Reinterpretation of seismic-reflection data from Cape Cod Bay has produced a revised late Wisconsinan history. Acoustically laminated deposits, originally inferred to be glaciolacustrine, are shown to be glaciomarine by tracing them to glaciomarine mud in Stellwagen Basin, north of Cape Cod Bay. A late Wisconsinan marine deposit of nonglacial origin overlies the glaciomarine deposits in Cape Cod Bay. Both deposits indicate that the crust was isostatically depressed below the late Wisconsinan eustatic sea level and that deglaciation and marine submergence occurred simultaneously. Valleys cut into the marine deposits, both glacial and nonglacial, indicate that a low sea-level stand, the result of isostatic rebound, occurred shortly after the marine incursion. A transgressive uncomformity and marine deposits, both mostly of Holocene age, overlie the late Wisconsinan deposits. The marine incursion, regression, and Holocene transgression represent the northward passage of an isostatically induced peripheral bulge following deglaciation. In turn, the bulge, a response to crustal loading and unloading, indicates thick glacier ice in the terminal zone and lends support to arguments for a maximum Laurentide ice model. Evidence for a late Wisconsinan marine incursion, regression, and the passage of a peripheral bulge should be sought in the other bays and sounds of the New England terminal zone.

About 2000 large sediment samples were collected during the early 1960s throughout the continental shelf off the Atlantic coast of the United States to establish and map sediment types including sediments relict from times of glacially low (and subsequently higher) sea levels. In about 510 of these samples we found fossil shells of mollusks remaining from environmental conditions different from those at present. Publications and collections by others contain about 70 additional samples having relict mollusks. Some of these shells indicate lower sea levels, others colder water, and still others warmer water than is now present. Radiocarbon measurements from earlier studies by us and others established the dates of colder water (late Pleistocene), and we made additional measurements to learn the dates of warmer water (about 1000 to 2000 yr B.P.). The results show reasonably enough that continental shelves are the sites of relict faunas as well as of sediments that indicate changed and complex environmental histories.

The microprobe-determined glass shard major element chemistry of tephras derived from five North Island, New Zealand volcanoes (Mayor Island, Okataina, Taupo, Tongariro, and Mount Egmont) and younger than ca. 20,000 yr B.P. was subjected to discriminant function analysis. Four separate approaches were adopted to test the match of the tephras with their known sources: (1) an analysis of raw microprobe data; (2) an analysis of normalized data; (3) an analysis of the data transformed by calculating the log10 of oxide scores divided (arbitrarily) by the chlorine content; and (4) a repeat of (3) with multivariate outlier scores, as determined by principal components analysis, deleted. All yielded excellent classification functions (efficiencies of 91–100%), with the eruptives associated with each of the five volcanoes being chemically distinct from one another. In each approach, the first two canonical discriminant functions accounted for >90% of the variation between groups. The removal of multivariate outliers from the data set had only minor effects on the performance of the discriminant function procedures. Separate discriminant function analysis of the relatively alike Taupo and Okataina eruptives gave a greater degree of multivariate separation. The numerical classifications generated should enable unidentified tephras erupted since ca. 20,000 yr B.P. from the five volcanoes to be provisionally matched with their sources.

Data from 291 small lakes and mires in eastern North America provide information on the natural variability of rates of sediment accumulation in these environments over the last 18,000 yr. Accumulation rates were calculated by linear interpolation between radiocarbon and biostratigraphic dates from sediment cores taken for pollen analysis. Within the data set, the rates were lognormally distributed with a mean accumulation rate of 91 cm/103 yr, and a range from less than 1 to over 3500 cm/103 yr. The accumulation rate data were divided into five subsets that were temporally or spatially distinct and therefore represent different geomorphic and climatic conditions at the time of deposition. Sediments deposited in basins north of 50°N, south of 40°N, and before 10,000 yr B.P. accumulated at much slower rates than sediments accumulating in midlatitude basins (between 40° and 50°N) between 10,000 and 330 yr B.P. Sediment accumulation over the last 330 yr has, on average, been at rates four to five times faster than any time previously. Inorganic sediments that could be radiocarbon-dated have accumulated at significantly lower rates than organic sediments, reflecting differences in depositional processes. For midlatitude basins during the Holocene, the most likely rate of continuous sediment accumulation within our data set is 65 cm/103 yr. Rates below 10 cm/103 yr are likely to be associated with nonconstant processes of sediment accumulation.

From 41,000 to over 22,000 yr B.P., a massive and areally extensive spring travertine was deposited in the Bet Shean Valley, Israel. This travertine is coeval with the Ami'az Member of the Lisan Formation which represents a high lake stand. The travertine deposition is contemporaneous with a more active hydrologic regime associated with wetter conditions in the arid zones of the southern Levant adjacent to southern Israel. These wetter conditions facilitated formation of a widespread spring tufa and also enhanced the water levels of Lake Lisan.

The late Quaternary vegetation of northern Isla de Chiloé is inferred from palynological analysis of a section in the Río Negro drainage (42°03′S, 73°50′W). At ca. 30,500 yr B.P., maxima of Astelia and Donatia occurred, suggesting wetland development. From that time until ca. 27,000 yr B.P., steppe indicators such as Compositae/Gramineae dominated, suggesting drier conditions. After 27,000 yr B.P., the moorland shrub Dacrydium gradually increased, reaching a maximum by 18,000 yr B.P. At this time Astelia increased again, suggesting development of cushion bog during cold and wet conditions. The glacial-postglacial transition is characterized by a marked change from peaty sediments to clays, a decrease in the cushion bog flora, and the prevalence of Gramineae/ Compositae and swamp taxa. This vegetation prevailed until ca.7000 yr B.P. when forest taxa became dominant. The floristic pattern inferred from the pollen spectra of the Rio Negro section suggests that the late Pleistocene vegetation of Chiloé resembled modern Magellanic Moorland vegetation (52°–56°lat S). Based on climatic conditions presently associated with Magellanic Moorland, its occurrence in Chiloé at low elevations during the late Pleistocene implies a decrease in average temperature of at least 4°C and an increase in annual precipitation of at least 1500 mm.

The chemical composition of ice containing tephra (volcanic ash) layers in 22 sections of the Byrd Station ice core was examined to determine if the volcanic eruptions affected the chemical composition of the atmosphere and precipitation in the vicinity of Byrd Station. The liquid conductivity, acidity, sulfate, nitrate, aluminum, and sodium concentrations of ice samples deposited before, during, and after the deposition of the tephra layers were analyzed. Ice samples that contain tephra layers have, on average, about two times more sulfate and three to four times more aluminum than nonvolcanic ice samples. The acidity of ice samples associated with tephra layers is lowered by hydrolysis of silicate glass and minerals. Average nitrate, sodium, and conductivity are the same in all samples. Because much of the sulfur and chlorine originally associated with these eruptions may have been scavenged by ash particles, the atmospheric residence time of these volatiles would have been minimized. Therefore the eruptions probably had only a small effect on the composition of the Antarctic atmosphere and a negligible effect on local or global climate.

Westward expansion of the Patagonian steppe and retrocession of Andean forests due to increasing aridity over the past one or two millennia has been a persistent theme in the ecological and paleoecological literature for at least half a century. New evidence from pollen profiles, tree-ring analysis, vegetation structure, and photographic and documentary historical sources does not show the expansion of the steppe. Instead, over the past century trees have invaded the steppe as a consequence mainly of human-induced changes in the fire regime, and trees have regenerated in forest areas that were heavily burnt at the onset of European colonization.

The Rupicaprini originated during the Miocene in Asia and dispersed during the late Miocene-early Pliocene, the Villafranchian, and the middle Pleistocene. Rupicapra and Oreamnos spread respectively to Europe and to North America in the middle Pleistocene. The Villafranchian Procamptoceras may be considered to be the closest known form to Rupicapra's ancestor. Rupicapra evolved during the middle and late Pleistocene in west Eurasia. At the beginning of the Würm glaciation the two closely related species R. pyrenaica and R. rupicapra were in existence. The former was already geographically split into Spanish-Pyrenean and central-southern Apennines groups, while the latter species ranged from the Caucasus to the Alpine Arch. R. pyrenaica shows more conservative features and possibly differentiated directly in western Europe from older representatives of the genus that migrated to western Europe in the middle Pleistocene. The cold-adapted Alpine chamois may have differentiated in eastern Europe and then migrated west-ward because of the advent of dry climates in the east Mediterranean and Pontic regions. The Alpine chamois failed to spread to the warmer southernmost regions of Europe that became a refugium area for R. pyrenaica. This dispersal hypothesis explains the morphologic, biometric, electrophoretic, and behavioral differences among modern chamois populations.

The δD of cellulose from 14C-dated wood, collected in the San Juan Mountains of southwestern Colorado, decreased by about 45‰ from 9600 to 3100 yr B.P. and an additional 25‰ to the present. The wood samples are from trees that grew above present-day tree line and reflect a time of warmer average summer temperatures. These changes in δD are interpreted to indicate a major change during the Holocene in the sources of moisture, in the seasonality of precipitation, or in both.