Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology

Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology
Author: J. Ehlers
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 390
Release: 2004-10-02
Genre: Science
ISBN: 008047408X

This book is the last of three volumes in which the recent knowledge of the extent and chronology of Quaternary glaciations has been compiled on a global scale. This information is seen as a fundamental requirement, not only for the glacial community, but for the wider user-community of general Quaternary workers. In particular the need for accurate ice-front positions is a basic requirement for the rapidly growing field of palaeoclimate modelling. In order to provide the information for the widest-possible range of users in the most accessible form, a series of digital maps was prepared.The glacial limits were mapped in ArcView, the Geographical Information System (GIS) used by the work group. Included with the publication is a CD with digital maps, showing glacial limits, end moraines, ice-dammed lakes, glacier-induced drainage diversions and the locations of key sections through which the glacial limits are defined and dated. Where controversial interpretations are possible, such as for High Asia, they are indicated. All information on Quaternary glaciations worldwide is presented for the first time in a uniform format, including the mountain glaciations of regions such as Costa Rica, Ethiopia or Taiwan. The digital maps in this volume cover Latin America, Asia, Africa, Australasia, Antarctica. Both overview maps and more detailed maps at a scale 1: 1,000,000 are provided.Also available: Part I: Europe, ISBN 0-444-51462-7 Part II: North America, ISBN 0-444-51592-5

Paleoclimate and Evolution, with Emphasis on Human Origins

Paleoclimate and Evolution, with Emphasis on Human Origins
Author: Elisabeth S. Vrba
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 567
Release: 1995-01-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0300063482

Addressing the relationship between climatic and biotic evolution, this work focuses on how climatic change during the last 15 million years - especially the last three million - has affected human evolution and other evolutionary events.

Glaciations in North and South America from the Miocene to the Last Glacial Maximum

Glaciations in North and South America from the Miocene to the Last Glacial Maximum
Author: Nat Rutter
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 75
Release: 2012-06-30
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9400743998

Improved dating methods have increased our ability to more precisely determine the timing and durations of glaciations. Utilizing glacial and loess deposits, we have compared glaciations that occurred in North and South America in order to determine if events are synchronous or not, to explore forcing mechanisms, and to compare glaciations with cold periods of the Marine Oxygen Isotope stages and the loess/paleosol records of China. Stratigraphic sections containing a variety of glacial deposits, some with interbedded volcanics, as well as loess deposits, were used in reconstructing the glacial history. The Late Pleistocene (Brunhes Chron) Last Glacial Maximum is recognized in mountain and continental areas of North America but only in the mountains of South America. Commonly our comparisons indicate roughly synchronous glaciations on the two continents, whereas other glaciations are more elusive and difficult to compare. Although our comparisons are at low resolutions, the results suggest that Milankovitch forcing is most likely the dominant trigger for hemispheric glaciation modified by local factors.