of erosion in sediments contained in cliff sections within the Mackenzie Delta. The delta lies at the end of the Mackenzie River where it enters the Beaufort Sea in Canada's Arctic. The researchers determined that this erosion could only have occurred if an enormous flood had occurred from the melting Laurentide ice sheet.

"The combination of luminescence dating, landscape elevation models and sedimentary evidence allows an insight into what must have been one of the most catastrophic geological events in recent Earth's history," said Mark Bateman, one of the paper's authors, from the University of Sheffield's department of geography, in a release.

The research could shed light on what might happen if Arctic ice continues to melt, increasing the levels of fresh water in the North Atlantic. There is speculation the Gulf Stream could shut down once again, leading to massive cooling on a global scale.

The paper is published in the April issue of Nature.