Dust and processes of raindrop formation in the clouds play a very important role in the climatic evolution of tropical north Africa. Sedimentologic, stratigraphic, pedologic, geomorphologic, and palynologic data converge to show that a major environmental change occurred in tropical Africa about 7000 yr B.P. In the Sudanian and Sudano–Guinean zones (wet tropical zone), from 15,000 to 7000 yr B.P., rivers deposited mostly clay, while from 7000 to 4000 yr B.P. they deposited mostly sand. During the first period, pedogenesis was vertisolic (montmorillonite dominant), associated with pollen belonging mostly to vegetation typical of hydromorphic soils, while during the second period pedogenesis was of ferruginous type (kaolinite dominant) with pollen belonging mostly to vegetation typical of well-drained soils. The great change near 7000 yr B.P. is linked chiefly to a major hydrological change that appears related to a change in the size of raindrops: from fine rains associated with considerable atmospheric dust (raindrop diameter essentially less than 2 mm) to the second period associated with thunderstorm rains (raindrop diameter mostly greater than 2 mm). The size of raindrops is related particularly to cloud thickness and dust concentration in the troposphere. Thunderstorm activity is influenced also by fluctuations of the atmospheric electricity, modulated by the sun.

During the last glacial maximum in West Antarctica separate ice caps developed on Alexander Island and on Palmer Land, became confluent in George VI Sound, and discharged northward from latitude 72° S. Radiocarbon (>32,000 yr) and amino acid (approximately 120,000 yr) age determinations on shell fragments (Hiatella solida) found in basal till suggest a Wisconsin age for the glaciation that incorporated them. The pattern of ice flow differed from that deduced for this area in the CLIMAP reconstruction. Following the maximum stage, there was a stadial event when outlet valley glaciers flowed from smaller ice caps into George VI Sound. More widespread recession permitted the George VI ice shelf to deposit Palmer Land erratics on eastern Alexander Island before isostatic recovery raised them to final elevations of about 82 m. The ice shelf may have been absent at about 6500 yr B.P., when large barnacles (Bathylasma corolliforme) were living in the sound. Small glaciers readvanced to form at least two terminal moraines before the ice shelf re-formed and incorporated the barnacle shells into its moraine on Alexander Island. The shells gave a 14C age (corrected for Antarctic conditions) of about 6500 yr B.P. and an amino acid ratio consistent with a Holocene age. Valley glaciers readvanced over the ice-shelf moraine before oscillations of both valley glaciers and the ice shelf led to the formation of the present sequence of contiguous ice-cored moraines, probably during the Little Ice Age. Such oscillations may represent a climatic control not yet observed in the dry valleys of Victoria Land, the only other part of Antarctica studied in detail for glacier fluctuations.

Decreases in surface temperatures after the eruptions of Tambora (1815), Krakatau (1883), and Agung (1963) were of similar magnitude, even though the amount of material (dust and volatiles) injected into the stratosphere by these three events differed greatly. Large amounts of fine ash and volatiles were dispersed into the upper atmosphere by Krakatau and Tambora; the Agung eruption in 1963 was a much smaller, vulcanian-type eruption which injected dust and volatiles into the stratospheric aerosol layer more directly. Analyses of magmatic volatiles indicate that the Agung eruption was proportionately richer in SO2 and Cl than either Tambora or Krakatau. Relative amounts of fine ash produced by the Tambora, Krakatau, and Agung eruptions are estimated at about 150:20:1, whereas the masses of atmospheric sulfate aerosols produced were on the order of 7.5:3:1.

Decreases in surface temperature of a few tenths of a degree C for several years following volcanic eruptions are primarily a result of the sulfate aerosols, rather than of the silicate dust. The similarity in the atmospheric response after these three eruptions supports the idea of limiting mechanisms on volcanic stratospheric-aerosol loading, which is suggested by microphysical processes of aerosol particles. Fluctuations in stratospheric aerosol optical depth seem to be controlled to a large degree by high-intensity sulfur-rich eruptions (e.g., Agung, 1963), which may however be relatively small in total ejecta volume. Such eruptions leave little geologic record, but appear as acidity peaks in polar ice cores.

Rainfall and temperature records for the last half century are analyzed for peninsular Florida. A recent increase in winter precipitation, weakening toward the south, appears to be related to the temperature decline of the last several decades. Autumn decrease in precipitation in the last two decades is apparently due to suppression of tropical cyclonic activity. The reverse of both of these trends was evident prior to the 1940s. These climatic patterns have resulted in seasonal redistribution of precipitation throughout the Florida peninsula and extended drought conditions for the southern half of the peninsula.

Detailed measurements of the altitudes of the shorelines of former ice-dammed lakes in Glen Roy and vicinity in the Scottish Highlands prove erroneous the conventional view that former shorelines in areas affected by glacio-isostatic uplift are uniformly tilted and/or gently warped. The measurements demonstrate differential uplift of blocks of the earth's crust. The surfaces of some blocks have no detectable tilt whereas others have gradients up to at least 4.6 m/km and are tilted in different directions. In three areas 0.7–2.0 km long, shorelines are distorted by crustal movements; all these areas have landslides attributed to earthquakes that accompanied the release of stress. In the area of greatest local distortion three shorelines rose about 3 m above their average altitudes for the immediately surrounding area, and a fault scarp was produced. Possibly these local distortions accompanied catastrophic lake drainage by jökulhlaup, analogous to crustal movements associated with man-made lakes. A relationship between crustal movement and the limit of a glacial advance is demonstrated. These findings have implications for other parts of the world affected by glacioisostatic uplift.

Catastrophic floods from glacial Lake Missoula entered the Pasco Basin in south-central Washington and backflooded its marginal valleys. Badger Coulee, one such valley, contains beds of fine-grained slackwater sediment deposited by these floods. The slackwater sediment contains two ash layers of the Mount St. Helens set S tephra, about 13,000 yr old. The ash was deposited on a ground surface developed atop slackwater sediment deposited during preash flooding. Evidence of the former ground surface includes the reworked ash, inferred trace fossils, stream and debris-flow deposits, slopewash and/or eolian sediment, and colluvium at the ash horizon. These features and the ash were buried by slackwater sediment deposited during postash flooding. Nonflood, subaerial deposits are not present atop other beds. Instead, beds commonly are reversely graded across “contacts,” suggesting that multiple beds were continuously deposited. The exposed beds thus record at least two late-Wisconsin floods, one preash, the other postash. The pre- and postash floods may be correlative with earlier-reported floods thought to have occurred 17,500-14,000 and 14,000–13,000 yr B.P., respectively.

The recent history of catastrophic disturbances in forests was reconstructed at Mount Rainier National Park. Basic data were ages of trees based on ring counts of early seral conifer species and maps of age-class boundaries from field work and aerial photographs. Maps illustrate age classes of the forests and show disturbances from fires, snow avalanches, and lahars (volcanic mudflows). Fires are by far the most important major disturbers, followed by snow avalanches and lahars. Fires over 250 ha in size are called fire events. Burns over 1000 ha, which may have been one fire or a series of fires within a short time, are called fire episodes. Important fire events or episodes occurred in the years 1230, 1303, 1403, 1503, 1628, 1688, 1703, 1803, 1825, 1856, 1858, 1872, 1886, 1894, 1930, and 1934 A.D. The largest fire episode was in 1230; it affected approximately 47% of the forests in the park. The majority of the forests are over 350 yr old, and several stands are over 1000 yr old. Stands 350 yr and 100 to 200 yr in age are the most extensive age classes in the park. Three fire frequency indices are compared. None describe fire frequency at Mount Rainier well. Natural fire rotation was estimated at about 434 yr. All but two episodes of major fires since 1300 A.D. correspond well with major droughts reconstructed for locations east of the Cascade Range crest. Impacts of humans on the disturbance regime may have increased the frequency of fire in the 1850–1900 period, followed by a decrease in frequency after 1900. Fuel build-up as a result of fire suppression should have no significant impact on fire frequency, since fires are relatively infrequent and fuels accumulate naturally.

Thirteen glacial terraces are known from the western part of the northern Alpine foothills between the Lech and Iller Rivers. In the Lower Rhine region of West Germany, a similar number of terraces are capped by interglacial floodloams and soils. Whereas the environment during individual interglaciations did not differ substantially, the glaciations were progressively more severe. The Main Terrace system of the Rhine may be an exception. The duration of the Quaternary, starting at the base of Praetiglian, is estimated at approximately 2 million yr by paleomagnetic dating. The major cold-warm climatic cycles of the earliest Pleistocene lasted approximately 100,000 yr, the same as those of the Brunhes Chron. The intervening Main Terrace system has not yet been climatically subdivided. Correlation with the Netherlands is possible because of an abundance of paleobotanic and paleomagnetic evidence. In the Alpine foothills, stratigraphically useful indicators of warm climates are missing, but analogies in terrace development permit comparison with the Lower Rhine and Danube. The terrace sequence in the Alpine foothills is incomplete, as are those along most of the other rivers in Europe. Some of the older terraces may have been eroded.

Six methods for approximating late Pleistocene (Pinedale) equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) are compared for rapidity of data collection and error (RMSE) from first-order trend surfaces, using the Colorado Front Range. Trend surfaces computed from rapidly applied techniques, such as glaciation threshold, median altitude of small reconstructed glaciers, and altitude of lowest cirque floors have relatively high RMSEs (97–186 m) because they are subjectively derived and are based on small glaciers sensitive to microclimatic variability. Surfaces computed for accumulation-area ratios (AARs) and toe-to-headwall altitude ratios (THARs) of large reconstructed glaciers show that an AAR of 0.65 and a THAR of 0.40 have the lowest RMSEs (about 80 m) and provide the same mean ELA estimate (about 3160 m) as that of the more subjectively derived maximum altitudes of Pinedale lateral moraines (RMSE = 149 m). Second-order trend surfaces demonstrate low ELAs in the latitudinal center of the Front Range, perhaps due to higher winter accumulation there. The mountains do not presently reach the ELA for large glaciers, and small Front Range cirque glaciers are not comparable to small glaciers existing during Pinedale time. Therefore, Pleistocene ELA depression and consequent temperature depression cannot reliably be ascertained from the calculated ELA surfaces.

Pollen was collected from modern alluvium and from the atmosphere to document the nature and amount of paleoenvironmental information reflected by alluvial pollen chronologies. Results indicate that pollen in alluvium is a homogeneous mixture derived almost entirely from the floodplain itself. The few pollen grains derived from nonfloodplain plant communities and preserved in alluvial sediments are so well mixed that their frequencies no longer reflect the geographic distribution of the specific plant communities in which they originated. In contrast, the abundance of alluvial pollen grains, derived from the major floodplain taxa (Chenopodiineae, Ambrosia type), varies with summer and winter climate. This annual variation is preserved in alluvial pollen assemblages through a combination of processes within sedimentation basins involving discontinuous deposition events and mechanical pollen degradation. The high-frequency, wide-amplitude pollen variance in alluvial pollen assemblages contrasts with the low-frequency, narrow-amplitude pollen variance in sediments of lakes and ponds. The slight geographic variance in alluvial pollen assemblages, in contrast to the large variance in soil pollen, allows use of alluvial pollen to infer climate throughout the watershed in which pollen is sampled.

Amino acid enantiomeric (D/L) ratios in the mollusk Mercenaria are compared with recently published biostratigraphic and/or U-series solitary coral data from 22 Quaternary localities on the central and southern Atlantic Coastal Plain. In all cases, local relative aminostratigraphic sequences are consistent with relative ages inferred from U-series or biostratigraphic data, although occasionally more depositional events are recognized by aminostratigraphic than biostratigraphic methods. However, if the U-series data are used as age calibrations for the D/L values, latitudinal trends of “isochronous” D/L values are highly variable and conflict with trends expected from the present temperature gradient, which is smooth and nearly linear between 45° and 25° N. Age estimation can be performed independently of the U-series data using a kinetic model that relies on the assumption that Pleistocene temperature gradients have also been smooth functions of latitude, although significantly steeper than the present temperature gradient. Within the uncertainties of this assumption, kinetic model age estimates for localities in the coastal plain fall into the following groups: 70,000–130,000 yr, 200–250,000 yr, 300,000–400,000 yr, 500,000–600,000 yr, 700,000–800,000 yr, and > 1,000,000 yr. Major conflicts between these model age estimates are observed for localities near Charleston, South Carolina and in central Virginia. These conflicts could indicate that the basic temperature assumptions of aminostratigraphy are incorrect, and that apparent local aminostratigraphic sequences (clusters of different D/L values) could be due to factors other than age difference. Alternatively, some of the U-series dates may be only minimum ages for these localities.

Low aspartic acid d:l ratios and modern collagenlike concentration values indicate that amino acids in bones from the Rancho La Brea asphalt deposit, Los Angeles, California are better preserved than amino acids in bones of equivalent age that have not been preserved in asphalt. Amino acids were recovered from 10 Rancho La Brea bone samples which range in age from less than 200 to greater than 36,000 yr. The calibrated rates of aspartic acid racemization range from 2.1 to 5.0 × 10−6yr−1. Although this wide range of rate constants decreases the level of confidence for age estimates, use of the larger rate constant of 5.0 × 10−6yr−1 provides minimum age estimates which fit the known stratigraphic and chronologic records of the Rancho La Brea deposits.

The results of an integrated study comprising litho- and biostratigraphic investigations, uranium-series coral dating, amino acid racemization in molluscs, and paleomagnetic measurements are compared to ascertain relative and absolute ages of Pleistocene deposits of the Atlantic Coastal Plain in North and South Carolina. Four depositional events are inferred for South Carolina and two for North Carolina by all methods. The data suggest that there are four Pleistocene units containing corals that have been dated at about 100,000 yr, 200,000 yr, 450,000 yr, and over 1,000,000 yr. Some conflicts exist between the different methods regarding the correlation of the younger of these depositional events between Charleston and Myrtle Beach. Lack of good uranium-series dates for the younger material at Myrtle Beach makes the correlation with the deposits at Charleston more difficult.

Fluctuations in benthic foraminiferal faunas over the last 130,000 yr in four piston cores from the Norwegian Sea are correlated with the standard worldwide oxygen-isotope stratigraphy. One species, Cibicides wuellerstorfi, dominates in the Holocene section of each core, but alternates downcore with Oridorsalis tener, a species dominant today only in the deepest part of the basin. O. tener is the most abundant species throughout the entire basin during periods of particularly cold climate when the Norwegian Sea presumably was ice covered year round and surface productivity lowered. Portions of isotope Stages 6, 3, and 2 are barren of benthic foraminifera; this is probably due to lowered benthic productivity, perhaps combined with dilution by ice-rafted sediment; there is no evidence that the Norwegian Sea became azoic. The Holocene and Substage 5e (the last interglacial) are similar faunally. This similarity, combined with other evidence, supports the presumption that the Norwegian Sea was a source of dense overflows into the North Atlantic during Substage 5e as it is today. Oxygen-isotope analyses of benthic foraminifera indicate that Norwegian Sea bottom waters warmer than they are today from Substage 5d to Stage 2, with the possible exception of Substage 5a. These data show that the glacial Norwegian Sea was not a sink for dense surface water, as it is now, and thus it was not a source of deep-water overflows. The benthic foraminiferal populations of the deep Norwegian Sea seem at least as responsive to near-surface conditions, such as sea-ice cover, as they are to fluctuations in the hydrography of the deep water. Benthic foraminiferal evidence from the Norwegian Sea is insufficient in itself to establish whether or not the basin was a source of overflows into the North Atlantic at any time between the Substage 5e/5d boundary at 115,000 yr B.P. and the Holocene.

A new cervine deer (Torontoceros hypogaeus), described from a partial cranium with portions of the main antler beams, has been recovered from deposits of early Lake Ontario age on the exposed bench of Glacial Lake Iroquois at Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The deer was about the size of a caribou, has heavy antlers that lie chiefly in a nearly horizontal plane, and its beams are bowed anteriorly. The tines are not flattened, the brow tines are asymmetrical, and no evidence of surface roughening or palmation of the beam is found. A 14C date of 11,315 ± 325 yr B.P. obtained on the antler allows the date at which Glacial Lake Iroquois drained to be revised to before 11,400 yr B.P. Spruce (Picea), pine (Pinus), and sedges (Cyperaceae) are major components of the associated pollen spectrum, which implies a typically interstadial or postglacial climate in which mixed forests grew in the Toronto area.

Comparisons of sedimentation rates obtained by 210Pb and pollen analyses of 1-m cores collected throughout the Potomac Estuary show good agreement in the majority of cores that can be analyzed by both methods. Most of the discrepancy between the methods can be explained by the analytical precision of the 210Pb method and by the exactness with which time horizons can be identified and dated for the pollen method. X-radiographs of the cores and the distinctness of the pollen horizons preclude significant displacement by reworking and/or mixing of sediments. Differences between the methods are greatest where uncertainties exist in assigning a rate by one or both methods (i.e., 210Pb trends and/or “possible” horizon assignments). Both methods show the same relative rates, with greater sediment accumulation more common in the upper and middle estuary and less toward the mouth. The results indicate that geochronologic studies of estuarine sediments should be preceded by careful observation of sedimentary structures, preferably by X-radiography, to evaluate the extent of mixing of the sediments. Time horizons, whether paleontologic or isotopic, are generally blurred where mixing has occurred, precluding precise identification. Whenever possible, two methods should be used for dating sediments because a rate, albeit erroneous, can be obtained isotopically in sediments that are mixed; accurate sedimentation rates are also difficult to determine where the time boundary is a zone rather than a horizon, where the historical record does not provide a precise date for the pollen horizon, or where scouring has removed some of the sediment above a dated pollen horizon.

Many cores from the deep basins of the Bering Sea have a thin oxidized zone within otherwise reduced sediment. This oxidized zone began to form about 6000 yr ago and represents an interval of about 3200 yr. Mineralogically, the oxidized and reduced sediments are similar, but chemically they differ. Concentrations of Fe and C are lower, and concentrations of Mn, Ba, Co, Mo, and Ni are higher in the oxidized than in the reduced sediment. Mn is enriched about 10-fold in the oxidized zone relative to its concentration in the reduced sediment, Mo about threefold, and Ba, Co, and Ni about twofold. These data suggest that the oxidized zone developed diagenetically as the result of the balance between the flux of organic matter and the available dissolved oxygen in bottom and interstitial waters.

We propose that the Bering Sea was substantially ice covered when global glacial conditions prevailed. during the transition to global interglacial conditions, seasonal meltwater from thawing sea ice formed a lens of fresh water that decreased organic productivity. During the winter seasons, however, sea ice reformed and caused downwelling of dense, oxygen-rich waters to recharge bottom waters. The combination of lower organic productivity and more oxygen-rich bottom water allowed oxidized sediment to accumulate. Once full interglacial conditions were established, the volume of sea ice produced was insufficient to affect either productivity or the supply of dissolved oxygen and so bottom conditions again became reducing.

Similar events probably occurred during the onset of global glacial conditions, and similar oxidized layers probably formed at these times. Such oxidized zones are highly unstable, however, in a reducing environment and, once buried beyond the influence of bacterial and infaunal activities, are depleted of their available oxygen and converted to reduced sediment.

Oxygen- and carbon-isotopic analyses have been performed on the benthic foraminifer Planulina wuellerstorfi in seven Late Quaternary cores from the Vema Channel-Rio Grande Rise region. The cores are distributed over the water-depth interval of 2340 to 3939 m, which includes the present transition from North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) to Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW).

The carbon-isotopic records in the cores vary as a function of water depth. The shallowest and deepest cores show no significant glacial-interglacial difference in δ13C. Four of the five cores presently located in the NADW have benthic foraminiferal δ13C that is lower during glacial isotopic stages. Based on bathymetric gradients in δ13C, we conclude that, like today, there were two water masses present in the Vema Channel during glacial intervals: a water mass enriched in 13C overlying another water mass depleted in 13C. The largest gradient of change of δ13C with depth, however, occurred at 2.7 km, ∼ 1 km shallower than the present position of this gradient.

On the basis of paleontologic and sedimentologic evidence, we consider it unlikely that the NADW:AABW transition shallowed to this level. Reduced carbon-isotopic gradients between the deep basins of the North Atlantic and Pacific Oceans during the last glaciation suggest that production of NADW was reduced. Lower production of NADW may have modified the local abyssal circulation pattern in the Vema Channel region.