A contribution to a global a priori model of climatic changes for the Quaternary Ice Age is tentatively proposed. Special emphases are put on the astronomical problem and on the insolation available in the assumption of a perfectly transparent atmosphere. It is shown that for these two steps an accurate solution can be obtained, limiting the cumulative effect of computational approximation and allowing input to a climatological model to be of real value. For the earth's orbital elements, the proposed solution includes terms dependent to the second degree on disturbing masses, to third degree on planetary eccentricities and inclinations and, for the obliquity and the annual general precession in longitude, also to the second degree on earth's eccentricity. Improvements introduced by this solution upon the insolation computed through the Milankovitch series are deduced from the differences between Vernekar's results and present ones. The relative agreement between results clearly shows that the new astronomical solution is probably close to the ideal one from a paleoclimatological point of view.

A rock glacier-year, with little evidence of long-term surges. Different parts of the slope like boulder deposit on the Table Cliffs Plateau, Utah, has moved slowly over a long period of time and has affected over 220 trees growing on it. Analyses of annual rings of trees affected by this and other slope movements show events such as inclination, shear, corrasion, burial, exposure, inundation, and nudation. Datable responses to these events are reaction-wood growth, growth suppression and release, ring termination and new callous growth, sprouting, succession, and miscellaneous structural and morphological changes. Various events may produce delayed, antagonistic, interfering, or irrelevant event responses, necessitating procedural caution. A modified skeleton plot of yearly event responses was constructed for each sample in this study with only strongly replicating dates from within trees considered valid. The resulting event-response curve shows peak periods of movement centered around the years 1781, 1803, 1827, 1849, 1869, 1885, 1890, 1907, 1910, 1923, 1938, 1942, 1944, and 1958. Spectral analysis of the event-response curve, mean annual precipitation, and an independently derived tree-ring precipitation surrogate suggests a possible relation between precipitation and slope movement. Analyses of temperature data did not produce results in spite of the presence of internal ice which might be expected to contribute to movement. Map plots of movement through time show event responses scattered in linear zones throughout the slope during main episodes of movement in any given move at different times and some parts move more than others.

Uplift rates of the Loyalty Islands (S.W. Pacific) have been determined from 230Th/234U dating of raised coral terraces standing 2 to 7.5 m above sea level. The ages of the terraces on Ouvéa and Lifou correspond closely to previously documented periods of high sea levels at 120,000 and 180,000 yr BP. A +2-m terrace on Beautemps-Beaupré is considered to be beyond the range of the dating technique. The uplift rates of the various islands show a decrease toward the west. This lends support to the hypothesis of a lithospheric bulge of the leading edge of the Australian plate prior to its subduction at the level of the New Hebrides trench.

We have determined aspartic acid racemization and [14C] ages in sediment from a 17-m piston core recovered from Lake Ontario. This core represents a depositional record extending back into the Late Wisconsin. Total organic radiocarbon ages of the glaciolacustrine lower section of the core are older than the true depositional age. Hence we suggest that these ages do not represent time elapsed since deposition but rather may be up to several thousand years too old due to mixing with 14C-depleted organic matter and possibly also D-amino acids contained by the glacier and deposited as the glacier receded. Further studies are suggested that might test this hypothesis as well as establish the general applicability of racemization dating to clay sediments.

The timing of eustatic sea level fluctuations over the vertical range + 15 to −11 m has been deduced from 230Th/234U dating of Bermudan corals and speleothems. On this tectonically stable carbonate island, interglacial periods are characterized by platform submergence, development of patch reefs, and the deposition of littoral and eolian carbonates, whereas glacial periods are times of platform emergence, carbonate diagenesis, soil development, and the deposition of speleothems in caves extending below present sea level. Interglacial periods are observed at about 200,000, 130,000 to 90,000, and 10,000 yr BP to present. The sea level history of the last interglacial period (130,000 to 90,000 yr BP) is complex, consisting of at least two short, distinct episodes of high sea stand (at 125,000 and 97,000 yr BP) superimposed on a longer period of general platform submergence. The sea level data derived from this study are compatible with those from other stable areas such as the Bahamas, but in addition suggest that eustatic sea level changes can be rapid, on the order of 5 to 10 m/1000 yr.

Substantial numbers of human skeletons have been recovered from caves and shelters of the southern Cape Province, South Africa, and these constitute a valuable source of information about evolutionary change and population movement during Upper Pleistocene and Holocene times. A few fragments from Klasies River Mouth and Die Kelders are firmly associated with Middle Stone Age cultural assemblages, but most of the material is probably linked with the Later Stone Age Albany and Wilton industries. Unfortunately the largest collections of relatively well-preserved remains have come from earlier excavations (Matjes River Shelter, Oakhurst), and the stratigraphic provenance of these burials is frequently in doubt. Other skeletal samples are small, and paleodemographic approaches are diffcult to apply. However, Bushman- or Hottentot-like individuals can certainly be identified, and this is important to the questions of Bushman antiquity or origins. Other problems concerning early Cape populations can also be examined, and this work on the human skeletons should complement ongoing cave sediment and other geological studies, faunal and plant analyses, and archaeological investigations of associated cultural remains.

An electrical resistivity survey of a lacustrine infilled basin in drift (Abbot Moss, N. England) clearly revealed the morphometry and internal structure of the basin. The technique also delimited extensions to the basin, which are buried beneath colluvium outside the present area of peat accumulation. Resistivity drilling has definite advantages over hand boring particularly for deposits formed between deglaciation and the onset of limnic sedimentation, or for sequences containing inpenetrable sand horizons. Geophysical techniques can provide an overall framework and gross stratigraphy of limnic deposits within which more detailed conventional Quaternary studies can be assessed.

This paper presents paleosol chronosequences from the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, covering the last 35,000 yr. The changes in the morphology of the soils which developed in successive layers of volcanic ash reflect climatic changes and are correlated to the palynological studies of Van Der Hammen. Middle Pleniglacial soils are regarded as gleyed (Polylepis) forest soils formed under low evapotranspiration, and soils of the Middle/Upper Pleniglacial transition as humiferous (grassland) Paramo soils. An intervening arid erosion phase was followed by a humid and warmer period (Holocene) during which humiferous soils developed partly under forest, partly under grassland, but throughout under conditions of higher evapotranspiration.