The glacial history of the Tagliamento morainic amphitheater (southeastern Alpine foreland, Italy) during the last glacial maximum (LGM) has been reconstructed by means of a geological survey and drillings, radiocarbon dating and pollen analysis in the amphitheater and in the sandur. Two phases of glacial culmination, separated by a distinct recession, are responsible for glacial landforms and related sediments in the outer part of the amphitheater. The age of the younger advance fits the chronology of the culmination of the last glaciation in the Alps, well established between 24 and 21 cal ka BP (20 to 17.5 14C ka BP), whereas the first pulse between 26.5 and 23 cal ka BP (22 to 21 14C ka BP), previously undated, was usually related to older (pre-LGM) glaciations by previous authors. Here, the first pulse is the most extensive LGM culmination, but is often buried by the subsequent pulse. The onset and final recession of the late Würm Alpine glaciation in the Tagliamento amphitheater are synchronous with the established global glacial maximum between 30 and 19 cal ka BP. The two-fold LGM glacial oscillation is interpreted as a millennial-scale modulation within the late Würm glaciation, caused by oscillations in inputs of southerly atmospheric airflows related to Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles. Phases of enhanced southerly circulation promoted increased rainfall and ice accumulation in the southern Alps.

Authigenic calcite silts at Wadi Midauwara in Kharga Oasis, Egypt, indicate the prolonged presence of surface water during the Marine Isotope Stage 5e pluvial phase recognized across North Africa. Exposed over an area of ∼ 4.25 km2, these silts record the ponding of water derived from springs along the Libyan Plateau escarpment and from surface drainage. The δ18O values of these lacustrine carbonates (− 11.3‰ to − 8.0‰ PDB), are too high to reflect equilibrium precipitation with Nubian aquifer water or water of an exclusively Atlantic origin. Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca of the silts have a modest negative covariance with silt δ18O values, suggesting that the water may have experienced the shortest residence time in local aquifers when the water δ18O values were highest. Furthermore, intra-shell δ18O, Sr/Ca, and Ba/Ca analyses of the freshwater gastropod Melanoides tuberculata are consistent with a perennially fresh water source, suggesting that strong evaporative effects expected in a monsoonal climate did not occur, or that dry season spring flow was of sufficient magnitude to mute the effects of evaporation. The input of a second, isotopically heavier water source to aquifers, possibly Indian Ocean monsoonal rain, could explain the observed trends in δ18O and minor element ratios.

Planktic foraminiferal census data, faunal sea surface temperatures (SSTs) and oxygen isotopic and lithic records from a site in the northeast Atlantic were analyzed to study the interglacial dynamics of Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11, a period thought to closely resemble the Holocene on the basis of orbital forcing. Interglacial conditions during MIS 11 persisted for approximately 26 ka. After the main deglacial meltwater processes ceased, a 10- to 12-ka-long transitional period marked by significant water mass circulation changes occurred before surface waters finally reached their thermal maximum. This SST peak occurred between 400 and 397 ka, inferred from the abundance of the most thermophilic foraminiferal species and was coincident with lowest sea level according to benthic isotope values. The ensuing stepwise SST decrease characterizes the overall climate deterioration preceding the increase in global ice volume by ∼ 3 ka. This cooling trend was followed by a more pronounced cold event that began at 388 ka, and that terminated in the recurrence of icebergs at the site around 382 ka. Because the water mass configuration of early MIS 11 evolved quite differently from that of the early Holocene, there is little evidence that MIS 11 can serve as an appropriate analogue for a future Holocene climate, despite the similarity in some orbital parameters.

Cosmogenic 10Be ages on boulders of 54–51 ka (n=4) on a penultimate Cordilleran ice sheet (CIS) drift confirm that Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 4 (early Wisconsin) glaciation was extensive in parts of Yukon Territory, the first confirmed evidence in the Canadian Cordillera. We name the glaciation inferred from the mapped and dated drift the Gladstone. These results are in apparent contrast to the MIS 6 (Illinoian) age of the penultimate Reid glaciation to the east in central Yukon but are equivalent to exposure ages on MIS 4 drift in Alaska. Contrasting penultimate ice extents in Yukon requires that different source areas of the northern CIS in Yukon responded differently to climatic forcing during glaciations. The variation in glacier extent for different source areas likely relates to variation in precipitation during glaciation, as the northern CIS was a precipitation-limited system. Causes for a variation in precipitation remain unclear but likely involve the style of precipitation delivery over the St. Elias Mountains possibly related to variations in the Aleutian low.

We measured 10Be and 26Al in 29 sediment samples to infer the history and millennial-scale rates of change down a low-gradient piedmont, a common but enigmatic landform that dominates the Mojave Desert. Nuclide data suggest that a large volume of sediment was deposited on the proximal East Range Road piedmont in Fort Irwin, California, ∼ 75,500 yr ago. Since then, this material has been stable or eroding slowly. In contrast, on the distal piedmont (3.5 km from the upland source basins) soil stratigraphy suggests that there have been alternating periods of surface stability, erosion, and deposition over the last 70,000 yr. Nuclide data from samples amalgamated along cross-piedmont transects suggest that long-term average down-gradient sediment speeds range from 9 cm yr− 1 near the uplands to 22 cm yr− 1 6 km down-piedmont. These speeds are similar to 10Be-estimated sediment speeds down three other piedmonts in the Mojave Desert, suggesting that piedmont surface morphologies dominated by shallow migrating channels have similar sediment transport rates. The timing of surface process change down the East Range Road piedmont is determined by a combination of sediment available in the source basins, sediment transport rates, and the size of the piedmont.

Grain-size analyses, coupled with end-member modelling, have been performed on the terrigenous fraction of two Leg 184 Ocean Drilling Program sites (1144 and 1146) from the South China Sea. The grain-size distributions over the last 1.8 Ma enable a new interpretation of their connections to sea-level variations and East Asian monsoon strength. Previous investigations in this area have associated grain-size variability with enhanced eolian input during glacial stages. End-member modelling downgrades the importance of this eolian contribution and indicates that the sediments can be described as a mixture of three end-members: fluvial mud inputs, shelf reworking and river mouth migration. Grain-size variations in the Pleistocene section of the cores indicate a multiple-stage evolution: (i) from 1.8 to 1.25 Ma, the downcore grain-size variations are low but show a correspondence between monsoon rainfall intensity and the fine grain-sized fluvial inputs; no link with sea-level variations is noticeable; (ii) from 1.25 to 0.9 Ma, there is an increase (decrease) in the intermediate (fine) end-member (∼ 100 kyr cycle) that is associated with the onset of a stronger summer monsoon and modest shelf reworking; (iii) from 0.9 to 0 Ma the grain-size record is dominated by global sea-level variations; each glacial stage is associated with extensive shelf reworking and conveyance of coarse particles to the basin.