The marine record shows that over the last 350 ka Northern Hemisphere ice sheet volumes have fluctuated widely and only on rare short occasions have they been reduced to the present interglacial state. The fluctuations are well synchronized with hemispheric average summer insolation variations of 20 ka periodicity caused by changing orbital parameters. The development of a model which explains the varied amplitudes of the fluctuations and is consistent with the geological record embodies the following arguments: The transition from an interglacial state like today's to a glacial state is initiated when a summer insolation deficit causes a southerly extension of the North Atlantic-Arctic pack ice to 60°N latitude. The extension alters the subpolar low pressure patterns and thus causes a southward diversion of the European Gulf Stream flow. It also produces an enhanced warm West Greenland current. This current causes open seas as far north as Baffin Bay which provides moisture for rapid northern Laurentide ice sheet growth. After several glacial fluctuations driven by insolation variations, the southern Laurentide ice front may reach an extreme extension. This diverts the westerlies and the Gulf Stream thus weakening a dominant subpolar North Atlantic gyre and consequently producing a prolonged cutoff of the West Greenland current and a reduction of high latitude glacial precipitation. The subsequent high insolation can then melt back the eastern pack ice and restore the northern European Gulf Stream. This warms the high latitudes for a time sufficient to melt the continental ice, thus causing the transition back to the interglacial state.

An analysis of the record in the context of model suggests that the threshold deficit in average summer insolation that is required to initiate major glacial growth is influenced by the cooling effect of the Greenland ice cap on the seas to the east. The threshold level under conditions like today's is found to lie between −7 and −17 ly/day relative to the present. This threshold will not be crossed for at least 54 millenia due to an interval of smaller orbital eccentricity. Probable melting of the Greenland ice cap about 30 ka AP would ensure the extension of the present interglacial beyond 120 ka AP.

The surface temperature curve for the Northern Hemisphere was extended to include the years 1969 through 1973 following the same procedure used by H. C. Willett, J. M. Mitchell, Jr., and C. H. Reitan. The analysis showed a slight warming of 0.02°C between the periods 1965–1969 and 1970–1973, and a significant decrease in the number of negative temperature changes at individual stations (indicating a decrease in the total area experiencing temperature decrease).

Between 60,000 and 40,000 B.P., northeastern Queensland, south New South Wales, and southeastern South Australia were drier than at present. From 40,000–30,000 B.P. a colder climate than at present is indicated from one New Guinea area. Dryness became even more accentuated in northeastern Queensland, whereas many lakes filled up in the southern mainland, probably because of increasing precipitation effectiveness there. Before the end of this period colder conditions than now were already giving rise to slope instability in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales.

The period of 25,000–15,000 B.P. saw the greatest lowering of the New Guinea treeline, reaching an extreme at 17,000 B.P. when glaciers also achieved their maximum extent. This was the time of extensive glaciation in Tasmania and small glaciers formed in the Snowy Mountains. Estimates of the lowering of mean annual temperature range from 6°–10°C. Northeastern Queensland experienced its driest Late Quaternary climate; lakes were contracting throughout the southern mainland and the final phase of substantial desert dune building took place before the period ended.

In the Snowy Mountains ice retreat began before 20,000 B.P., as did the construction of clay dunes in the southern semi-arid belt, a process demanding higher temperatures. However, in New Guinea and Tasmania ice retreat and treeline rise did not begin till after 15,000 B.P. Temperatures rose rapidly and everywhere most of the ice had gone by 10,000 B.P., when some lakes filled up in southern Australia, implying an increase in absolute precipitation.

In the last 10,000 years climate has been relatively stable although there are some indications that temperature and rainfall were marginally higher than now between 8000 and 5000 B.P. Since then, lake levels have oscillated; a brief, limited resumption of periglacial activity took place in the Snowy Mountains and there were small glacier advances in New Guinea.

Quaternary stratigraphy in the northeastern region has developed slowly because researchers have been few and because quartzose bedrock and extensive forest have inhibited field study. The earliest stratigraphic studies antedated 1850, but in most parts of the region the stratigraphic units still recognized today were identified in the present century. Ancient and modern sequences are generalized and are shown in charts.

New evidence from recent field and seismic investigations in the Lake Michigan basin and in the type areas of the Valders, Two Creeks and Two Rivers deposits necessitates revision of late-glacial ice-front positions, rock- and time-stratigraphic nomenclature and climatic interpretations and deglaciation patterns for the period ca. 14,000–7,000 radiocarbon years B.P. The previously reported and long accepted pattern of deglaciation for the Lake Michigan basin started with a regular retreat from the Lake Border Morainic System, with a minor oscillation marked by the Port Huron moraine(s) and then an extensive Twocreekan deglaciation followed by a major (320 km) post-Twocreekan advance (Valders). However, we now record a major retreat between the times of the Lake Border and Port Huron moraines, followed by a gradual retreat from the Port Huron limit and interrupted by a minor standstill (deposition of Manitowoc Till), a retreat (Twocreekan) and a readvance (Two Rivers Till). No Woodfordian or younger readvance was as extensive as had been the preceding one. This sequence argues for a normal, climatically controlled, progressive deglaciation rather than one interrupted by a major post-Twocreekan (formerly Valderan) surge. This revision appears finally to harmonize the geologic evidence and the palynological record for the Great Lakes region. Our investigations show that Valders Till from which the Valderan Substage was named is late-Woodfordian in age. We propose the term “Greatlakean” as a replacement for the now misleading time-stratigraphic term “Valderan”. The type section and the definition of the upper and lower boundaries of the Greatlakean Substage remain the same as those originally proposed for the Valderan Substage but the name is changed.

Heavy mineral analysis is a useful tool in tracing the changes in the hydrographic setting of the Nile through time. Analyses by the writer and others are presented to differentiate between a former Nilotic system, a Proto-Nile, and the modern Nile system, and to demonstrate the changes undergone by the modern Nile.

The Proto-Nile was almost totally dependent upon discharge from equatorial and sub-equatorial tributaries in East Africa and from local Sudano-Egyptian affluents. The modern Nile system, in contrast, is dominated by contributions from the Blue Nile and the Atbara River, which drain the Ethiopian Plateau. The discharge of these rivers is governed by the monsoonal rains which are responsible for the summer floods in the Lower Nile Basin. It has been generally believed that this riverine system is very recent, perhaps not much older than 20,000 years. The evidence presented in this paper indicates that the Modern Nile system was well established by the later part of the Middle Pleistocene. In its early stage, the modern Nile was characterized by greater contributions from the non-Ethiopian East African and Sudano-Egyptian tributaries than at present.

The absolute elevations of sea level 103,000 and 82,000 years ago have been estimated as −15 and −13 m, respectively, from the present elevations of emergent reefs on Barbados (Broecker et al., 1968; Matthews, 1973; Bloom et al., 1974). The “Barbados model” requires two assumptions: (1) that sea level was +6 m 124,000 years ago, and (2) that rates of uplift on short individual traverses have been uniform during the last 125,000 years.

A test of the derived values on Barbados itself does not yield uniform rates of uplift between 124,000 and 82,000 years ago. Less reliably dated strand line features on less uplifted coasts suggest that sea level 124,000 years ago differed from sea levels 103,000 and 82,000 years ago by smaller amounts than those suggested by the “Barbados model.” Such smaller differences yield more uniform rates of uplift between 124,000 and 82,000 years ago, on New Guinea as well as on Barbados, than do the larger. The “Barbados model” is not sufficiently precise to yield close estimates of past elevations of sea level. Better values will eventually be derived from low uplift coasts, when stratigraphic and radiometric data from them have achieved the credibility of data from moderate to high uplift coasts.