The synchronization of data from two natural climate archives -- a speleothem from the Herbstlabyrinth Cave in Hesse (Germany) and ice cores from Greenland -- offers new insights into the chronology of abrupt climate changes in Central Europe. According to the analysis, the devastating eruption of the Laacher See volcano in what is now Rhineland-Palatinate occurred earlier than previously assumed and hence could not have triggered the sudden-onset cold period of approximately 13,000 years ago, geoscientists have found.