About 115,000 yr ago the last interglacial reached its terminus and nucleation of new ice-sheet growth was initiated. Evidence from the northernmost Nordic Seas indicate that the inception of the last glacial was related to an intensification of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) in its northern limb. The enhanced AMOC, combined with minimum Northern hemisphere insolation, introduced a strong sea–land thermal gradient that, together with a strong wintertime latitudinal insolation gradient, increased the storminess and moisture transport to the high Northern European latitudes at a time when the Northern hemisphere summer insolation approached its minimum.

Studies of marine records from the northwestern European shelf and the northern North Atlantic suggest that last interglacial environments were less stable in this area than in the mid-latitude Atlantic. The influx of Atlantic water masses to the northern North Atlantic was generally higher, and the meridional temperature gradient was steeper, during the last interglaciation than during the Holocene. Strong north–south sea-surface-temperature gradients during the early Weichselian indicate a generally low influx of Atlantic water to the northern North Atlantic, even during interstades.

Since 1993 Cerithiella danielsseni (Friele, 1877) has been regarded as a variety of C. metula (Lovén, 1846). An argument is made for reinstating C. danielsseni as a valid taxon inhabiting below-zero waters on the slope around the Nordic Seas. This conclusion is based on lack of overlap in shell morphology between specimens found below and above the ecotone where the thermocline meets the slope. Just above the ecotone and also in the Barents Sea north of ~72°N, the shelf species C. metula occurs, but with morphology slightly modified from that of the ‘typical’ form.