The structure and origin of the Pleistocene (Marine Isotope Stage [MIS] 5) coastal Barrier III in southern Brazil were investigated through analysis of lithofacies, numerical ages, and ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data obtained in outcrops and subsurface deposits. The stratigraphic succession is characteristic of transgressive barriers, with muddy lagoon bottom facies unconformably overlying an older unit (Barrier II) and overlain by landward-dipping lagoon margin and aeolian facies. The back-barrier lagoon was filled with sediments and shells transferred from the foreshore through overwash and/or inlets during the MIS 5e transgressive-high-stand phase, with a higher sea level that reached about +6 to +7 m relative to the present. Marine sediments and shells on the seaward side of the barrier dated to ~100–106 ka indicate another high stand at +4 to +5.1 m during MIS 5c. One shell dated to ~87 ka and aeolian deposits dated to ~82 and ~85 ka suggest a third high stand during MIS 5a that reached at least −2 m relative to the present. The two (possibly three) juxtaposed marine deposits show that Barrier III is a more complex unit than previously recognized, built by successive orbitally forced eustatic sea-level oscillations also recorded in other deposits along the Brazilian coast and worldwide.

This paper provides insight into the Late Ordovician to earliest Silurian evolution of sedimentary environments in the southern Holy Cross Mountains (SE Poland), which at that time were a part of the SW periphery of Baltica. The facies layout in this area was influenced by the basement block faulting, which differentiated the basin bathymetry into submarine horst and grabens, controlling facies distribution. However, the local tectonism was insufficient to fully mask the global eustatic events. Therefore, it is possible to correlate some facies changes in the Upper Ordovician and lower Llandovery sedimentary record of the southern Holy Cross Mountains with eustatic and palaeoceanographic changes reported worldwide. The most noticeable influence of eustasy on the sedimentary record in the studied area occurs at the Ordovician/Silurian boundary. It is manifested by Hirnantian regressive coarse-grained clastic sediments overlain by a post-glacial anoxic/dysoxic interval represented by the Rhuddanian transgressive black cherts and shales. It is noteworthy that the pre- and post-Hirnantian sedimentary environments in the southern Holy Cross Mountains were affected by upwelling induced by the SE trade winds.

Well-preserved Quaternary staircased marine terraces appear on Ras Leona limestone relief. This is a peculiar sector of the Betic-Rif Cordillera, lying in the four-way junction between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and Europe and Africa. The age and altitude correlation of the Ras Leona terraces with travertine-covered lateral equivalent terraces fashioned in the neighbouring Beni Younech area, and comparison with those along the Moroccan Atlantic coasts, would suggest that the Ras Leona terraces were mainly formed by eustatic factors. The importance of the eustasy is supported by further comparisons with Spanish and Moroccan Mediterranean terraces and with different marine terraces developed on passive-margin coasts around the world. A tectonic event occurred mainly during the period between the formation of the Maarifian and the Ouljian terraces (i.e., between 370 and 150 ka). The moderate Quaternary tectonic uplift deduced from the marine terraces and its comparison with uplifted marine terraces developed in active subduction setting disagrees with the model of an active eastwards subduction below the Gibraltar tectonic arc.

The common belief that organic-rich mudstones formed in quiescent, distal settings is further weakened by study of an upper Cambrian (Leptoplastus – lower Peltura superzones) succession in the Chesley Drive Group in Avalonian Cape Breton Island that is comparable to Alum Shale successions in Baltica. Dramatic sea-level (likely eustatic) changes are now recognized by punctuation of deposition of shallow, wave-influenced black mudstone with brachiopod (Orusia lenticularis) and olenid trilobite-bearing limestones by offlap and formation of a subaerially cemented calcrete-clast conglomerate. Subaerial exposure was followed by transgression and accumulation of clastic pyrite sand and phosphatic granules with Leptoplastus Superzone (L. ovatus Zone) trilobite sclerites. Dynamic processes are shown by wave ripples in the mudstone and limestone, sorting and winnowing of fossil rudstones, and pre-compactional fracture of the conglomerate and rudstones. Orusia rudstones in the succession below the conglomerate are regarded as analogues of Eoorthis and Billingsella rudstones in the ‘biomere’ extinction intervals of the Laurentian basal Sunwaptan. The lowest Orusia-rich beds are no older than the P. spinulosa Zone but, as elsewhere in Avalonia, they range into the higher Leptoplastus (Cape Breton) and even the Peltura (Britain, New Brunswick) superzones. Rare agnostoid sclerites in lower Peltura Superzone (Ctenopyge tumida Zone) olenid rudstone resemble those traditionally assigned to Lotagnostus trisectus in Avalonian Britain and Sweden, and are distinct from Laurentian L. americanus. An L. americanus Zone cannot be identified in Avalonia or Baltica, and the first appearance datum (FAD) of purported ‘L. americanus’ is not suitable as a standard for the base of the highest Cambrian stage.

A series of very wide (up to 15 km) raised shore platforms in the Scottish Hebrides are identified and described for the first time and are considered part of a high rock platform shoreline in the western isles of Scotland described by W. B. Wright in his classic Geological Magazine paper a century ago as a ‘preglacial’ feature. Subsequent interpretations suggesting that the platforms were produced during the Pleistocene are rejected here in favour of a speculative hypothesis that the features are part of the well-known strandflat that is extensively developed across large areas of the northern hemisphere. It is argued that the Scottish strandflat developed during the Pliocene and was later subjected to extensive Pleistocene glacial erosion such that only a few areas of platform have survived in the Scottish Inner Hebrides (ice-proximal) while they are well-preserved in the Outer Hebrides (ice-distal). Support for a Pliocene hypothesis is provided by the marine oxygen isotope record for this time interval which points to prolonged periods of relative sea level stability as would be required for the production of such wide features. This hypothesis for the formation of a Scottish strandflat not only provides an elegant explanation for the origin and age of the raised rock platform fragments that occur throughout the western isles of Scotland, but it may also have relevance for other coastal areas of the northern hemisphere (e.g. Norway, Greenland, Alaska) where the strandflat is a well-developed feature.

Slow subsidence and tectonic quiescence along the New York Promontory margin of Laurentia mean that the carbonate-dominated Tribes Hill and overlying Rochdale formations serve as proxies for the magnitude and timing of Tremadocian eustatic changes. Both formations are unconformity-bound, deepening–shoaling, depositional sequences that double in thickness from the craton into the parautochthonous, western Appalachian Mountains. A consistent, ‘layer cake’ succession of member-level units of the formations persists through this region. The Tribes Hill Formation (late early Tremadocian, late Skullrockian, late Fauna B–Rossodus manitouensis Chron) unconformably overlies the terminal Cambrian Little Falls Formation as the lowest Ordovician unit on the New York Promontory. It was deposited during the strong early Tremadocian, or Stonehenge, transgression that inundated Laurentia, brought dysoxic/anoxic (d/a) slope water onto the shelf and led to deposition of the Schaghticoke d/a interval (black mudstone and ‘ribbon limestone’) on the Laurentian continental slope. The uniform lithofacies succession of the Tribes Hill includes a lower sand-rich member; a middle, dark grey to black mudstone that records d/a in eastern exposures; and an upper, shoaling-up carbonate highstand facies. A widespread (12000+ km2) thrombolitic interval in the highstand carbonate suggests the New York Promontory was rimmed by thrombolites during deposition of the Tribes Hill. Offlap and erosion of the Tribes Hill was followed by the relatively feeble sea-level rise of the Rochdale transgression (new) in Laurentia, and deposition of the Rochdale Formation. The Rochdale transgression, correlated with the Kierograptus Drowning Interval in Baltica, marks a eustatic rise. The Rochdale Formation represents a short Early Ordovician interval (early late Tremadocian, middle–late Stairsian, Macerodus dianae Chron). It correlates with a depositional sequence that forms the middle Boat Harbour Formation in west Newfoundland and with the Rte 299 d/a interval on the east Laurentian slope. The Rochdale has a lower carbonate with abundant quartz silt (Comstock Member, new) and an upper, thrombolitic (Hawk Member, new) high-stand facies. Tribes Hill and Rochdale faunas are mollusc-rich, generally trilobite-poor, and have low diversity, Laurentian faunal province conodonts. Ulrichodina rutnika Landing n. sp. is rare in Rochdale conodont assemblages. Trilobites are also low in diversity, but locally form coquinas in the middle Tribes Hill. The poorly preserved Rochdale trilobites include the bathyurid Randaynia, at least two hystricurid species and Leiostegium.