Aminostratigraphic correlations of emergent Quaternary deposits along the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain have employed independent radiometric data, regional temperature history models, and assumptions regarding the nature of the preserved late Quaternary sea-level record on this passive margin. A substantial “aminostratigraphic offset” is required if regional aminozones are rigorously constrained by all available Th/U data. New insights regarding the relation of this offset to subsurface stratigraphy in the Cape Fear region of southeastern North Carolina can explain these conflicts as consequences of the highly incomplete post-Cretaceous depositional record of the region. Southward projection of theoretical aminostratigraphic correlation trends suggests that stage 5 correlative marine units are rarely preserved on the emergent portion of the Coastal Plain between Cape Lookout and central South Carolina and that samples of this age would be most frequently found in this region only as fragmentary (and/or reworked) deposits on the inner shelf or in the subsurface of modern barrier islands. If this hypothesis is correct, then the accuracy of several Th/U coral dates from the South Carolina Coastal Plain must be questioned, along with sea-level, tectonic, and paleoclimatic conclusions derived from these dates.

The Dead Sea is surrounded by chemical and detrital sediments that were deposited in its larger precursor lakes, Lake Samra and Lake Lisan. The sedimentary history of these lakes was recon-structed by means of 230Th/234U ages of 30 samples, mostly of argonite laminae, from 8 columnar sections up to 110 km apart. The general validity of the ages was demonstrated by subjecting them to tests of internal isotopic consistency, agreement with stratigraphic order, and concordance with 14C ages. In the south, only the part of the Samra Formation older than 170,000 yr is exposed, while the aragonite-detritus rhythmites found in the central and northern region are generally younger than 120,000 yr. The Lisan Formation started accumulating about 63,000 yr B.P., with the clay and aragonite beds in the south-central area reflecting a rise in water level to at least −280 m. The upper part of the Lisan Formation, the aragonite-rich White Cliff Member, started accumulating about 36,000 yr B.P. The lake probably reached its highest level sometime after this, based on the ages of Lisan sediments preserved in the southernmost reaches of the basin.

In central New York, deformation of salt of the Salina Formation by the Laurentide Ice Sheet is shown by a thinning of the salt stratum in and near the outcrop zone where it was overridden by the ice sheet and by a thickening down-dip near the glacial limit. Less definitive suggestions of deformation by glacial overriding of the Salina outcrop zone in northeastern Ohio are seen in salt-cored anticlines in the vicinity of the glacial limit. In the lower peninsula of Michigan, isopachs of salt curve around Saginaw Bay, which suggests that the salt was displaced southwestward, away from the bay, by pressure of the Saginaw lobe of the ice sheet. All but one of the major Paleozoic salt deposits of North America lie in a zone that girdles two-thirds of the Canadian Shield from where glacial erosion removed all but occasional outliers of Phanerozoic strata.

The radial-growth patterns of white spruce were studied on a number of trees growing in subarctic dunes along the eastern coast of Hudson Bay to calculate the rates of accumulation, erosion, and migration of cold-climate sand dunes. The average rate of sand accumulation in sheltered dunes (forest sites) was 2.5 to 3.3 cm/yr, which is two to three times lower than in highly exposed dunes with a rate of sedimentation of 7.65 cm/yr. The average erosion rate was 1.4–1.7 cm/yr, about two times lower than the accumulation rate. The migration rate of sheltered dunes was 18 to 30 cm/yr, three to five times lower than for an exposed dune which advanced at a speed of 74 cm/yr. This migration rate established for highly exposed dunes in the Subarctic with tree-ring methods is about 10 times lower than that established for a barchan in the Sahara with other methods.

High-resolution seismic profiles, as well as sedimentological and micropaleontological analyses of three cores, are used to reconstruct the environmental and sedimentological evolution of Preservation Inlet, the southernmost New Zealand fjord. Toward the end of the last glaciation, a series of deep oligotrophic lakes, impounded by shallow sills, occupied Preservation Inlet. Glaciers filled the headwater valleys and the vegetation consisted of a sparse cover of grass, scrub, and shrubs. The principal rivers discharged into the head of these lakes forming large sandy deltas, while finely laminated clays were deposited in the distal basins. As the climate started warming ca. 18,000 yr B.P., the snowline rose and glaciers retreated. Developing forests were dominated by Metrosideros and Cyathea fringed by coastal shrubland. In the now more productive lakes, a rich freshwater fauna developed, sedimentation rates increased, and organic mud accumulated. Under rapidly rising sea level, between 9500 and ca. 8000 yr B.P., the sills enclosing the lakes were successively overtopped. Marine water intruded into the fjord basins and flooded the deltas at the head of the lakes. By 6500 yr B.P. sea level had stabilized and the fjord assumed its present condition. Shrubs decreased in abundance and forests dominated by Weinmannia and Dacrydium cupressinum then developed. A forest dominated by Nothofagus fusca spread between 2000 and 1500 yr B.P., indicating a cooler climate. In Preservation Inlet and other New Zealand fjords, eustatic sea-level rise has been greater than isostatic rebound or tectonic uplift. Coastal inundation has resulted in a transgressional sequence from a limnic to marine environment. This contrasts with fjord coasts of the northern hemisphere where isostatic rebound has produced coastal emergence, or coastal emergence followed by submergence.

The Richmond River Valley of northern N.S.W. contains a late Pleistocene succession dating back to approximately 250,000 yr B.P. Dinoflagellate and spore-pollen assemblages from the lowest interval, the lower “Dungarubba Clay” of Drury (1982), indicate deposition in a restricted estuarine environment at approximately 250,000 yr. Deposition in the overlying interval, the upper “Dungarubba Clay” and “Gundurimba Clay”, at approximately 120,000 yr B.P., began in a restricted estuary, but rising sea level caused inundation and deposition in a more open, marine-dominated environment. Dinoflagellate cyst assemblages from the last interglaciation (stage 5) are interpreted by analogy with those from the morphologically similar, modern Broken Bay, N.S.W. They are indicative of an open, marine-dominated environment and imply that barrier formation in the Richmond River Valley, and possibly elsewhere in northern N.S.W., did not commence until after the initial postglacial transgression. Synchronous changes in sea level and rainforest development suggest that there was no significant time lag between climate and sea-level change.

A core 120 km off the coast of southern Oregon was examined for changes in lithology, diatoms, and pollen over the past 30,000 yr. Primary production during the late Pleistocene was about half that of the Holocene. Evidence from diatoms and pollen indicates that summer upwelling was much weaker, implying an absence of strong northerly winds. Early Pliocene diatoms found throughout the late Pleistocene section were probably derived from diatomites east of the Cascades and provide evidence for strong easterly winds over a dry continental interior. The findings verify predictions of a climate model based on glacial maximum conditions. There is no compelling evidence for a climatic reversal corresponding to the European Younger Dryas chron. During the early Holocene (9000−7000 yr B.P.) there may have been years when winds were insufficiently strong to support upwelling, so that warm stratified waters lay closer to the coast.

Insect fossils and pollen from late Pleistocene nonmarine peat layers were recovered from cores from the shelf region of the Chukchi Sea at depths of about 50 m below sea level. The peats date to 11,300−11,000 yr B.P. and provide a limiting age for the regional Pleistocene-Holocene marine transgression. The insect fossils are indicative of arctic coastal habitats like those of the Mackenzie Delta region (mean July temperatures = 10.6–14°C) suggesting that 11,000 yr ago the exposed Chukchi Sea shelf had a climate substantially warmer than modern coastal regions of the Alaskan north slope. The pollen spectra are consistent with the age assignment to the Birch Interval (14,000–9000 yr B.P.). The data suggest a meadow-like graminoid tundra with birch shrubs and some willow shrubs growing in sheltered areas.

Details of short-term climatic variability are often lost from marine sediments through bioturbation in the upper, aerobic sediment layers. Alternatively, a high-resolution and dated record of climatic events may be obtained using material preserved in archaeological deposits. The Holocene history of the southern Benguela upwelling regime has been constructed from the oxygen isotope and mineral analysis of midden shells. Three discrete episodes of significant isotope enrichment corresponded to periods of glacial expansion in the northern hemisphere. Significant changes in shell mineralogy, which is a response to sea-surface temperatures, were also recorded. The timing and duration of these changes approximated those in the isotope record and may provide a link between events affecting the subcontinent and global temperature changes of the late Quaternary.