The Quaternary deposits in the Galilee coastal plain comprise alternating calcareous sandstone, red loam, dark clay, and uncemented sand. The calcareous sandstone in the lower part of the sequence represents a Pliocene to early Pleistocene marine transgression, and is covered unconformably by the late Quaternary sequence. The base of this sequence has an estimated age of ∼500,000 yr. It is covered unconformably by marine calcareous sandstone in the west, which represents the global high sea-level stand of isotope stage 7.1, and is known as one of the “Tyrrhenian” events in the Mediterranean area. The overlying members represent the low sea-level stand of stage 6, the first a red paleosol indicating a relatively wet phase and the second an eolianite unit representing a drier phase. The eolianite forms longitudinal, subparallel ridges that formed contemporaneously. The overlying marine sandstone, which contains one of the diagnostic fossils of the “Tyrrhenian” events, the gastropodStrombus buboniusLMK, accumulated during the global high stand of stage 5.5. The last glacial period left no sedimentary record. The Holocene is represented by a marine clay unit that is covered by sand. The present study establishes a complete and detailed chronostratigraphic sequence for an eastern Mediterranean beach, which contains the gastropodS. buboniusLMK.S. buboniuson the Galilee coast is attributed to stage 5.5 and therefore, establishes an east–west Mediterranean correlation, which can be used for linking Mediterranean events to paleo-sea levels and global climate changes.

Microscopic charcoal from varved Santa Barbara Basin sediments was used to reconstruct a 560-yr record (A.D. 1425 to 1985) of Santa Ana fires. Comparison of large (>3750 μm2) charcoal with documented fire records in the Santa Barbara Ranger District shows that high accumulations correspond to large fires (>20,000 ha) that occurred during Santa Ana conditions. The charcoal record reconstructed a minimum of 20 large fires in the Santa Barbara region during the study period. The average time between fires shows no distinct change across three different land use periods: the Chumash period, apparently characterized by frequent burning, the Spanish/Early American period with nominal fire control, and the 20th century with active fire suppression. Pollen data support the conclusion that the fire regime has not dramatically changed during the last 500 yr. Comparison of large charcoal particle accumulation rates and precipitation reconstructed from tree rings show a strong relationship between climate and fire history, with large fires consistently occurring at the end of wet periods and the beginning of droughts.

Diring Yuriakh, an archaeological site on the highest terrace of the Lena River in subarctic eastern Siberia, provides evidence for the oldest and northern-most Early Paleolithic occupation in Asia. Stratigraphic and sedimentological studies at the site show that artifacts occur on a single eolian deflation surface that is underlain by fluvial sediments with inset cryogenic sand wedges and overlain by eolian deposits. Thermoluminescence ages on the fine-grained extracts from the eolian sediments and sand wedges that bound the artifact level indicate that the occupation occurred >260,000 yr B.P. and may possibly date between 270,000 and 370,000 yr B.P. This study documents that the artifacts from Diring Yuriakh are an order of magnitude older than artifacts from any previously reported site from Siberia. The antiquity and subarctic location of Diring Yuriakh indicates that people developed a subsistence strategy capable of surviving rigorous conditions in Siberia by ≥260,000 yr B.P.

Marine sediment cores from the continental slope off mid-latitude Chile (33°S) were studied with regard to grain-size distributions and clay mineral composition. The data provide a 28,000-yr14C accelerator mass spectrometry-dated record of variations in the terrigenous sediment supply reflecting modifications of weathering conditions and sediment source areas in the continental hinterland. These variations can be interpreted in terms of the paleoclimatic evolution of mid-latitude Chile and are compared to existing terrestrial records. Glacial climates (28,000–18,000 cal yr B.P.) were generally cold–humid with a cold–semiarid interval between 26,000 and 22,000 cal yr B.P. The deglaciation was characterized by a trend toward more arid conditions. During the middle Holocene (8000–4000 cal yr B.P.), comparatively stable climatic conditions prevailed with increased aridity in the Coastal Range. The late Holocene (4000–0 cal yr B.P.) was marked by more variable paleoclimates with generally more humid conditions. Variations of rainfall in mid-latitude Chile are most likely controlled by shifts of the latitudinal position of the Southern Westerlies. Compared to the Holocene, the southern westerly wind belt was located significantly farther north during the last glacial maximum. Less important variations of the latitudinal position of the Southern Westerlies also occurred on shorter time scales.

The magnetobiostratigraphy study of the 130-m-thick Zújar section (Negratı́n clays unit, Guadix-Baza Basin, Spain) provides a remarkable opportunity to improve the correlation of European mammal biostratigraphy to the Geomagnetic Polarity Time Scale. The occurrence of 12 well-defined magnetozones and four paleontological sites with diagnostic faunas ranging from the MN 15 biozone (Ruscinian) to the MN 17 biozone (Villanyian), leads to an unambiguous correlation to chrons spanning from the Gilbert to the Matuyama epochs. This provides two new time constraints: (1) the boundary between MN 15 (Ruscinian) and MN 16 (Villanyian) biozones is recorded between chron C2An.3n and the base of chron C2An.2n and (2) the boundary between the upper and lower MN 16 subzones (Villanyian) is located between chron C2An.2n and the base of chron C2An.1n. The correlation between the Ruscinian–Villanyian boundary and the 3.3-myr-B.P. cooling event seems to be confirmed, while the early/late Villanyian boundary could be tentatively correlated to the glacial event at 2.6 myr B.P. Furthermore, MN 15 faunas are found in the lowermost part of chron C2Ar, which is in agreement with and reinforces the emplacement of the MN 14–MN 15 Ruscinian zones boundary at the reversal from chron 3n.1n to chron C2Ar.

Corals from the Seychelles Islands, Indian Ocean, occur mainly as small coralline algae–vermetid remnants found in cavities adhering to the rock surface, and they rarely attain more than 2 m2 in area. Samples of Goniastrea and Porites from elevations between 1.7 and 6 m above present mean sea level were dated by TIMS 238U–234U–230Th techniques. The ages from well-preserved corals lie between 131,000 and 122,000 yr B.P., in agreement with most other observations of the last-interglacial sea level. Field evidence and dating from high marine limestones from two sections at La Digue Island indicate a period of coral buildup until 131,000 yr B.P., followed by a drop in sea level between 131,000 and 122,000 yr B.P.

A long radiometrically dated oxygen isotopic record of continental climatic variations since the penultimate glaciation was obtained from a stalagmite deposited in a sealed cave in Jerusalem. This record shows that speleothems have the potential of assigning dates to long- and short-term climatic events, with possible refining of Milankovitch tuning of ice and marine records which themselves are not datable. Short-term (∼1000-yr) events are very significant in the region, reaching ∼50% of glacial/interglacial fluctuations. The Mediterranean Sea was the most probable source of local precipitation throughout the last glacial cycle.

The open-air Acheulian site in Holon, Israel, was dated by the luminescence methods and by electron spin resonance (ESR). Situated in the coastal plain Quaternary Kurkar Group, the Holon site was first excavated in the late 1960s, when typical lower Paleolithic lithics and middle Pleistocene fauna were found. In order to date the site, new test pits were dug adjacent to the earlier excavations and the archaeological bed was exposed in a section comprising a series of paleosols and aeolianites. Alkali feldspars separated from the sediments were dated using the infrared stimulated luminescence and thermoluminescence signals, and quartz was dated using the optically stimulated luminescence signal. The age of the archaeological bed is constrained by two samples to 198,000 ± 22,000–201,000 ± 17,000 yr. The age of the base of the section is 240,000 ± 29,000 yr, and the age of the top is 81,000 ± 8000 yr. Two teeth from the archaeological bed, recovered from the original excavation collection, yielded an average ESR age of 204,000 ± 16,000 yr, calculated using the linear uptake model, which is in a very good agreement with the luminescence ages. These dates place Holon within the range of other late Acheulian and Acheulo-Yabrudian sites in this region such as Tabun E (younger chronology), Yabrud I (archaeological level 18), and Berekhat Ram.