A 30,000 yr dinocyst and pollen record from the eastern equatorial Atlantic (off Cameroon) has been investigated in order to identify land–ocean linkages during the last deglacial transition. A strong correlation between the abundance of Brigantedinium spp. and the Ca/Fe ratio during the last glacial period suggests enhanced marine productivity in association with cool seawater temperatures and nutrient input linked to coastal upwelling and/or a proximal river mouth. Dry conditions are recorded on the adjacent continent with a significant representation of open vegetation indicators and the Afromontane taxon Podocarpus. After 17 calka BP these indicators register a sharp decline as a result of a climatic transition from the dry/cooler conditions of the last glacial period to the wetter/warmer conditions of the deglaciation. Simultaneously, dinocysts show a significant shift from dominant heterotrophs to an increasing abundance of autotrophs, reflecting warmer conditions. Significant changes are observed during the Younger Dryas, with a return to drier conditions and higher salinities. The start of the Holocene is marked by very low-salinity conditions, reflecting optimal monsoonal conditions over west equatorial Africa. The end of the African Humid Period is observed between 6 and 5 calka BP, followed by significant fluctuations in both terrestrial and oceanic proxies.

Tsunamis and storms instigate sedimentological and geomorphological changes to the coastal system, both long-term and ephemeral. To accurately predict future coastal hazards, one must identify the records that are generated by the processes associated with these hazards and recognize what will be preserved. Using eyewitness accounts, photographs, and sedimentology, this study documents pre- and post-tsunami conditions and constrains the timing and process of depositional events during and following the 11 March 2011 Tohoku tsunami in the coastal system at El Garrapatero, Galapagos Islands. While the tsunami acted as both an erosional and depositional agent, the thick, fan-like sand sheet in El Garrapatero was primarily emplaced by overwash deposition during high tide from swell waves occurring between 19–25 March and 17–22 April 2011. The swell waves were only able to access the terrestrial coastal system via a channel carved by the 2011 Tohoku tsunami through the barrier sand dune. This combined deposit could result in an overestimation of the hazard if interpreted to be the result of only one event (either tsunami or wind-generated waves). An analogous sand layer, younger than 1390–1530 calyr BP, may record a similar, prior event.

Changes in sea-cliff morphologies along the 30-km-long Sharon Escarpment segment of Israel's weakly cemented Mediterranean eolianite cliff line were analyzed to gain quantitative insights into erosion characteristics associated with a high-energy winter storm (10–20 year return interval). Ground-based repeat LiDAR measurements at five sites along the cliff line captured perturbations of cliff stability by basal wave scouring during the storm, subsequent post-storm gravity-driven slope failures in the cliff face above, and return of the system to transient stability within several months. Post-storm erosion, which amounted to 70% of the total volume of cliff erosion documented, resulted in dramatic local effects of up to 8 m of cliff-top retreat. And yet, at the larger scale of the 30-km cliff line examined, erosion during the storm and the year that followed affected less than 4% of the cliff length and does not appear to be above the average cliff-length annual erosion implied by previously published decadal-scale retreat rates along this sea cliff. Our results do not support a direct association between strong storm events and elevated erosion and retreat at the cliff-line scale.

Complex flow-like landslides (CFLLs) are important geomorphic agents of Late Quaternary mountain evolution in the Flysch Belt of the Outer Western Carpathians. The CFLLs are characterised by the upper section of deep-seated, retrogressive landslide of structurally unfavourably oriented rocks and lower sections composed of earthflows originated due to liquefaction of material accumulated from the upper slopes. Radiocarbon dating of organic matter incorporated into landslide debris or related deposits suggests that most of the CFLLs collapsed repeatedly throughout the Holocene with typical recurrence intervals of approximately 1–2 ka. Catastrophic landslides that occurred during extreme hydrometeorological events in recent decades displayed evidence of Holocene activity. Most of the CFLLs dammed and steepened adjacent valleys. Our chronological dataset is biased by erosion of older landforms, but most of the dated reactivations correlate to regional increases in humidity identified by previous paleoenvironmetal studies.

Knowledge of peatland initiation, accumulation, and decline or cessation is critical in understanding peatland development and the related carbon source/sink effect. In this study, we investigated the development of three peat profiles along the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau (ETP) and compared the results with those of our previous work along this transect. Our work showed that the initiation over the northern ETP is later and the slowdown/cessation earlier than in the middle to southern ETP. The timing of optimum peatland formation over the northern ETP lags the Holocene climatic optimum. These spatio-temporal differences are likely to be related to the intensity of Asian summer monsoon. Our work suggests that some peatlands along the ETP transect have returned or are now returning their previously captured carbon to the atmosphere and thus act as carbon sources. Some peatlands still have net accumulation at present, but the rates have been reduced concomitant with the decreasing summer monsoon intensity. We speculate that more of the previously stored carbon in the ETPpeatlands will be re-emitted to the atmosphere if the aridity continues, as might occur under a continuous global-warming scenario.

Arid Central Asia (ACA) lies on a major climatic boundary between the mid-latitude westerlies and the northwestern limit of the Asian summer monsoon, yet only a few high-quality reconstructions exist for its climate history. Here we calibrate a new organic geochemical proxy for lake temperature, and present a 45-yr-resolution temperature record from Hurleg Lake at the eastern margin of the ACA in the northern Tibetan Plateau. Combination with other proxy data from the same samples reveals a distinct warm–dry climate association throughout the record, which contrasts with the warm–wet association found in the Asian monsoon region. This indicates that the climatic boundary between the westerly and the monsoon regimes has remained roughly in the same place throughout the Holocene, at least near our study site. Six millennial-scale cold events are found within the past 9000 yr, which approximately coincide with previously documented events of northern high-latitude cooling and tropical drought. This suggests a connection between the North Atlantic and tropical monsoon climate systems, via the westerly circulation. Finally, we also observe an increase in regional climate variability after the mid-Holocene, which we relate to changes in vegetation (forest) cover in the monsoon region through a land-surface albedo feedback.

This paper investigates the stable isotopic composition from late Pleistocene–Holocene (~ 13 to ~ 10.5 cal ka BP) shells of the land snail Helix figulina, from Franchthi Cave (Greece). It explores the palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental implications of the isotope palaeoecology of archaeological shells at the time of human occupation of the cave. Modern shells from around the cave were also analysed and their isotopic signatures compared with those of the archaeological shells. The carbon isotope composition of modern shells depicts the consumption of C3 vegetation. Shell oxygen isotopic values are consistent with other Mediterranean snail shells from coastal areas. Combining empirical linear regression and an evaporative model, the δ18Os suggest that modern snails in the study area are active during periods of higher relative humidity and lower rainfall δ18O, probably at night. Late glacial and early Holocene δ18Os show lower values compared to modern ones. Early Holocene δ18Os values likely track enhanced moisture and isotopic changes in the precipitation source. By contrast, lower late glacial δ18O could reflect lower temperatures and δ18Op, compared to the present day. Shell carbon isotope values indicate the presence of C3 vegetation as main source of carbon to late glacial and early Holocene snails.

Only Ulleung and Baegdusan volcanoes have produced alkaline tephras in the Japan Sea/East Sea during the Quaternary. Little is known about their detailed tephrostratigraphy, except for the U–Oki and B–Tm tephras. Trace element analysis of bulk sediments can be used to identify alkaline cryptotephra because of the large compositional contrast. Five sediment cores spanning the interval between the rhyolitic AT (29.4 ka) and Aso-4 (87 ka) tephras were analyzed using an INAA scanning method. Source volcanoes for the five detected alkaline cryptotephra were identified from major element analyses of hand-picked glass shards: Ulleung (U–Ym, and the newly identified U–Sado), and Baegdusan (B–J, and the newly identified B–Sado and B-Ym). The eruption ages of the U–Ym, U–Sado, B–J, B–Sado, and B–Ymtephras are estimated to be 38 ka, 61 ka, 26 ka, 51 ka, 68–69 ka, and 86 ka, respectively, based on correlations with regional-scale TL (thinly laminated) layer stratigraphy (produced by basin-wide changes in bottom-water oxygen levels in response to millennium-scale paleoclimate variations). This study has allowed construction of an alkaline tephrostratigraphical framework for the late Quaternary linked to global environmental changes in the Japan Sea/East Sea, and improves our knowledge of the eruptive histories of Ulleung and Baegdusan volcanoes.

Four traditionally recognized strandline complexes in the southern basin of glacial Lake Agassiz are the Herman, Norcross, Tintah and Campbell, whose names correspond to towns in west-central Minnesota that lie on a linear transect defined by the Great Northern railroad grade; the active corridor for commerce at the time when Warren Upham was mapping and naming the shorelines of Lake Agassiz (ca.1880–1895). Because shorelines represent static water planes, their extension around the lake margin establishes time-synchronous lake levels. Transitions between shoreline positions represent significant water-level fluctuations. However, geologic ages have never been obtained from sites near the namesake towns in the vicinity of the southern outlet. Here we report the first geologic ages for Lake Agassiz shorelines obtained at field sites along the namesake transect, and evaluate the emerging chronology in light of other paleoclimate records. Our current work from 11 sampling sites has yielded 16 independent ages. These results combined with a growing OSL age data set for Lake Agassiz's southern basin provide robust age constraints for the Herman, Norcross and Campbell strandlines with averages and standard deviations of 14.1 ± 0.3 ka, 13.6 ± 0.2 ka, and 10.5 ± 0.3 ka, respectively.

The study revises the maximum extent of the northwest Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) in the western Canadian Arctic Archipelago (CAA) during the last glaciation and documents subsequent ice sheet retreat and glacioisostatic adjustments across western Banks Island. New geomorphological mapping and maximum-limiting radiocarbon ages indicate that the northwest LIS inundated western Banks Island after ~ 31 14C ka BP and reached a terminal ice margin west of the present coastline. The onset of deglaciation and the age of the marine limit (22–40 m asl) are unresolved. Ice sheet retreat across western Banks Island was characterized by the withdrawal of a thin, cold-based ice margin that reached the central interior of the island by ~ 14 cal ka BP. The elevation of the marine limit is greater than previously recognized and consistent with greater glacioisostatic crustal unloading by a more expansive LIS. These results complement emerging bathymetric observations from the Arctic Ocean, which indicate glacial erosion during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) to depths of up to 450 m.

The middle Paleolithic stratigraphic sequence of Les Pradelles (Charente, France) spans from the end of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 until the middle of MIS 3. Micromammal remains are present in all the stratigraphic levels, offering a rare opportunity to address the questions of both environmental and climatic fluctuations throughout this period. Climate modes were studied through the taphonomy, biodiversity and oxygen isotope compositions of phosphate (δ18O p ) from 66 samples of rodent tooth enamel. The δ18O p values from the lower sedimentary levels provide summer mean air temperatures of 19 ± 2°C (level 2/1) and of 16 ± 2°C (levels 2A, 2B and 4A). Within the middle of sequence (level 4B), a paleobiodiversity change can be identified with an increase of Dicrostonyx torquatus, which is associated with the largest amplitude in δ18O p values and the highest maximal δ18O p values. At the top of the sequence (level 5-2), a biodiversity change is observed with the increase of Microtus arvalis, but without any change in δ18O p values. The association of cold rodent species with unexpected high and large amplitudes in the δ18O p values of their teeth, possibly indicative of aridity, suggests their deposition during a Heinrich event.

Unlike most tropical Pacific islands, which lie along island arcs or hotspot chains, the Loyalty Islands between New Caledonia and Vanuatu owe their existence and morphology to the uplift of pre-existing atolls on the flexural forebulge of the New Hebrides Trench. The configuration and topography of each island is a function of distance from the crest of the uplifted forebulge. Both Maré and Lifou are fully emergent paleoatolls upon which ancient barrier reefs form highstanding annular ridges that enclose interior plateaus representing paleolagoon floors, whereas the partially emergent Ouveapaleoatoll rim flanks a drowned remnant lagoon. Emergent paleoshoreline features exposed by island uplift include paleoreef flats constructed as ancient fringing reefs built to past low tide levels and emergent tidal notches incised at past high tide levels. Present paleoshoreline elevations record uplift rates of the islands since last-interglacial and mid-Holocene highstands in global and regional sea levels, respectively, and paleoreef stratigraphy reflects net Quaternary island emergence. The empirical uplift rates vary in harmony with theoretical uplift rates inferred from the different positions of the islands in transit across the trench forebulge at the trench subduction rate. The Loyalty Islands provide a case study of island environments controlled primarily by neotectonics.