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.

A contribution to a global a priori model of climatic changes for the Quaternary Ice Age is tentatively proposed. Special emphases are put on the astronomical problem and on the insolation available in the assumption of a perfectly transparent atmosphere. It is shown that for these two steps an accurate solution can be obtained, limiting the cumulative effect of computational approximation and allowing input to a climatological model to be of real value. For the earth's orbital elements, the proposed solution includes terms dependent to the second degree on disturbing masses, to third degree on planetary eccentricities and inclinations and, for the obliquity and the annual general precession in longitude, also to the second degree on earth's eccentricity. Improvements introduced by this solution upon the insolation computed through the Milankovitch series are deduced from the differences between Vernekar's results and present ones. The relative agreement between results clearly shows that the new astronomical solution is probably close to the ideal one from a paleoclimatological point of view.

The sea-level rise due to ice-sheet melting since the last glacial maximum was not uniform everywhere because of the deformation of the Earth's surface and its geoid by changing ice and water loads. A numerical model is employed to calculate global changes in relative sea level on a spherical viscoelastic Earth as northern hemisphere ice sheets melt and fill the ocean basins with meltwater. Predictions for the past 16,000 years explain a large proportion of the global variance in the sea-level record, particularly during the Holocene. Results indicate that the oceans can be divided into six zones, each of which is characterized by a specific form of the relative sea-level curve. In four of these zones emerged beaches are predicted, and these may form even at considerable distance from the ice sheets themselves. In the remaining zones submergence is dominant, and no emerged beaches are expected. The close agreement of these predictions with the data suggests that, contrary to the beliefs of many, no net change in ocean volume has occurred during the past 5000 years. Predictions for localities close to the ice sheets are the most in error, suggesting that slight modifications of the assumed melting history and/or the rheological model of the Earth's interior are necessary.

A rock glacier-year, with little evidence of long-term surges. Different parts of the slope like boulder deposit on the Table Cliffs Plateau, Utah, has moved slowly over a long period of time and has affected over 220 trees growing on it. Analyses of annual rings of trees affected by this and other slope movements show events such as inclination, shear, corrasion, burial, exposure, inundation, and nudation. Datable responses to these events are reaction-wood growth, growth suppression and release, ring termination and new callous growth, sprouting, succession, and miscellaneous structural and morphological changes. Various events may produce delayed, antagonistic, interfering, or irrelevant event responses, necessitating procedural caution. A modified skeleton plot of yearly event responses was constructed for each sample in this study with only strongly replicating dates from within trees considered valid. The resulting event-response curve shows peak periods of movement centered around the years 1781, 1803, 1827, 1849, 1869, 1885, 1890, 1907, 1910, 1923, 1938, 1942, 1944, and 1958. Spectral analysis of the event-response curve, mean annual precipitation, and an independently derived tree-ring precipitation surrogate suggests a possible relation between precipitation and slope movement. Analyses of temperature data did not produce results in spite of the presence of internal ice which might be expected to contribute to movement. Map plots of movement through time show event responses scattered in linear zones throughout the slope during main episodes of movement in any given move at different times and some parts move more than others.

A slight cooling can induce the formation of ice sheets in the Scandinavian mountains and in the American Arctic. The increasing albedo and the appearance of cold air masses above the glaciers cause glaciation to spread over a vast area. As a result, the sea level lowers and a large part of the Barents and Kara seabeds dries up. Ice sheets are formed there, which spread over the northeastern part of the Kola Peninsula, the Pechora River basin, and over northwestern Siberia. The glacier barrier extending nearly from the North Pole to central Europe hinders latitudinal atmospheric circulation. Precipitation decreases sharply in the areas east and southeast of the glaciers. As a consequence, glaciers in the mid-latitudes retreat and sea level rises. Increased iceberg formation is induced in the periphery of the Barents Ice Sheet, causing it to disappear. An interglacial sets in.

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.

Samples of algal tufa, gastropods and calcite-cemented sand were collected from the Walker and Pyramid Lake areas of the Lahontan Basin, Nevada. X-ray diffraction petrographic and radiocarbon analyses show that massive forms of tufa such as the dendritic variety contain secondary carbon-bearing material and therefore yield unreliable radiocarbon dates. Dense coating of tufa (lithoid), however, gave radiocarbon ages in agreement with dates on coexisting aragonite gastropods. Radiocarbon data from the study were combined with previously dated noncarbonate materials [Born, S. M. (1972). “Lake Quaternary History, Deltaic Sedimentation, and Mudlump Formation at Pyramid Lake, Nevada”, Center for Water Resources, Desert Research Inst., Reno, Nevada] to give an internally consistent record of lake level fluctuations for the past 40,000 years. The main features of the Lahontan chronology are (1) extreme high stands (1330 m above sea level) 13,500 to 11,000 and 25,000 to 22,000 B.P., (2) a moderate high stand (1260 m above sea level) 20,000 to 15,000 B.P., (3) a low stand of unknown elevation 40,000 to 25,000 B.P., (4) an extremely low stand 9000 to 5000 B.P., and (5) an overall increase in the size of Walker and Pyramid Lakes during the past 5000 years, until the late 19th century. Pore fluid data indicate that Walker Lake desiccated sometime during the period 9050 to 6400 B.P. Salts deposited as a result of this dessication are still undergoing dissolution causing a flux of chloride, carbon, and other solute species from the sediments to the overlying lake water. Pore fluid data obtained from Pyramid Lake sediments do not indicate the presence of a concentrated brine at depth. This suggests that Pyramid Lake did not dry completely during this period although it may have been severely reduced in size. There has been considerable disagreement regarding the occurrence of extreme arid conditions (altithermal period) since 10,000 B.P. [Mehringer, P. J. (1977). “Models and Great Basin Prehistory”. Desert Research Inst. Pub, Reno, Nevada]. The data of this study suggest that such a climatic regime did occur in the western Great Basin during the period 9000 to 5000 B.P.

Uplift rates of the Loyalty Islands (S.W. Pacific) have been determined from 230Th/234U dating of raised coral terraces standing 2 to 7.5 m above sea level. The ages of the terraces on Ouvéa and Lifou correspond closely to previously documented periods of high sea levels at 120,000 and 180,000 yr BP. A +2-m terrace on Beautemps-Beaupré is considered to be beyond the range of the dating technique. The uplift rates of the various islands show a decrease toward the west. This lends support to the hypothesis of a lithospheric bulge of the leading edge of the Australian plate prior to its subduction at the level of the New Hebrides trench.

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.

We have determined aspartic acid racemization and [14C] ages in sediment from a 17-m piston core recovered from Lake Ontario. This core represents a depositional record extending back into the Late Wisconsin. Total organic radiocarbon ages of the glaciolacustrine lower section of the core are older than the true depositional age. Hence we suggest that these ages do not represent time elapsed since deposition but rather may be up to several thousand years too old due to mixing with 14C-depleted organic matter and possibly also D-amino acids contained by the glacier and deposited as the glacier receded. Further studies are suggested that might test this hypothesis as well as establish the general applicability of racemization dating to clay sediments.

Thorium-230 dating on saline of the Lower Salt unit in pluvial Searles Lake, California, shows that this unit was formed between 24,500 and 32,000 years ago. The initial apparent 14C age of the lake is estimated to be about 900 years. After correcting for nonradiogenic 230Th and for the initial 14C age, excellent agreement between 230Th and 14C ages is obtained. The reliability of 230Th dating on salt deposit opens a new way for continuation of absolute chronology below the Lower Salt in Searles Lake.

Alternative kinetic models for amino acid racemization in Pleistocene molluscan samples are compared by examination of results for samples from marine Pleistocene deposits in California, Washington, and Florida. Linear kinetic models previously have been applied to the Florida samples [ Mitterer, R.M. (1975). Earth and Planetary Science Letters 28 , 275–282.] because these kinetics were observed in laboratory pyrolysis experiments with the particular genus involved (Mercenaria). Nonlinear kinetic models, extrapolated from deep-sea foraminifera racemization kinetics, are applied to samples of Protothaca and Saxidomus from California and Washington and seem more consistent with their local chronologic and stratigraphic control. Average or effective diagenetic temperatures can be estimated by each of these models if reliably dated samples are available. Linear models applied to such samples from California and Florida suggest average diagenetic temperatures that are cooler (by as much as 10°C) than would be inferred from available paleoclimatic records. Nonlinear kinetic models yield estimates of average diagenetic temperatures that are more consistent with these records: full-glacial (i.e., approximately 18,000 yr BP) temperature reductions of between 2 and 6°C are inferred for coastal California and southern Florida. The nonlinear kinetic model is used to expand (by a factor of 2.5 to 3.0) the time scale proposed by Mitterer (1975) for five marine Pleistocene units of Florida.

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 timing of eustatic sea level fluctuations over the vertical range + 15 to −11 m has been deduced from 230Th/234U dating of Bermudan corals and speleothems. On this tectonically stable carbonate island, interglacial periods are characterized by platform submergence, development of patch reefs, and the deposition of littoral and eolian carbonates, whereas glacial periods are times of platform emergence, carbonate diagenesis, soil development, and the deposition of speleothems in caves extending below present sea level. Interglacial periods are observed at about 200,000, 130,000 to 90,000, and 10,000 yr BP to present. The sea level history of the last interglacial period (130,000 to 90,000 yr BP) is complex, consisting of at least two short, distinct episodes of high sea stand (at 125,000 and 97,000 yr BP) superimposed on a longer period of general platform submergence. The sea level data derived from this study are compatible with those from other stable areas such as the Bahamas, but in addition suggest that eustatic sea level changes can be rapid, on the order of 5 to 10 m/1000 yr.

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.

Substantial numbers of human skeletons have been recovered from caves and shelters of the southern Cape Province, South Africa, and these constitute a valuable source of information about evolutionary change and population movement during Upper Pleistocene and Holocene times. A few fragments from Klasies River Mouth and Die Kelders are firmly associated with Middle Stone Age cultural assemblages, but most of the material is probably linked with the Later Stone Age Albany and Wilton industries. Unfortunately the largest collections of relatively well-preserved remains have come from earlier excavations (Matjes River Shelter, Oakhurst), and the stratigraphic provenance of these burials is frequently in doubt. Other skeletal samples are small, and paleodemographic approaches are diffcult to apply. However, Bushman- or Hottentot-like individuals can certainly be identified, and this is important to the questions of Bushman antiquity or origins. Other problems concerning early Cape populations can also be examined, and this work on the human skeletons should complement ongoing cave sediment and other geological studies, faunal and plant analyses, and archaeological investigations of associated cultural remains.

Changes in fossil pollen assemblages from a 2-m core from Linsley Pond, North Branford, Connecticut, are compared with historically documented land use changes in the lake watershed. Dating with 210Pb and 14C reveals two sedimentation rate changes in the core which are associated with the arrival of European farmers; the building of cabins and suburban housing subdivisions on the lake shore. At European settlement in 1700 ad Ambrosia and Rumex pollen first appear, Gramineae-type pollen increases, and Tsuga decreases. Just before the beginning of agricultural disturbance Fagus pollen declines. The chestnut blight of 1913 causes a reduction of Castanea pollen and a subsequent vegetational succession through Betula to Quercus. The sedimentation rate determined by the chestnut blight horizon is consistent with the rate deduced from 210Pb analysis.