Conventional and accelerator mass spectrometry 14C ages indicate that laminated sediment in three cores from the northern California continental slope near 38°N and 39°N were deposited between 42,000 and 25,000 yr B.P. This revises and refines our previous estimates that laminated sediment accumulated during the late Pleistocene to early Holocene (J. V. Gardner and E. Hemphill-Haley, 1986, Geology 14, 691-694). Preservation of laminated sediment on the upper slope in this area suggests a period of intense coastal upwelling, high primary productivity, and resultant depletion of oxygen in bottomwaters preceding the onset of global glacial conditions. The transition from Pleistocene to Holocene conditions, and the establishment of a modern climatic regime driven by the California Current, included the incursion of the subtropical diatom, Pseudoeunotia doliola. P. doliola is common in sediment younger than about 10,000 yr and thus is a reliable marker species for identifying Holocene deposits off northern California.

High-resolution pollen and eolian input studies from core KS 84063 in the Gulf of Guinea record the response of the tropical atmospheric circulation to global paleoclimatic events during the last glacial/interglacial transition. Two depositional phases centered around 15,000 and 10,300 yr B.P. are characterized by maximum values of pollen concentration and of eolian activity index (EA1). Pollen spectra record the significant presence of Artemisia and Ephedra of Saharan origin and the scattered occurrence of Podocarpus from Guinean mountain forests; these demonstrate the intensity of the meridional atmospheric circulation over equatorial West Africa during dry periods. The early Holocene humid phase, ca. 8500 yr B.P., is marked by minima in pollen concentrations and EAI. Saharan taxa are absent and, in contrast, Podocarpus reached its highest relative values. This evidence has been interpreted as reflecting a weakening in the continentocean eolian transport and the importance of monsoonal fluxes. Downcore variations in Podocarpus percentages are used to identify the atmospheric circulation patterns over the low latitudes of West Africa during extreme (dry/humid) climatic conditions.