In the Southern Vosges Mountains, Northeastern France, the Grande Pile peat bog (47° 44′ N, 6°30′14″ E, 330-m altitude, about 20 m deep) gives a continuous pollen sequence for the last 140,000 years, contrary to others in Northwestern and Central Europe which are all truncated. For the first time, in a region close to the type locatity for the Eem deposits and close to the Würm and Riss stratotypes, palynology demonstrates a complete “glacial-interglacial cycle” offering the possibility of studying the rapid degradation of vegetation at the end of the Last Interglacial, perhaps in sufficient detail to be useful soon in long-term global climate forecasting. The Grande Pile pollen sequence shows, between the classical Eemian Interglacial and the Last (Würm) Glaciation, two temperate intervals interpreted as interglacials (palynological definition): St. Germain I and St. Germain II. These are separated by two very cold phases, probably glacial: Melisey I and Melisey II. This sequence, not easily correlated with the classical European chronology of Woldstedt, agrees well with Frenzel's chronology and, therefore, makes the synchrony of the Alpine glaciations with those of Northern Germany questionable. An attempt is made to correlate the Grande Pile pollen sequence with other chronologies (e.g., deep sea curves based on foraminiferal fauna, oxygen isotopes, and carbonate content, Barbados sea levels, Rocky Mountains sequence) that span the period between 140,000 and 70,000 years BP.

Analysis of the evidence concerning full-glacial (27,000–13,000 yr BP) time in the American Southwest has resulted in a reinterpretation of the past climate. After correction for previous errors, which include the use of (1) the July 0°C isotherm as an indicator of modern snowline and (2) relict cirques at the head of heavily glaciated valleys as indicators of past snowline, orographic snowline is estimated to have been about 1000 m lower. This, combined with similar depression estimates for timberline and for cryogenic deposits, results in an annual cooling estimate of 7–8°C. The cooler temperatures caused deposition of coarse “bouldery” alluvial-fan sediments by streams draining areas at high elevations, as well as hill-slope stability, soil development, and subsurface weathering in the lower desert ranges. Reliability of paleoclimatic inferences from water budgets of the extinct paleolakes is questioned on the basis that they exclude groundwater effects. However, recalculation of two water budgets following traditional methods indicates that lowered evaporation rates accompanying a 7–8°C annual cooling would have sufficed to maintain these lakes. Similarly, increased soil moisture would have allowed coniferous woodland to grow ∼700 m lower into the deserts, the maximum recorded by Pleistocene pack rat middens. Therefore, no significant increase in annual precipitation is inferred for full-glacial times.

Fluvial, glacial, and colluvial deposits in Corsica have been studied in terms of their distribution, soils, sedimentology (arrangement, shape analysis, size analysis, petrography, and weathering of pebbles; size distribution, shape analysis, and mineralogy of matrix), and relationships to marine sediments. A relative chronology is based on the topographic and stratigraphic relationships between the sediments, and to a large extent on their degree of weathering. The intensity and the type of pebble weathering suggest a possible correlation of the older alluvial units with the Alpine Quaternary succession. Quaternary paleoclimates in Corsica alternated between glacial and interglacial. During glacial stages, when glaciers developed in the high mountains and formed tongues in the valleys, periglacial climates characterized the low altitude zone. Tectonic movements occurred in Corsica during the Quaternary, probably until the Middle Würm.

Some speleothems (CaCO3 cave deposits) can be demonstrated to have been formed in oxygen isotopic equilibrium with their parent seepage waters and thus a record of relative fluctuations in depositional temperature can be obtained from the δ18O variations in successive growth layers of such deposits. These temperature fluctuations reflect variations in the average annual air temperature at the surface above the cave, and therefore permit inference of past continental climate changes. Equilibrium deposits have been obtained from caves in San Luis Potosi, Bermuda, Kentucky, West Virginia, Iowa, and Alberta, ranging in age from 200,000 years BP to the present, as determined by 230Th/234U dating of the speleothems. The δ18O time curves for the six sites show the following synchronous climatic fluctuations: warm periods from 190 to 165 and from 120 to 100 Ka, at 60 and 10 Ka, and cold periods from 95 to 65 and from 55 to 20 Ka. The periods of thermal maxima correspond in time to the interglacial periods of the marine foraminiferal isotopic and faunal temperature records and to periods of high sea stand as observed from radiometric dating of raised coral reefs. Maxima and minima in insolation appear to be synchronous with this record as well.

A detailed paleoceanographic history of the Subantarctic region for the last million years was determined using paleomagnetic stratigraphy, radiolarian and planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy, and the oxygen isotope record from stages 1 to 13 (0.5 MY) in a deep-sea core (E45-74) from the southern Indian Ocean. Changes in the abundances of Antarctissa strelkovi and Neogloboquadrina pachyderma record 12 glacial/interglacial cycles. The paleoceanographic events based on the combined results of these siliceous and calcareous indexes agree with changes in the global ice-volume record. Calcium carbonate dissolution selectively alters the planktonic foraminiferal fauna and causes test fragmentation and increased numbers of benthic foraminifera and radiolarians. Intense periods of calcium carbonate dissolution are associated principally with glacial episodes and are probably related to increased Antarctic bottom-water activity as well as changes in surface-water mass positions.

The distribution and abundance of planktonic Foraminifera from the Indian Ocean are used to illustrate geographic variations in faunal assemblages in the plankton and on the seabed caused by sedimentary and postdepositional processes and to analyze the effect of these variations on paleoecological reconstruction. Principal components analysis of these data describes the composition and distribution of faunal assemblages in plankton-tow samples, low-dissolution core-top samples, and high-dissolution core-top samples. Factor-comparison analysis describes the relationships among these three sets of assemblages: The species composition of low-dissolution faunal assemblages may be accurately described as a simple linear mixing of plankton assemblages. The geographical distributions of the faunal assemblages in the sediments, however, are often displaced equatorward of their counterparts in the plankton. Dissolution causes complex changes in the composition of faunal assemblages and produces an equatorward displacement of several high-dissolution assemblages relative to their counterparts in low-dissolution sediments. Three transfer functions, or equations, are derived using plankton, low-dissolution, and high-dissolution data. Numerical experiments indicate that transfer functions lose accuracy when applied to discordant data sets: The plankton transfer function often underestimates temperatures in core-top sediments, and the low-dissolution transfer function underestimates temperatures in high-dissolution sediments. These systematic differences in temperature estimates are illustrated by applying the three transfer functions to downcore samples representing conditions 18,000 years ago. Other experiments indicate that these distortions can be reduced by using larger size fractions and calibrating transfer functions with both low- and high-dissolution core-top samples.