Deep-sea paleoclimatic records show that the Quaternary climate around Iceland was, and probably still is, very sensitive to rapid shifts in North Atlantic oceanic circulation. Studies of several key sections in Iceland indicate that similar oscillations are reflected in the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene terrestrial stratigraphy. Correlations between six rock sequences in western, northern, eastern, and southern Iceland show a fairly distinct trend during the Pliocene-Pleistocene transition indicating the progressive growth of an ice sheet from southeast toward the north and west. The correlations are based on K/Ar dates and paleomagnetic studies. A total of 11 glacial horizons are recorded in a stratigraphic column from eastern Iceland extending back 6.5 myr. In western Iceland, 7 glacial horizons are preserved in a rock section dated from 7.0 to 1.8 myr, and in northern Iceland 14 glacial horizons are identified in a section that extends back to 9.0 myr. Well over 20 glacial horizons have been identified in the stratigraphic column in Iceland. Full-scale glacial-interglacial cyclicity with regional ice cover is indicated at approximately 2.6 myr. A further amplification leading to islandwide glaciations is identified at 2.2-2.1 myr. These results show that changes in the ice cover in Iceland correlate with the deep-sea oxygen isotope records from benthic and planktonic foraminifera as well as IRD studies from the North Atlantic.

Glass shards from the A.D. 1783 Laki fissure eruption in Iceland have been identified in the GISP2 ice core from Summit, Greenland, at a level just preceding the major acidity/sulfate peak. Detailed reconstruction of ice stratigraphy, coupled with analyses of solid particles from filtered samples, indicate that a small amount of Laki ash was carried via atmospheric transport to Greenland in the summer of 1783, whereas the main aerosol precipitation occurred in the summer and early fall of 1784. Sulfate concentrations in the ice increase slightly during late summer and fall of 1783 and remain steady throughout the winter due to slow oxidation rates during this season in the Arctic. The sulfate concentration rises dramatically in the spring and summer of 1784, producing a massive sulfate peak, previously believed to have accumulated during the summer of 1783 and commonly used as the marker horizon in Greenland ice core studies. The chronology of ash and acid fallout at the GISP2 site suggests that a significant portion of the Laid eruption plume penetrated the tropopause and that aerosol generated from it remained aloft for at least 1 yr after the eruption. Based on comparisons with other glaciochemical seasonal indicators, abnormally cool conditions prevailed at Summit during the summer of 1784. This further supports the claim that a significant volume of sulfate aerosol remained in the Arctic middle atmosphere well after the eruption had ceased.

Ice cap modeling constrained by empirical studies provides an effective way of reconstructing past climates. The former Patagonian ice sheet is in a climatically significant location since it lies athwart the Southern Hemisphere westerlies and responds to the latitudinal migration of climatic belts during glacial cycles. A numerical model of the Patagonian ice cap for the last glacial maximum (LGM) is developed, which is time-dependent and driven by changing the mass balance/altitude relationship. It relies on a vertically integrated continuity model of ice mass solved over a finite difference grid. The model is relatively insensitive to ice flow parameters but highly sensitive to mass balance. The climatic input is adjusted to produce the best fit with the known limits of the ice cap at the LGM. The ice cap extends 1800 km along the Andes and has a volume of 440,000 km3. During the LGM the equilibrium line altitude (ELA) was lower than at present by at least 560 m near latitude 40°S, 160 m near latitude 50°S, and 360 m near latitude 56°S. The latitudinal variation in ELA depression can be explained by an overall fall in temperature of about 3.0°C and the northward migration of precipitation belts by about 5° latitude. Annual precipitation totals may have decreased by about 0.7 m at latitude 50°S and increased by about 0.7 m at latitude 40°S. The ELA rises steeply by up to 4 m per kilometer from west to east as the westerlies cross the Andes and this prevents ice growth to the east. The limited decrease in temperature during the LGM could be related to the modest migration of the Antarctic convergence between South America and the Antarctic Peninsula.

The recessional history of Niagara Falls in the present Niagara Gorge during the postglacial period has been a focus of study throughout this century. Radiocarbon ages of clam shells suggest that Niagara Falls migrated very slowly around the narrowed gorge section at Niagara Glen from 10,500 to 5500 yr B.P., when upper Great Lakes water bypassed Lake Erie and flowed to the Ottawa River via the outlet at North Bay, Ontario. Prior to that interval, river discharge and recession rates were similar to those at present, and similar rates resumed after 5200 yr B.P. By about 4500 yr B.P., the present gorge had intersected a buried gorge of the pre-late Wisconsinan Niagara River (St. Davids Gorge). The sediment derived from the excavated buried valley fill may be present as a distinct marker horizon in the sediments in southwestern Lake Ontario.

A new exposure of glacial and glaciolacustrine sediments at Antes Fort allows for revision of the chronology of pre-Wisconsinan glaciation in central Pennsylvania. Lacustrine sediments from a proglacial lake in the West Branch Susquehanna River valley have reversed remanent polarity with a site mean paleomagnetic declination of 193.8° and inclination of -13.1°. The magnetization is probably a true detrital remanence from the time of deposition and is not significantly affected by postdepositional diagenesis. We propose that the Antes Fort till was deposited during either pre-Illinoian glaciation F or G of G. M. Richmond and D. S. Fullerton (1986, "Quaternary Science Reviews," Vol. 5, 183-196) between 770,000 and 970,000 yr ago. We suggest that it is equivalent to the Penny Hill till in the West Branch Susquehanna River valley and tentatively correlate it westward with the reversed polarity terrace deposits and Minford Silt in western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio; the West Lebanon till in Indiana; and the A4 tills (or possible B tills) in Iowa and Nebraska.

Devils Hole, in southern Nevada, is a surface collapse into a deep, planar, steeply dipping fault-controlled fissure in Cambrian limestone and dolostone. The collapse intersects the water table about 15 m below land surface and the fissure extends at least 130 m deeper. Below water, most of the fissure is lined with a >30-cm-thick layer of dense maxillary calcite that precipitated continuously from groundwater for >500,000 yr. The thick mammillary calcite coat implies a long history of calcite-supersaturated groundwaters, which, combined with the absence of dissolutional morphologies, suggests that Devils Hole was not formed by karst processes. Devils Hole is located in a region of active extension; its tectonic origin is shown by evidence of spreading of its planar opening along a fault and by the orientation of its opening and others nearby, perpendicular to the northwest-southeast minimum principal stress direction of the region. Most Quaternary tectonic activity in the area, including seismicity and Quaternary faults and fractures, occurs on or parallel to northeast-striking structures. The hydrogeologic implications of this primarily structural origin are that fracture networks and caves opened by extensional tectonism can act as groundwater flowpaths functionally similar to those developed by karst processes and that, during active extension, transmissivity can be maintained despite infilling by mineral precipitation. Such extensional environments can provide conditions favorable for accumulation of deposits preserving long, continuous paleoenvironmental records. The precipitates in Devils Hole store chronologies of flow system water-level fluctuations, hydrochemistry, a half-million-yr proxy paleoclimate record, evidence of Devils Hole's tectonic origin, and probably atmospheric circulation.

In July 1988, the FlatFish Range Fire burned over the type-Pinedale moraines at Fremont Lake, Wyoming, and caused extensive exfoliation of exposed boulder surfaces. The mass of exfoliated material from 130 of 1030 boulders investigated was measured and recorded with information concerning factors that could influence the extent of fire-induced exfoliation. The range in thickness of material removed from 98 randomly selected boulders within the burn area (averaged over the entire exposed boulder surface area) is 6.1 to < 0.1 mm. The mean thickness loss for all 98 boulders is 0.9 mm/fire and the expected loss from individual boulders (median) is 0.4 mm/fire. At the 95% confidence level there is no significant relationship between the degree of exfoliation and boulder size, lithology, grain size, proximity to vegetation, or vegetation density. The expected fire-induced boulder surface erosion rates range from 5.9 to 0.3 x 10-3 mm/yr on boulders in sagebrush rangeland where fire recurrence intervals are typically every 20 to 400 yr. Fire-induced exfoliation may account for differences in boulder size and abundance on Pinedale and Bull Lake moraines. Surface dating methods using varnish or cosmogenic nuclides may yield exposure ages that are too young if the consequences of range fires are not considered when sampling boulder surfaces that are within about 2 m above ground level.

A glacier complex composed of confluent alpine glaciers, island ice caps, and piedmont lobes covered much of the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island during the last glacial maximum (LGM). Because this glacier complex formed the southeastern border of Beringia, its dynamics may have been important in the timing and feasibility of the northwest coast route for human migration into lower-latitude North America. Radiocarbon dates from stratigraphic sections on Kodiak Island and in the Bristol Bay lowlands bracket the LGM in southwestern Alaska between 23,000 and 14,700 yr B.P. Reconstruction of ice thickness based on glacier trimlines, moraines, and calculations of basal-shear stress depict the Alaska Peninsula Glacier Complex flowing to the outer edge of the continental shelf in the Gulf of Alaska. Equilibrium-line altitudes (ELAs) were 300 to 700 m lower than today and approached sea level on the southwestern Alaska Peninsula. In northeastern areas where ELAs were higher, bedrock topography largely controlled ice flow except where ice saddles bridged straits and inlets.

Loess of the Driftless Area includes four distinct late Quaternary lithostratigraphic units: the Wyalusing (new), Loveland, Roxana, and Peoria formations. Erosion has removed parts or all of the pre-late Wisconsian loess at many sites. These formations consist largely of loess and retransported loess that typically occurs on uplands, terraces, and valley margins in the region. The oldest widespread formation (probably > 125,000 yr B.P.) is here formally named the Wyalusing Formation. The three younger formations correlate with the Loveland (probably > 125,000 yr B.P.), Roxana (55,000-25,000 yr B.P.), and Peoria (25,000-12,000 yr B.P.) loesses recognized elsewhere in the midcontinental United States. The soil/stratigraphic morphology of the Wyalusing-Loveland and Roxana-Peoria couplets appears to represent two distinct loess sedimentation sequences related to major expansion and contraction of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during oxygen isotope stages 6 and 3-2, respectively. The occurrence-frequency of loess units is inversely related to age, illustrating the erosional nature of the Driftless area landscape. The occurrence of four loess units at some sites in Driftless Area stratigraphic sections corroborates loess stratigraphy along the length of the Mississippi Valley, where typically not more than four or five loess units are found and they represent only the late and middle Pleistocene (<790,000 yr B.P.). Past climatic conditions, which favored erosion of loess, as well as a temporally erratic spatial extent of former continental ice sheets in North America, which provided the dust supply, probably account for the low number of loess units along the Mississippi Valley.

Buried soils are described from the floors of four kettles on Pinedale piedmont moraines of the southwestern Wind River Range, Wyoming, near the type locality of the Pinedale Till. The buried soils indicate that a previously unreported episode of slope erosion has occurred along adjacent catenas on some of the moraines in this region. Radiocarbon ages of the buried soils indicate that slope erosion occurred during the middle Holocene from 8540 ± 190 to 4800 ± 60 14C yr B.P. The presence of buried soils in moraine kettles indicates that profiles on the crests and backslopes of some of the moraines in this region are not the products of continuous post-Pinedale soil formation. Rather, the crest and backslope soils on Pinedale moraines result from two periods of soil development separated by an interval of erosion. Thus, soils on crests and backslopes are considered to be welded profiles. Relative-age studies that use soil data to estimate the age of moraines in this region must take into account the possibility that a mid-Holocene erosion episode affected the genesis and morphology of soils on the moraines. This study corroborates results of previous work that suggests that data from complete catenas are more useful for estimating the characteristic soil development on Quaternary moraines than are data derived from crests alone.

Analyses of sediments, diatoms, and pollen in a 12.65-m-long sediment core taken from Lake Carpenter in the central Puget Lowland, Washington, provide detailed information regarding the history of deglaciation and late-glacial/early Holocene sea-level changes. The lake outlet, now 8.2 m above sea level, has been lowered 1-1.5 m by postglacial erosion. The lithology and pollen record suggest that no lengthy hiatuses in sedimentation have occurred. The basal sediments are glacialmarine and contain shell fragments and brackish/marine diatoms. Freshwater sediments above the basal section are interrupted only by a short section containing few fossils, most of which are brackish to marine indicators, and by the Mazama tephra at 9.5 m. The pollen record in the basal 4 m reveals a Pinus zone (ca. 13,850-11,000 yr B.P.) with a brief peak of Picea at ca. 13,700 yr B.P., and an Alnus/Pseudotsuga zone (ca. 11,000-6500 yr B.P.). The chronology is based on nine radiocarbon ages. A relative lowering of sea level below the 9.5-m threshold is recorded in the core at 12.41 m and dates 13,850 to 13,700 yr B.P. A marine episode occurred about 13,600 yr B.P., implying that relative sea-level temporarily rose above 9.5 m. No subsequent transgressions above the 9.5-m level have been recorded. Comparison of six radiocarbon dates ≥13,600 yr B.P. suggest that the marine reservoir correction of 760 yr currently used for this area may be too high for this time period.

In the northern Owens Valley, the Owens River has cut and preserved three terraces uplifted above its modern floodplain. We have analyzed soils and used other relative-dating techniques in order to differentiate the terrace surfaces, to correlate from the terraces to moraines of the eastern Sierra Nevada, and to test the effects of relief and climatic differences on relative-dating results. Most of the relative-dating techniques attempted were successful in differentiating the terraces of the Owens River sequence. In addition, weathering rinds, soil descriptions, and an early Holocene 14 C date for the youngest terrace support correlation of the three terrace levels with the three post-Sherwin-age glacial stages (Tioga, Tahoe, and pre-Tahoe) found in nearby canyons of the Sierra Nevada. Other relative-dating techniques that are commonly employed, however, suggest distinct differences between the terrace and moraine sequences. These differences probably reflect the difference in relief, such that slow erosion of the moraine crests may have retarded soil development relative to the flat terrace surfaces and altered surface-weathering processes. Use of relative-dating analyses to correlate between dissimilar geomorphic systems requires caution but use of a broad range of techniques and absolute-age calibration may make correlation possible.

Soil catenas on three moraines in each of two areas with different climate were studied to determine (a) downcatena soil differentiation with climate and time and (b) their usefulness in estimating the relative ages of the underlying deposits. In the dry area (mean annual precipitation (MAP), ca. 0.5 m) all soils have A/Bw/C profiles formed in loess/till. Their similarity in morphology and in most chemical characteristics with catena position and age suggests that the low MAP does not result in much redistribution of water, elements, or sediment downcatena. This similarity also suggests ages close to each other and correlation with the Otiran Glaciation (oxygen-isotope stages 2 and 4). In the wet area (MAP ca. 3 m) the soils also formed in loess/till and with time (a) soil morphology progresses from A/Bw/C to A/E/B/C, (h) reduced properties intensify, especially in the downcatena profiles, (c) citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite-extractable Fe displays accumulation in the youngest catena followed by loss in the older catenas, and (d) downcatena trends in total chemical data display marked losses of the more mobile elements. These data demonstrate that although catena development is rapid in a wet climate, the downcatena contrast can be muted with time due to a change from processes dominated by oxidation to those dominated by reduction. Soil catena properties in the wet area are sufficiently different to not refute age estimations suggested by Suggate (1990): youngest moraine, oxygen-isotope stage 2; intermediate moraine, isotope stage 4; and oldest moraine, isotope stage 10. An unresolved problem in both areas is the possibility of soil erosion to foul soil-age relations.

Utilizing the thermal unblocking of low-temperature remanent magnetization in superparamagnetic (SP) ferrimagnets and the low-temperature demagnetization of multidomain (MD) magnetite remanences, the relative proportions of SP, MD, and singledomain (SD and SD-like) ferrimagnets are estimated in the topmost part of a loess section at Xifeng, China, which covers about the past 130,000 yr. SP ferrimagnets are commonly regarded as pedogenic (authigenic) products while the MD component is believed to have a detrital origin. These measurements, therefore, provide new data which improve our understanding of the characteristics and distribution of the different magnetic grain-size fractions present in loess and soils. In particular, our measurements indicate a larger MD fraction in soil than in loess, a result which indicates that although enhancement of the SP ferrimagnet fraction dominates the increased low-field magnetic susceptibility of paleosols, an enhancement of the MD fraction, probably through leaching, also plays an important role during pedogenesis.

The geomagnetic secular variation record retained by glaciolacustrine and marine sediments at nine sites in northern New York and southern Ontario provides a means for stratigraphic correlation of glacial deposits for the time period between about 12,600 to 9900 14C yr B.P. Measurement of the depositional remanent magnetism of sediments deposited in Glacial Lake Iroquois and the Champlain Sea has produced a geomagnetic secular variation curve that represents the time period immediately following deglaciation about 12,600 14 C yr B.P. The curve varies from about 358° to 344° declination and 51° to 61° inclination over approximately 180 valve years. Marine sediments of the Champlain Sea have preserved a record approximately 1500 yr long that varies from about 2° to 29° declination and 47° to 60° inclination. These combined glacial-paleomagnetic records may also correlate with those from glacial sequences beyond our study area. The shape and amplitude of the secular variation record in glaciolacustrine and marine sediments from the western Adirondack borderland show agreement with other glacial varve secular variation records and suggest possible correlations with secular variation curves from lake cores.

Land-based, high-resolution seismic-reflection methods were used to image Quaternary paleochannels of the Susquehanna River system. Using a portable, 12-channel signal-enhancing seismograph, 12 accelerometers as receivers, and a 4.54-kg sledge hammer struck against an aluminum plate as a source, a sixfold, multichannel seismic profile 2.5 km long was acquired at Taylors Island, Maryland. On the processed seismic profile, pronounced high-amplitude seismic reflections delineate the unconformity between Quaternary and underlying Tertiary sediments and the disconformable contact separating Miocene and Eocene deposits. Subsurface-seismic stratigraphic relationships that clearly indicate the presence of two paleochannels were observed, one believed to be the Exmore paleochannel, projected to underlie northern Taylors Island based on marine seismic data. An overlapping sequence of fill sediments was observed on the eastern margin of the Exmore paleochannel. The second paleochannel may be a tributary of the Exmore or possibly the western edge of the younger Eastville paleochannel. Results from this study indicate that land-based, shallow, high-resolution seismic-reflection data can be used to delineate subsurface geomorphology successfully in coastal plain environments. This technique of defining erosional surfaces and depositional units beneath present land areas, when integrated with chronostratigraphic data, is a powerful tool for developing a better understanding of the Quaternary record.

The radiocarbon content and stable isotope composition of soil carbonate are best described by a dynamic system in which isotopic reequilibration occurs as a result of recurrent dissolution and reprecipitation. Depth of water penetration into the soil profile, as well as soil age, determines the degree of carbonate isotope reequilibration. We measured δ13C, δ18O and radiocarbon content of gravel rinds and fine (<2 mm) carbonate in soils of 3 .different ages (1000, 3800, and 6300 14 C yr B.P.) to assess the degree to which they record and preserve a climatic signal. In soils developing in deposits independently dated at 3800 and 6300 radiocarbon yr B.P., carbonate radiocarbon content above 40 cm depth suggests continual dissolution and reprecipitation, presumably due to frequent wetting events. Between 40 and 90 cm depth, fine carbonate is dissolved and precipitated as rinds that are not redissolved subsequently. Below 90 cm depth in these soils, radiocarbon content indicates that inherited, fine carbonate undergoes little dissolution and reprecipitation. In the 3800- and 6300-yr-old soils, δ13C in rind and fine carbonate follows a decreasing trend with depth, apparently in equilibrium with modern soil gas, as predicted by a diffusive model for soil CO2. δ18O also decreases with depth due to greater evaporative enrichment above 50 cm depth. In contrast, carbonate isotopes in a 1000-yr-old deposit do not reflect modern conditions even in surficial horizons; this soil has not undergone significant pedogenesis. There appears to be a lag of at least 1000 but less than 3800 yr before carbonate inherited with parent material is modified by ambient climatic conditions. Although small amounts of carbonate are inherited with the parent material, the rate of pedogenic carbonate accumulation indicates that Ca is derived primarily from eolian and rainfall sources. A model describing carbonate input and radiocarbon decay suggests that fine carbonate below 90 cm is mostly detrital (inherited) and that carbonate rinds have been forming pedogenically at a constant rate since alluvial fans were deposited.

Dendrochronological analysis of fossil wood from Two Creeks, Wisconsin, reveals that the Two Creekan Intetstade lasted at least 252 yr. The sites crossdated by tree rings cover an area of about 970 km2. AMS determinations from the beginning and end of the chronology open a 14 C time window for the episode from 12,050 to 11,750 yr B.P. The interval is contemporaneous with the Older Dryas in northern Europe. The development of a forest covering at least 970 km2 on the western shore of Lake Michigan indicates a water level about as low as in modern times. Glacier retreat must have opened drainage channels either through the Straits of Mackinac or via the Indian River Plateau into the eastern lakes. The beginning of the tree-ring chronology coincides with the peak of meltwater pulse 1A at 12,000 yr B.P. Increased amounts of meltwater seem to have disturbed the heat exchange between the waters and the atmosphere in the North Atlantic off the Gulf of St. Lawrence or affected the δ18O-ratio of the evaporation, causing the climatic or isotopic reversal of the Older Dryas in Greenland and northern Europe.

Based on multivariate analysis of mollusk assemblages and magnetic susceptibility of the Eustis section in western Nebraska, the climate of the Peoria loess steppe was relatively mild and, in terms of annual precipitation, relatively moist during the advance stages of Woodfordian ice. It was cold and dry during ice retreat. The diversity and composition of mollusk species indicates that the extreme cold and dry climate was reached during the late phase of Peoria time, in mollusk zone MZ3. Although soil moisture during the growing season at that time was high, the growing season was short and annual precipitation totals were low. Low values of magnetic susceptibility imply relatively rapid dust deposition during this interval, Judging from the current ecological tolerance of the species, no closed forest existed in the area. Only scattered shrubs or isolated tree stands may have been present. The late Peoria MZ3 assemblage compares favorably with the Columella fauna of Europe. In contrast, the early Peoria mollusk assemblages MZ1 and MZ2 compare well with the European pleniglacial Pupilla associations. Based on available 14 C dates from the studied region and on assumed relation of magnetic susceptibility to sedimentation rates, the estimated age of the MZ1 and MZ2 zones is 24,000 to 16,000 yr, whereas that of MZ3 is 16,000 to 12,000 yr.

Radiocarbon ages from the bottom peat deposits and detailed morphometric measurements at five peatlands in the boreal region of southern Finland were used to reconstruct the Holocene patterns of raised mire development. The results suggest that the areal expansion of the mires has been extremely rapid at times—up to several hundreds hectares per millennium—but the periods of more rapid expansion were not coincident among the mires. The rate of lateral extension was shown to depend mainly on the topography of the mineral substrate. Horizontal expansion did not always correlate with vertical growth. Mires expanded slowly between ca. 6000 and 4000 yr B.P., probably as a consequence of drier climatic conditions at that time. The mires also expanded slowly during the two to three recent millennia, the reason for this most probably lying in steepening of the bottom gradient toward the marginal areas of the present mires, The results point to a substantial measure of local environmental control over the lateral extension in raised mire ecosystems.