ALBERT

Beschreibung: Most of the 14C measurements reported here were made between October 1972 and October 1973. Equipment, measurement, and treatment of samples are the same as reported previously (R, 1968, v 10, p 36–37; 1970, v 12, p 534).

Beschreibung: The radiocarbon dating facility is part of the UM Geochronology laboratory housed in the Department of Geology, University of Miami, Main Campus. The laboratory was established to carry out and support research in Pleistocene marine geology, particularly in the Caribbean, and to act as a specialized teaching facility of geochronologic research using radiometric age dating techniques.

Beschreibung: A radiocarbon facility has been installed at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) to support interdisciplinary studies including archaeologic, archaeometric, geophysical, and geologic research. The laboratory was built between 1970 and 1973. Initially, a sample pretreatment and combustion system designed for a proportional CO2 counting system was installed. It was designed after concepts developed at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) and New Zealand (Institute of Nuclear Sciences) Laboratories, and began processing samples in November 1972.

Beschreibung: The following list of dates contains all measurements made during 1973, ie, since our last list (R, 1973, v 15, p 451–468). We have installed this year a Nuclear Enterprises NIM system to be used with our 2.5L Oeschger-type proportional counter (Philips), in addition to our 6L and 1L proportional counters which have worked consistently with Beckman Lowbeta electronics. The Philips counter has been calibrated relative to the Beckman electronics and we are now calibrating it relative to the NIM system.

Beschreibung: The following list includes samples dated in 1973. Benzene is used as the carrier of natural 14C activity as previously described (Punning et al, 1973). We used both 1-channel and 2-channel scintillation devices. The detector shield comprises 10cm lead. Around the detector we put 16 Geiger-Mueller type counters in anticoincidence circuit with output signals from detector. It decreased the average background ca 20 to 40%.

Beschreibung: Measurements have continued with the same proportional counter system, pretreatment procedure, methane preparation and measurement, and calculation using a half-life of 5568 ± 30 years, as described previously (R, 1970, v 12, p 298–318). Uncertainties quoted are single standard deviations originating from standard, sample, background counting rates and half-life. No 13C/12C ratios were measured.

Beschreibung: The dating equipment and operating conditions remain essentially as previously described. All samples are from Ireland unless specified.

Beschreibung: This date list includes most of the archaeologic and geologic samples dated in this laboratory since publication of our last date list (R, v 13, p 367–381), as well as some samples dated previously, which lacked adequate sample information. Known-age samples are reported in Univ of Pennsylvania Radiocarbon Dates XVI, this issue. The bp ages are based on ad 1950, and have been calculated with the half-life value of 5568 yr. All samples were counted at least twice for periods of not less than 1000 min each. Errors quoted for each sample are derived from the measurement of the sample, the background, and several counts of our mid- 19th century standard Oak sample, but do not include the half-life error. All samples were pretreated with 3N HCL, and some, where noted, were given additional pretreatment with 2% NaOH for the removal of possible humic acid contaminants.

Beschreibung: On two previous occasions we have published lists of 14C results of precisely dated wood samples in Radiocarbon as per mil deviations (R, 1965, v 7, p 179–186; R, 1969, v 11, no. 2, p 469–481). We have also published a list of 14C dates, consolidating all dated wood samples processed in our lab to July 1969 (Ralph and Michael, 1970).

Beschreibung: In September 1970, the laboratory moved into new premises on the ground floor of a new building. The measuring room is constructed of low radioactive limestone concrete and is lined with grounded copper plate. Air conditioning insures a working temperature of 20 ± 1°C and a relative humidity of 40%.

Beschreibung: The Radioisotopes Laboratory was established in January 1972, in order to supply radiocarbon measurements of various samples to several institutions. Active analyses commenced in June following the testing and evaluation of equipment and known samples for accuracy and reproducibility. During this time, data was accumulated for the statistical establishment of counting accuracy, particularly for background activity.

Beschreibung: 14C dates listed in this report on geochemical, geologic, and archaeologic samples were obtained mainly from the beginning of 1971 to the middle of 1973. Techniques of measurement used are the same as described previously (Yang, 1972). Sample descriptions and comments for archaeologic samples were prepared in collaboration with collectors and submitters. For age calculation, 95% activity of NBS oxalic acid is used as the modern standard and the value of 5568 ± 40 years is used for the half-life of 14C. Dates are expressed in years bp (before ad 1950). The error (1σ) quoted is calculated from the uncertainty involved in counting background, NBS oxalic acid standard, and sample.

Beschreibung: Radiocarbon measurements, mainly on soil and water samples are being continued. Benzene samples are prepared as described earlier (Scharpenseel and Pietig, 1969; 1970). Radioactivity is measured in a single quartz vial, and also with 13 specially manufactured, low background Teflon/Duraluminium vials, similar to the system described by Polach (1971, pers commun).

Beschreibung: The following list of dates is of archaeologic samples submitted in 1971–2, using the counting equipment described in R, 1971, v 13, p 468. Ages are quoted with a 1σ counting error which includes statistical variation of the sample, background, and standard count. The reference year is ad 1950 and 0.95% NBS oxalic acid for 14C dating is the standard. The half-life used is 5570 years.

Beschreibung: The following date list consists of samples prepared mainly during 1970 and 1971. Some old measurements, not included in previous lists are added. Ages reported here are calculated using the conventional half-life of 14C: 5568 years and NBS oxalic acid as recent standard.

Beschreibung: The 14C dates given below are continued from our previous list (R, 1972, v 14, p 223–238), and results obtained mainly during 1971–2 are described. A 2.7L stainless steel counter and a 3.3L copper counter are used as previously, yielding background counting rates of 6.9 and 6.0 cpm, respectively, when filled with dead CO2 at ca 1.8 atm. Dates have been calculated on the basis of the 14C half-life of 5568 yr and 95% of NBS oxalic acid is modern standard. No correction has been made for any of the samples in this list.

Beschreibung: This list includes results of measurements made from 1969 to 1972 in the Natural Radiocarbon Laboratory of the Centre de Recherches Radiogéologiques de Nancy (CRR).

Beschreibung: Most of the 14C measurements reported here were made between August 1970 and August 1972. Chemical treatment of samples and counting technique remain as described previously (R, 1968, v 10, p 144–148; 1971, v 13, p 97–102). We have added Houtermans-Oeschger type multi-anode anticoincidence gas proportional counter, manufactured by Tokyo Atomic, Japan. The central counter tube, which has several small holes, 5mm diam, is made of aluminized polyethylene foil, 0.06mm thick, with 72mm inside diam and 300mm sensitive length. The external counter tube is made of stainless steel 4mm thick, with 93mm inside diam and 350mm length. The anode wires of both counters are also made of stainless steel 0.05mm diam. The counters are surrounded by a paraffin shield 50mm thick and encased in a 250mm shield of steel on all sides. Acetylene is used as the counting gas at 753.3mm Hg (22 ± 1°C). Counting rates of background and 95% activity of NBS oxalic acid standard were 1.25 ± 0.02cpm and 14.39 ± 0.12cpm, respectively.

Beschreibung: The SMU Radiocarbon Laboratory is operated by the Department of Geological Sciences within the Institute for the Study of Earth and Man. One laboratory room contains the benzene synthesis system where samples are pretreated and converted to CO2 in a standard way and gas is purified after the procedures of Broecker (1957) by passage through hot CuO, 10% AgNO3 solution, chromic acid, hot copper, and P2O5 via cryogenic pumping with liquid nitrogen. Purified CO2 is then converted to Li2C2 which is hydrolized to C2H2 and converted to C6H6 catalytically following the procedures of Noakes et al (1966). Carbon dioxide and benzene yields are routinely in excess of 90% in both cases.

Beschreibung: This date list was compiled by the Institute of Geological Sciences (UK) incorporating data supplied under contract by E Welin, Radioactive Dating Laboratory, Stockholm. Unless otherwise stated, age figures are in 14C years before ad 1950. The half-life of 14C is taken as 5568 years and the error, based on counting statistics of sample, background, and modern, is given as one standard deviation. Correction for 13C/12C fractionation has been made.

Beschreibung: The Dublin radiocarbon dating laboratory was operational in 1958 to 1960 and the scintillation counter system used at that time has previously been described (Delaney and McAulay, 1959). The system is now operational again and has been modified to date samples after conversion to benzene. The electronic equipment differs from that previously used only insofar as more compact and drift-free transistorized units are now employed. With these modifications, considerable improvements in sensitivity and accuracy are obtained. 5ml benzene, diluted with a commercial toluene based scintillant is used in a 12.5ml silica cell for the detection of 14C disintegrations. The background count-rate varies inversely with the barometric pressure (ca 2.6% cm–1Hg). The background is ca 3.4cpm, and the detection efficiency is ca 60% and excludes the tritium spectrum.

Beschreibung: This list comprises age measurements carried out from October 1972 to July 1973. Samples dated are all of archaeologic interest and come from Italian territory. Pretreatment of samples, production of purest CO2 and counting techniques have been described elsewhere (Azzi, 1972; Azzi et al, 1973).

Beschreibung: The Organisation of Egyptian Antiquities believes that Egypt should play an important role in current international research in the field of radiocarbon dating of archaeologic samples. Thus, such a laboratory was established within the Center of Research and Conservation of Antiquities, CRCA, Cairo.

Beschreibung: It is, to say the least, highly unsatisfactory to begin a discussion of developments in Malay society within the last century by using 1874 as the take-off point. But, in Malaysian historiography, it has been so common to accept 1874 as the all important watershed between what is generally believed to be a period of negligible advancement and a period of rapid development that any discussion which makes a sudden departure from conventional practice, without appropriate comments, may confuse more than enlighten.

Beschreibung: Several years ago Wong Lin Ken noted that, as yet, no general economic history of Malaysia had been written. Since then a considerable number of studies in both article and bookform have appeared; too many for a comprehensive listing here. These range from specialised works on particular industries, or aspects such as immigration, to more wide-ranging analyses of the political, social and administrative structure. The periods surveyed also vary considerably, but the tendency is towards relatively short time-spans of some twenty to forty years in the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Only one recent book, Economic Development of Modern Malaya by an economist, Lim Chong Yah, seeks to cover the economy as a whole over a longer period, roughly 1874–1963. But from the historian's viewpoint, much primary research still remains to be done before the pattern of changes in this period can be explained in full detail. However, the work done to date makes it possible to re-examine certain broad aspects such as the effects which can be directly attributed to the introduction of British administration. This is facilitated if some account is also taken of the very extensive literature on economic development, and colonialism, as well as on the situation in other countries with a similar historical experience. It must be emphasised that the following survey is necessarily selective in terms of the topics included and the published materials referred to.

Beschreibung: Nationalism developed in a peaceful constitutional and political manner in Malaya during the 1950s. Beginning with the reactions to the Malayan Union scheme and the contrasting political attitudes towards the 1948 Federation proposals, political bargaining led to the emergence of various political parties advocating different platforms and adopting contrasting policies on the major issues facing Malaya until the first federal elections in 1955. However, it is significant that political parties were formed and party politics grew principally as the result of constitutional changes which were introduced during that period. Constitutionalism and the rise of party politics thus combined to help Malaya achieve its ultimate goal of independence and nationhood.

Beschreibung: The controversy that has surrounded the question of British intervention in Malaya has turned upon a number of issues. What was the importance of economic factors? What was the significance of imperialism? What was the role of local initiative? Was the British Government bringing order to troubled native states? Was it responding to commercial pressures? Was it protecting its established interests in the Straits? In a well-known book, C.D. Cowan added to a careful analysis of such issues the suggestion that fear of foreign intervention was decisive. It affected Kimberley, the Colonial Secretary, and he impressed it on Gladstone himself.

Beschreibung: There is perhaps no more startling example in the history of the British Empire of a casual, almost imperceptible shift of attitude in the Colonial Office having such dramatic repercussions as in Malaya in 1874. Authorised to “enquire and report” into conditions in the western Malay states, the new Governor, Sir Andrew Clarke, found himself carried away by forces on the spot, which had been building up for twenty years while the British government maintained a strict policy of non-involvement. Within weeks of arriving in Malaya, Clarke made agreements with three Malay rulers for British Residents to be attached to their states, and laid the foundations for the relentless spread of British protection over the whole peninsula. These repercussions mystified Colonial Office officials at the time and left future generations of historians to unravel the mystery of what had happened and why.

Beschreibung: The first Japanese investments in Malaya were in rubber planting but their most important were in iron-mining. This article traces the development of Japánese interests in these two fields and shows how these ventures contributed to the expansionist impulse which, among other factors, eventually led to the military invasion of Malaya in December 1941.

Beschreibung: An educational system reflects the norms and needs of the society it serves. In the Federated Malay States, a plural society, there were four separate school systems, each with its own distinctive characteristics. This paper discusses the British role in their development. The period studied extends from around 1900 to the outbreak of World War Two.

Beschreibung: Within the last two decades, and particularly after the Federation of Malaya achieved its independence (1957), most historical writings on Malaya (now called Peninsular Malaysia) have been inspired or influenced by a marked revisionist tendency. Such revisionism, abetted by nationalism, has led to (a) a critical reappraisal of British personalities and policies in Malaya, and (b) a relative reduction of historical interest, both professional and popular, in the ‘imperial theme’ as compared with indigenous topics. While some of these revisionist writings may be self-conscious and tendentious, they do provide a corrective to earlier colonial historiography and have encouraged a more balanced estimate of the British element in Malaysian history.

Beschreibung: The Viet-Nam War was without qualification the most unpopular war in United States history. By May 1971, 61 per cent of the 1,502 persons interviewed by the Gallup Poll thought it had been a mistake for the United States to become involved in Viet-Nam. (The question asked was, “In view of the developments since we entered the fighting in Viet-Nam, do you think the United States made a mistake sending troops to fight in Viet-Nam?” 28 per cent answered, “No”, and 11 per cent had no opinion.) The significance of the May poll lay in the fact that it marked a complete reversal of public opinion since Gallup first started asking the question in August 1965.

Beschreibung: SummaryThe homesteading system instituted in the Philippines in 1903 was intended to stimulate economic development through increased agricultural output from previously unoccupied lands and also to relieve agrarian problems in densely settled parts of the country. A case study shows that while early homesteaders did significantly improve their conditions, the intense demand for land rapidly led to the development of squatting and tenancy. Average farm sizes are declining but there are simultaneously indications of a trend towards concentration of land ownership, which accords with experience in other peasant economies.During the intense concern for economic development over the past 25 or so years, many governments have expressed their faith in the development of new agricultural land as at least a partial answer to a wide range of economic and social problems. These problems include regionally dense populations with inadequate farm sizes, inequitable systems of holding and renting land, inefficient methods of production and marketing, lack of capital and difficulties of capital formation, and low yields from land that is losing fertility through constant cropping. Frequently, ignorance, poverty or the agrarian structure inhibits the adoption of measures for improvement.Those countries with significant areas of little used land resources have tended to rely on developing these resources as an answer to agrarian problems rather than attempting to tackle defects in the whole structure. Since the structure is not changed, it is not surprising that in due course the firmly institutionalised problems of the older areas gradually established themselves in areas of new settlement too. This is essentially what Boeke referred to as “static expansion”. More recently, Mellor has pointed out, “Expanding the land area at constant productivity and incomes is not economic development in the usual sense — it is only a holding action in the face of a growing population”. Even with rising productivity such as associated with the Green Revolution, there is considerable evidence to suggest the continuation, if not exacerbation, of agrarian problems.By examining in detail a case study of colonisation in the Philippines, this paper will show that even if productivity and incomes in a new area are initially high, the operation of customary economic and social processes is likely to ensure the recreation of traditional problems. Such a conclusion is nothing new. It has been repeated depressingly often not only in recent decades but also of course throughout history.

Beschreibung: British rule in the Malay peninsula and the island at its southern tip—Singapore—took a new form after the defeat of the Japanese in 1945. Previously Singapore had been only part of the Straits Settlements which also included Penang and Malacca. In 1946 Britain chose to run Singapore separately as a Crown Colony and grouped the mainland Malay states and British settlements into what was first a Malayan Union and later, from 1948, the Federation of Malaya. In so doing, the seeds were laid for what was to be the independent nation of Malaya in 1957. At that time the White Paper explained:A stage has now been reached when the system of government should be simplified and reformed. International relations as well as security and other interests of the British Commonwealth require that Malaya should be able to exercise an influence as a united and enlightened country appropriate to her economic and strategic importance.

Beschreibung: Despite the dominant role the timber industry now plays in the economy of Sabah, little is known of the development of the industry prior to the Pacific War. The small amount that has been published on the pre-war situation appears in the Malayan Forester, but the destruction of records in Sabah during the Japanese Occupation has greatly impeded detailed research. For the present study the papers of the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company now held in London have served as a source of far more comprehensive information than occurs in the oft-quoted secondary sources. The aim of this paper is to provide the first detailed account of forest policy and administration, and a systematic analysis of the development of the timber industry in pre-war North Borneo.

Beschreibung: Much has been written about the labor system introduced by the Spaniards in Latin America where institutions such as the repartimiento (forced labor) were used to obtain laborers for the public works and the private haciendas and mines. Many of these features existed in the early Philippine colonial period, but were modified to accomodate the local situation and the differing patterns of conquest and colonization. As in Latin America, the Spaniards distributed encomiendas and land grants (mercedes) to the conquistadores, and a system of corvee labor was imposed on the Filipinos for public works (the so-called polos and servicios personales), but for the private haciendas in the Philippines a different method was used than had been the rule in the New World.

Beschreibung: By the mid-1920s, the spread and popularity of a Hollywood dominated cinema in Malaya, and elsewhere in the Empire, was causing the British considerable concern. The motion picture or cinematograph (as it was then called) was a rapidly growing entertainment and educative phenomenon that transcended barriers of literacy and language in its appeal and was freely accessible to all sections of colonial society. In the words of a contemporary, “it taught the mass of uneducated Asiatics about the white race.” In Malaya, the Government had acted to place controls on the cinema soon after its introduction but by the opening years of the 1920s there was a growing number of travellers and expatriate critics who felt that the authorities had not yet realized the seriousness of the ‘threat’ posed by the cinema and had not acted with enough purpose in imposing safeguards. To emerge as the leading campaigner on the subject was Sir Hesketh Bell, (late Governor of Mauritius) who visited Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies in 1926, on a private tour of the Far East.

Beschreibung: Teaching Political Science in Southeast Asia can be an easy academic exercise. Structure the courses after those of a department in an established university in Europe or America, use the textbooks produced by the major publishing companies, list the references carefully worked out by their counterparts in some western universities, organize the facts and points in the texts, present them in class, give one or two examinations to find out how much the students know, mark them strictly or leniently, hand in the grades to the Registrar's office and the academic year is over. With few exceptions, everything seems to be ready-made for the teacher and the student.

Beschreibung: In describing the changing status system of Indonesia, Wertheim sees its development in four stages: the system in the old native society; the rise of a new status system based on race; the decay of the colonial status system in the twentieth century; the reversal and continuity brought by war and revolution.

Beschreibung: Evidence of (at least) five rapid hemispheric coolings of about 5°C during the last 105 yr has been found, each event spread over not more than about a century, as examples of a global-scale climatic intransitivity. Only some of them lead to a complete glaciation at the northern continents, others ended after a few centuries by a sudden warming (“abortive glaciation”). Starting from a modified version of Wilson's hypothesis of Antarctic ice surges, an air-sea interaction model with realistic geophysical parameters is outlined to interpret the sudden initiation of the North American ice sheet. Special attention is given to the Atlantic section, where the climatic anomalies during the last glaciation appear to have been significantly larger than in other sections.

Beschreibung: An extensive insect fauna is described from an organic deposit occurring in a gravel pit at Lea Marston, Warwickshire, England. This organic deposit was lying beneath approximately 2.5 m of alluvial clay and directly above gravels which had provided organic material 14C dated at 11,700 ± 200 yr BP. The insect fauna was indicative of a temperate oceanic climate similar to that found today in southern England or south Sweden and suggested the presence of deciduous woodland. The six radiocarbon dates, however, agreed in giving the deposit an age of around 9500 yr BP which is earlier than the arrival of the principal broad-leaved trees. The pollen assemblage was consistent with the radiocarbon dates in showing, in addition to herbaceous pollen, only the presence of Betula, Salix, and small amounts of Pinus. As the insect faunas known from midland Britain at the close of the Devensian period, barely 500 yr before, are arctic in aspect and entirely devoid of thermophilous species a very rapid climatic amelioration is postulated which permitted the immigration of the very mobile insect fauna well in advance of the more slowly migrating trees.

Beschreibung: Analyses of crystal size, bubble content, oxygen isotope ratio, specific electrolytic conductivity, and the distribution of firn and dirt layers in a core, 121.2 m long, from surface to bedrock near the highest point of the Meighen Ice Cap, leads to the following outline of the ice cap's history. The ice cap, which has always been stagnant, originated in the cold period that followed the postglacial Climatic Optimum. After initial growth came a period of negative mass balance in which the area and thickness of the ice cap diminished and the surface slope at the core site steepened. The end of this period, at least 600 y.a., is marked by a discontinuity at 54 m depth in the core; above this level, the values of most parameters differ significantly from their values below. There followed a period of growth by the end of which, some 80 y.a., the ice cap had attained its maximum thickness; this period included the coldest interval in the ice cap's history. Ablation has predominated since then and up to 13 m of ice have been lost at the core site. This history resembles that of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf.

Beschreibung: In midwestern United States the most important widespread environmental event during the Holocene about 8000 y.a. was the establishment of an effective precipitation pattern that in part defines the Prairie Peninsula. The pattern occupies a region that is dominated by dry westerly air for 6–9 mo during normal years and for 9–12 mo during drought years. Regional soil geography correlates readily with zones of precipitation effectiveness with Brunizem (Udolls) conforming to the moist, subhumid zone, Chernozem (Boralls, Udolls) relating to the dry, subhumid zone, and Chestnut and Brown soils (Ustolls) fitting the semiarid zone. During the past few thousand years, a climatic reversal has caused encroachment of forest on prairie resulting in the formation of transitional or intergrade soils.In local areas the Holocene is expressed on the land surface by the soil geomorphic unit which is the repetitive occurrence of a sequence of soils on the erosional surface of a hillslope and on the correlative depositional body at the foot and toe of the slope. This unit embraces time, lithology, landscape, and soils and provides a means for mapping the Holocene on the countryside.

Beschreibung: Cover sediments of the York Terrace exposed near the California River, western Seward Peninsula, Alaska, yield mollusks, ostracodes, and foraminifera that lived during the Anvilian transgression of early Pleistocene age. The fossiliferous sediments lie at the inner edge of the York Terrace, a deformed wave-cut platform that extends eastward from Bering Strait along much of the southern coast of Seward Peninsula. The seaward margin is truncated by the little-deformed Lost River Terrace, carved during the Pelukian (Sangamonian) transgression. The early Pleistocene sediments seem to have been deposited between the first and second of four glaciations for which evidence can be found in the California River area.The California River fauna includes several extinct species and several species now confined to areas as remote as the northwestern Pacific and north Atlantic. The fauna probably lived in water temperatures much like those of the present time but deeper water on the Bering Shelf is suggested.The presence of an early Pleistocene fauna at the inner edge of the York Terrace at California River shows that the terrace was largely carved before and during early Pleistocene time. However, a marine fauna apparently of middle Pleistocene age is found on the York Terrace near Cassiterite Peak, and this seems to indicate that the terrace remained low until middle Pleistocene time. Uplift of the York Terrace probably was accompanied by uplift of Bering Strait. The strait may have been deeper, and there may have been no land bridge between the Seward Peninsula of Alaksa and the Chukotka Peninsula of Siberia during most of early and middle Pleistocene time.

Beschreibung: In an area regarded to be very favorable for the study of Holocene sea level changes one or several eustatic (?) oscillations of sea have been found using sedimentological and ecological methods. After a maximum of +3 m during the Nouakchottian stage (= Middle Flandrian or Late Atlantic) about 5500 YBP a drop of sea to −3.5 ± 0.5 m about 4100 YBP is testified by stromatolitic algae indicating the former sea level within the tidal zone with high accuracy. This evidence is supported by the observation of post-Nouakchottian regressive and transgressive geologic sequences, by buried beach deposits and flooded hardgrounds, post-Nouakchottian marine terraces of different height and age, the cutting off of one large and several small bays from the open sea, etc. Possibly one or two smaller oscillations followed between 4000 and 1500 YBP (derived sea level curve Fig. 3).

Beschreibung: Since chronometric data comparable to that available from the late Cenozoic succession of East Africa have not, and probably cannot be obtained in southern Africa, faunal dating methods retain their traditional significance in the latter area. Five successive late Cenozoic mammal ages, the Namibian, Langebaanian, Makapanian, Cornelian, and Florisian have been proposed as a framework for discussions relating to the chronology of southern African mammalian faunas. The Namibian fauna is poorly known, but is evidently of Miocene age. It is not discussed in this paper. The Langebaanian fauna is well known only from the prolific occurrence at the type site of Langebaanweg and is Pliocene in age. Makapanian faunas are best represented at the Transvaal Australopithecine sites and probably overlap the Plio-Pleistocene boundary. The Cornelian fauna is not as well known as others, the largest assemblage having been recorded from Elandsfontein, although this assemblage is one which is unfortunately temporally heterogeneous. Florisian faunas have been recovered from a relatively large number of localities, including several for which there are radiometric dates. The recorded southern African fossil Carnivora are listed and the local evolution of this group is discussed in terms of the mammal age chronology. It is concluded that secure faunal dating of individual fossil occurrences is enhanced by an appreciation of the nature of changes undergone in evolutionary lineages, while an uncritical knowledge of recoreded taxa is less useful.

Beschreibung: Geologic evidence in the closed Seistan Basin of southwestern Afghanistan and adjacent parts of Iran and Pakistan indicates that a lake as much as 65,000 sq km in size occupied this closed depression during Pleistocene time. The deposits consist mostly of lacustrine silt and clay and have a maximum observed thickness of about 250 m. A layer of alluvial gravels overlies the sequence. The deposits are probably early or middle Pleistocene in age; they are old enough to have sustained nearly 300 m of erosion over large areas but are not faulted or detectably folded in the central part of the basin although they are upwarped along the west edge of the basin.Sand dunes cover extensive areas of the basin. Dune orientation shows that the strong surface winds enter the basin blowing toward the south-southeast and then are deflected to the east, apparently as a response to mountains bordering the basin on its south side. The Gawdezereh, a large deflation depression, may be a result of an augmented excavation ability of winds that occurs where turbulence is created along a zone of deflection.

Beschreibung: A zone of synchronous end moraines has been recognized in the Lake Superior region across northern Ontario and Michigan. The moraines were formed between 11,000 and 10,100 y.a. as cold climate resulted in successive halts in the general ice retreat. The cold climate is also indicated by the presence of tundra near Lake Superior until about 10,000 y.a. This episode is here referred to as the Algonquin Stadial. It was preceded and followed by rapid deglaciation. The Algonquin Stadial is comparable in age with the Younger Dryas Stadial of Europe, and indicates a reversal in the continuous trend toward a warmer climate during Late-Wisconsin (an) time. The apparent conflict between the present result (based on geologic evidence) and earlier pollen stratigraphical studies with no reversal is discussed.Glacial Lake Duluth formed in the western Lake Superior basin before 11,000 BP, followed by a series of Post-Duluth lakes between approximately 11,000 and over 10,100 BP. The Main Lake Algonquin stage in the Huron and Michigan basins terminated approximately 11,000 BP. The subsequent high-level post-Main Algonquin lakes, which were contemporaneous with the Post-Duluth lakes, existed in the southeastern Lake Superior basin. When the ice margin was along the north shore 9500 BP Lake Minong occupied the whole Lake Superior basin. By 9000 BP the ice had retreated north of Lake Superior-Hudson Bay divide.

Beschreibung: Uranium series dates on bone from the Isimila Prehistoric Site, Tanzania, indicate that this East African Acheulian site may be older than originally estimated. They raise the possibility that the Middle Pleistocene sediments containing Acheulian occurrences span a longer range of time than had been supposed. This could add to the plausibility of a contention by Hansen and Keller that differences between artifacts in the uppermost Acheulian horizon and in lower-lying beds are primarily a reflection of change through time rather than a result of different human activities.A summary of the artifact content and associations of the several archeological stratigraphic units is given, and, although a sort of “developmental sequence” can be seen, the existence of discrepant occurrences suggests that an interpretation of directional change as a “function of time” does not, in fact, well accommodate the evidence.Quantitative changes in artifact class proportions in aggregates seem just as likely to be related to local exploitation potentials for early man which were produced during the process of basin in-filling, while observed qualitative differences in the lower-lying horizons may be due to samples biased because of limited exposures which are restricted to a single sedimentary environment.

Beschreibung: The initial peopling of South America is reviewed in terms of geochronological and archaeological data. The problem is put in historical perspective and a systematic evaluation is made of the latest typologically oriented arguments for the presence of preprojectile point complexes. Field evidence is very weak for early Biface and Chopper traditions. There is better support for an early Flake tradition, but it is not likely to precede the use of stone projectile points.Radiocarbon dates and “terrace dating” should be used only with great caution and careful attention to the nature of cultural and stratigraphic associations. Uncritical acceptance of determinations on bone and soil samples has led to extremely problematic cultural reconstructions. Emphasis on stratified sites with finished artifacts, faunal assocations, and charcoal dates leads to a reconstruction at odds with those presented in recent textbooks. It is concluded that the bulk of solid evidence favors the entry of man as a big game hunter using stone projectile points and having an adaptation much like that of the Paleo-Indians of North America.

Beschreibung: Emerged coral reef terraces on the Huon Peninsula in New Guinea were reported in a reconnaissance dating study by Veeh and Chappell 1970. Age definition achieved was not good for several important terraces, and we report here a series of new 230Th/234U dates, which further clarify the history of late Quaternary eustatic sea level fluctuations. More than 20 reef complexes are present, ranging well beyond 250,000 yr old: we are concerned with the seven lowest complexes. Major reef-building episodes dated by 30Th/234U are reef complex I at 5–9 ka (kilo anno = 1000 yr), r.c. IIIb at 41 ka (four dates), r.c. IV at 61 ka (four dates), r.c. V at 85 ka (two dates), r.c. VI at 107 ka (two dates), and r.c. VII at 118–142 ka. Complex II was previously dated by 14C at 29 ka: this age has not yet been confirmed, and may be only a lower limit. The reef crests were built during or immediately before intervals of sea level maxima, when rates of rising sea level and tectonic uplift briefly coincided. The culmination of each reef-building episode was only a few thousand years in duration, and multiple dates from the same reef complex generally group within the statistical errors of the individual dates.Several methods can be used to estimate the altitude of each sea level maximum relative to present sea level. The least complicated is to calculate mean tectonic uplift rate for each profile of the terraces, and use the mean rate to calculate the tectonic displacement of each dated reef complex on that profile. The difference between the present altitude of a reef complex and its calculated tectonic uplift gives the paleosea level at the time the reef grew. We estimate uplift rates for six surveyed sections by calibrating against published paleosea level estimates from Barbados and elsewhere, viz 125 ka, paleosea at +6 m; 103 ka, −15 m; 82 ka, −13 m. For each section the individual uplift rates for reefs V, VI, and VIIb are within 5% of their section means. Using the mean rates. paleosea level estimates for reef crests II, IIIB, and IV are made for each section. Consistency of estimates between sections is good, giving −28 m for the 60 ka paleosea level, around −38 m for the 42 ka level and −41 m for the 28 ka level (if the age is older the paleosea level would be lower. Using the mean uplift rates, the 82 ka and 103 ka paleosea levels are also estimated for each section: all individual estimates are plotted graphically, and a sea level curve drawn. The reef stratigraphy indicates sea level lowerings between each dated reef crest: the crests probably represent the interstadials of the Wisconsin (Würm, Weichsel) Glaciation, and intervening lower levels correspond to stadials. Since the last time of eustatic sea level higher than the present (about 125 ka), five sea level maxima occurred at roughly 20-ka intervals, none being as high as the present.

Beschreibung: This paper evaluates the geological and paleoecological implications of a Wenner-Gren symposium Stratigraphy and Patterns of Cultural Change in the Middle Pleistocene. The deep-sea, glacial-eustatic, loess, alluvial, and palynological records suggest between six and eight cold-warm cycles since the Brunhes-Matuyama magnetic reversal of 700,000 BP. Till and outwash stratigraphies are inadequate to provide a valid nomenclature for the numerous glacials preceding the Würm. Since at least five of the glacials since 700,000 BP were sufficiently severe to produce permafrost in midlatitude Europe, the “glacial Pleistocene” begins with the Brunhes-Matuyama. Although earlier cold-warm cycles extend well back into the early Pleistocene, with extensive glaciation and repeated floral decimations in higher latitudes, the first record of permafrost in the Rhine Basin 700,000 BP argues that major climatic oscillations of the Brunhes epoch were of glacial-interglacial amplitude. It is therefore recommended that a Lower-Middle Pleistocene boundary be linked to the practicable and universally applicable chronometric horizon provided by the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal, while the Middle-Upper Pleistocene limit can continue to be drawn at the base of the last, Eemian Interglacial (130,000 BP). The tropical African record presently contributes little to general understanding of the Middle Pleistocene, while the climatic cycles of higher latitudes are of limited value in analyzing mid-Pleistocene records of the tropical continents. Problems of stratigraphic control and environmental contexts for archeological sites are discussed.

Beschreibung: Shoreline changes since 1776, including two 30-yr periods separated by nearly 100 yr are documented from surveys, topographic maps, harbor charts, and aerial photographs for the southeastern corner of the island of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts (41°25′ N, 70°35′ W). From 1776 to 1969, a barrier beach has receded by more than 880 m, and average rate of 4.6 m/yr. A series of four detailed surveys from 1840 to 1886 document consistent shoreline retreat in this area of 3.1 m/yr.For the period 1938–1969, planimetry from aerial photographs and field observation indicate that more than 28 ha and nearly 3 × 106 m3 of foreland composed of till have washed away. A house, located 200 m from the cliff edge of the foreland in 1938 was only 56 m from the cliff edge in July 1972.Violent storms were associated with the opening of the bay behind the barrier beach in nearly the same location in 1856, 1886, 1938, and 1954. Easterly migration of the opening results in rapid erosion of the southeastern corner of the island (Wasque Point) and eventual closing of the opening.Field observation of the 1954 opening indicates that the mechanism of failure of the barrier beach is primarily by storm tide-induced subsidence. Subsequently, strong (up to 1.2 mps) easterly currents cause migration of the opening to the east and closure within 15 yr.A summary review of evidence for changes in sea level in the past is suggested in partial explanation for the consistent shoreline retreat described in this paper.

Beschreibung: Examination of loess columns in coastal South Canterbury, New Zealand, and the recognition of paleosols with comparable morphology to surface soils allowed the division of the loess column into six members. The upper loess members 1–4 are grouped into a proposed Dashing Rocks Formation. This commonly overlies an erosion surface on Timaru Basalt, but in some situations is underlain by loess member 5 and mixed loess and weathered basalt member 6. The paleosol developed on loess member 5, on both morphological and chemical evidence, is indicative of a period of soil formation of longer duration or greater intensity than is indicated by the overlying paleosols or surface soils. Therefore members 5 and 6 are grouped into a separate formation.A radiocarbon chronology for loess members 1 and 2 of the Dashing Rocks Formation, suggests loess accumulation phases from 9900 to 11,800 and prior to 31,000 radiocarbon yr BP, followed by periods of soil formation and contemporary peat development in surface depressions.A hypothesis is presented suggesting that at least loess members 1 and 2 of the Dashing Rocks Formation accumulated during periods of glacial recession which in turn precipitated fluvial and eolian erosion, transport and redeposition of fluvioglacial deposits. The periods of soil development indicated by the paleosols were initiated during warm interstadial conditions and continued throughout the cooling of the following stadial. Such an interpretation has its parallels in the northern hemisphere but is in slight disagreement with previous glacial and fluvioglacial chronologies accepted in New Zealand.

Beschreibung: Departures of mean annual precipitation and temperature for the decade 1961–1970 from the 1931–1960 averages are illustrated on maps of the tropical and subtropical portions of the American continents. Certain features of midlatitude climatic anomalies appear to be associated with concurrent anomalies in the tropics. There is an apparent southward shift of circulation features in this longitudinal sector of both hemispheres. A review of selected literature on latitudinal climatic shifts and atmosphere-ocean interaction suggests some similarities between the patterns of climate in the 1960s and the climate of the Little Ice Age.

Beschreibung: Canonical correlation analysis, as described by Webb and Bryson, Quaternary Research 1972, provides a means of reconstructing past climates quantitatively from fossil pollen using a pollen-climate transfer function. This paper presents a method for analysis of variance of the transfer function model. This method is used to identify ecological relationships among the pollen and climate variables, to select climatically sensitive taxa, and to investigate the importance of site factors. Several criteria are presented, in addition to those used by Webb and Bryson, for choosing canonical variate pairs to include in the transfer function model, namely: the variate pair relationships should be ecologically meaningful; the transfer function model should yield stable paleoclimatic estimates; and, the variate pair relationships should be statistically meaningful. The application of these criteria to the set of variate pairs used in the transfer function model of Webb and Bryson is described and modifications are suggested.

Beschreibung: Four paleosols, and soil horizons within paleosols, were clearly identified in the thick calcium carbonate-free loess sections at Timaru, South Island, New Zealand, by changes in the distribution of total phosphorus and calcium phosphate in the upper 2 m to each paleosol. Extractable manganese was also sensitive in identifying paleosols, particularly the upper horizons. The distribution of bulk density values was useful in identifying paleosols; however, the maximum bulk density (〉1.7 g/cc) occurred in horizons identified as B2 rather than fragipan horizons in three of four cases. The distribution of clay particles was useful in understanding the genesis of the modern soil and paleosols, but not in identifying paleosols.

Beschreibung: It is proposed that the two preferred modes of temperature and circulation of the atmosphere which occurred over the past 100,000 yr correspond to two modes of partitioning of the poleward energy flux between the atmosphere and ocean. At present the ocean carries an appreciable fraction of the transport, for example about three-eighths at 30°N. In the cold mode it is suggested that the ocean carries less, and the atmosphere more, than at present. During the formation of the ice, at 50,000 BP, for example, the overall flux is expected to be slightly lower than at present and during melting, at 16,000 BP, slightly higher. The transition between the modes is seen as a natural imbalance in the atmosphere-ocean energy budget with a gradual warming of the ocean during an Ice Age eventually cluminating in its termination. At the present the imbalance is thought to correspond to a natural cooling of the ocean, which will lead to the next Ice Age.The magnitude of temperature changes in the polar regions differ between the hemispheres in the same way as present seasonal changes, being larger in the northern than in the southern hemisphere.Overall the atmospheric energy cycle was more intense during the Ice Ages than now.Observational tests are proposed by which predictions from the present arguments may be compared with deductions about the environment of the past.Data used for the present state of the atmospheric general circulation are the latest global data available and contain no known major uncertainties. However, data for the oceanic circulation and energy budget are less well known for the present and almost unknown for the past. Hence the proposed imbalances must be treated as part of a speculative hypothesis, but one which eventually may be subject to observational test as no solar variability is invoked.

Beschreibung: The position of the Inland Ice margin during the late Wisconsin-Würm glaciation (ca. 15,000 yr BP) is probably marked by offshore banks (submarine moraines?) in the Davis Strait. The history of the Inland Ice since the late Wisconsin-Würm can be divided into four principal phases: (1) Relatively slow retreat from the offshore banks occurred at an average rate of approximately 1 km/100 yr until ca. 10,000 yr BP (Younger Dryas?) when the Taserqat moraine system was formed by a readvance. (2) At ca. 9500 yr BP, the rate of retreat increased markedly to about 3 km/100 yr, and although nearly 100 km of retreat occurred by ca. 6500 yr BP, it was punctuated by frequent regional reexpansions of the Inland Ice that formed extensive moraine systems at ca. 8800-8700 yr BP (Avatdleq-Sarfartôq moraines), 8400-8100 yr BP (Angujârtorfik-Fjord moraines), 7300 yr BP (Umîvît moraines), and 7200-6500 yr BP (Keglen-Mt, Keglen moraines). (3) Between 6500 and 700 yr BP, discontinous ice-margin deposits and ice-disintegration features were formed during retreat, which may have continued until the ice margin was near or behind its present position by ca. 6000 yr BP. Most of the discontinuous ice-margin deposits occur within 5–10 km of the present ice margin, and may have been formed by two main phases of readvance at ca. 4800-4000 yr BP and 2500-2000 yr BP. (4) Since a readvance at ca. 700 yr BP, the Inland Ice margin has undergone several minor retreats and readvances resulting in deposition of numerous closely spaced moraines within about 3 km of the present ice margin. The young moraines are difficult to correlate regionally, but several individual moraines have the following approximate ages: A.D. 1650, 1750, and 1880–1920.Inland Ice fluctuations in West Greenland were very closely paralleled by Holocene glacial events in East Greenland and the eastern Canadian Arctic. Such similarity of glacier behavior over a large area strongly suggests that widespread climatic change was the direct cause of Holocene glacial fluctuations. Moreover, historical advances of the Inland Ice margin followed slight temperature decreases by no more than a few decades, and 18O data from Greenland ice cores show that slight temperature decreases occurred frequently throughout the Holocene. Therefore, we conclude that construction of the major Holocene moraine systems in West Greenland was caused by slight temperature decreases, which decreased rates of ablation and thereby produced practically immediate advances of the ice sheet margin, but did not necessarily affect the long-term equilibrium of the ice sheet.

Beschreibung: The palynology of stratigraphic sections from road-cut and gravel-pit exposures and from a fen and sphagnum bogs in the southern part of the Chilean lake district (40° 53′ S, 72°37′ W-41°24′ S, 72°53′ W) is the basis for interpreting vegetation and climate during the last interglaciation and glaciation (named Llanquihue Glaciation) and during the post-glacial. To help interpretation, modern pollen rain was studied in relation to vegetation and altitude along a transect on the west slope of the Andes, and average January (summer) temperatures were interpreted. The upper limit of closed Andean forest, where wind is a determinant, appears to be close to the 12°C January isotherm; parkland in southern Chile does not exceed the January isotherm of 9°C.Grassland and later southern beech forest are evident during the interglaciation that is dated at more than 39,900 radiocarbon yr. Climate of the grassland was relatively dry; during the forest phase, it was wet, cool, and approximately the same as at present. During Llanquihue Glaciation, average January temperature is estimated to have been about 8°C colder than today at 19,450 BP, some 5° colder shortly before 36,300 BP, and around 4° colder at 10,000 BP. Antarctic-alpine tundra or parkland, under colder, drier climate, is mostly in evidence in the vicinity of the study sites before about 12,000 BP. During the postglacial, forest communities occupied the lake district, and temperatures there were probably 1–2°C above (by 6500 BP) and as much as 2° below (4500-0 BP) the present-day average of about 16°.This pattern of climatic changes finds accord, in general terms, in other parts of the Southern Hemisphere where palynological, chronological, and glacial geological studies are reported. Postulated as a cause of these changes are shifts in the intensity of air mass circulation in antarctic latitudes.

Beschreibung: The racemization rate constant for aspartic acid has been determined from the D/L isomeric ratio in four strata of radiocarbon dated woodrat midden in Arizona. Two different methods of stereospecifically deaminating L-aspartic acid prior to the assay are compared. It is found that pure L-amino acid oxidase pretreatment of the DL aspartic acid mixture requires one less step than treatment with crude, dialyzed venom (Crotalus viridis) but that the two methods give the same results. Application of the theory of amino acid racemization dating is discussed in the context of the steric properties ofthe protein environment in which the racemization actually occurs.

Beschreibung: The chromosomes of Ovis nivicola, described for the first time, exhibit 2n = 52, the lowest diploid number to be reported for wild sheep and goats. The new chromosomal data, together with a review of the fossil history of the genus, lead us to conclude that the bighorned wild sheep (subgenus Pachyceros) evolved their distinctive characteristics while isolated in the ice-free Beringian refugium, and then migrated southward into western North America when the glacial barriers melted, as first suggested by Cowan (1940).

Beschreibung: Isostatic response of the Earth to changes in Quaternary Times of ice and water loads is partly elastic, and partly involves viscous mantle flow. The relaxation spectrum of the Earth, critical for estimation of the mantle flow component, is estimated from published determinations of Fennoscandian and Laurentide rebound, and of the nontidal acceleration of the Earth's rotation. The spectrum is consistent with an asthenosphere viscosity around 1021P, and a viscosity around 1023P below 400 km depth. Calculation of relaxation effects is done by convoluting the load history with the response function in spherical harmonics for global effects, and in rectangular or cylindrical transforms for smaller regional effects. Broad-scale deformation of the globe, resulting from the last deglaciation and sea level rise, is calculated to have involved an average depression of ocean basins of about 8 m, and mean upward movement of continents of about 16 m, relative to the center of the Earth, in the last 7000 yr. Deflection in the ocean margin “hinge zone” varies with continental shelf geometry and rigidity of the underlying lithosphere: predictions are made for different model cases. The computational methods is checked by predicting Fennoscandian and Laurentide postglacial warping, from published estimates of icecap histories, with good results. The depth variations of shorelines formed around 17,000 BP (e.g., North America, 90–130 m; Australia, 130–170 m), are largely explainable in terms of combined elastic and relaxation isostasy. Differences between Holocene eustatic records from oceanic islands (Micronesia, Bermuda), and continental coasts (eastern North America, Australia), are largely but not entirely explained in the same terms.

Beschreibung: Parallel to the Essex coast north of the mouth of the Thames, a series of gravel spreads ranging in altitude from near sea level westward to more than 200 ft O.D. (mean sea level) proved to be the remnants of an abandoned Thames/Medway terrace system, rather than a series of “raised” beaches, as their location had suggested. The seaward side of the ancient river valley has subsequently been “captured” by subsidence.Evidence is given for five terraces, with surface levels between 5 and 75 ft O.D. Because of subsidence of the Essex coast, the terrace levels are not easily correlatable with either the Thames or Medway terrace levels. Temporal placement is attempted on the basis of one site in the 25 ft Barling terrace, which yielded a Middle Acheulian archaeological assemblage associated with a cool temperate fauna including an early form of mammoth. An ice wedge cast in the Barling terrace was filled with floodloam which weathered to a parabraunerde soil during an interglacial climate warmer than now. For these reasons man is thought to have lived on the floodplain of the Barling terrace either at the onset of the Wolstonian (Riss) glacial or during an interstadial of that stage. The question of possible linkages between Swanscombe and Clacton terraces is discussed.

Beschreibung: A bog pond 4 km east of Yellowstone Lake has a pollen record starting with an Artemisia spruce assemblage, implying alpine vegetation. A layer of volcanic ash, dated as 14,360 ± 400 BP (probably Glacier Peak or Mt. St. Helens J), occurs within the zone, which terminates at 11,630 ± 180 BP. The rest of the pollen sequence is dominated by lodgepole pine, with reappearance of spruce pollen in modest quantities about 4500 BP, according to dating provided by a layer of Mt. Mazama ash (6600 BP). The present vegetation of the area is marked by forests of lodgepole pine with some stands of spruce and fir. The pollen sequence suggests that the upper treeline before 11,600 y. a. was perhaps 500 m lower than today. The climate then became warmer and/or drier than today (Altithermal interval). About 4500 y. a., a slight climatic reversal took place, roughly contemporaneous with the regrowth of glaciers in the western mountains (neoglaciation).

Beschreibung: Monitoring evidence indicates that the Holocene embraced a sequence of rather discrete climatic episodes. The transitions between these environmental episodes apparently were abrupt and globally synchronous. This paper reports on statistical analyses of radiocarbon dates associated with environmental change and cultural change.Over 800 14C dates associated with pollen maxima and minima, sea level maxima and minima, and top and bottom surfaces of peat beds were simultaneously analyzed to identify times of globally synchronous environmental discontinuities.Some 3700 14C dates associated with 155 cultural continua of the world were collectively analyzed to identify worldwide synchroneities in appearance and termination of the cultures.Significant globally synchronous discontinuities were identified in each independent analysis. The dates of environmental and cultural discontinuities are rather similar, particularly during the recent half of the Holocene. The fact that the cultural discontinuities mostly follow rather closely those of the paleobotanical record suggests that there has been a distinct climatic impact on the cultural history of man.

Beschreibung: Late Pleistocene radiolarian assemblages were examined in two cores (V24-58 and RC11-209) from the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean, using Nigrini's 1970 method of recurrent group analysis. The radiolarian “climatic index” curves obtained by this analysis were in close agreement with fluctuations in carbonate levels established previously for the same cores. This correspondence suggests that equatorial radiolarian assemblages changed significantly in response to Pleistocene climatic oscillations. The radiolarian “climatic indices” of the two cores showed close agreement with each other. Our data indicate that equatorial radiolarian assemblages may prove useful for regional correlations between cores, and for paleoclimatic interpretations.

Beschreibung: Late-Quaternary sea level changes in the eastern Aleutian Islands are of paramount importance in the reconstruction of the migrations and environment of the ancient Aleuts. A radiocarbon-dated ash stratigraphy provides the chronology into which geomorphic events can be fitted. These provide evidence for the sea level changes. Deployment of beach material and coastal configuration intimate that sea level was about 2–3 m above the present level about 8250 radiocarbon yr BP. Beach deposits suggest that sea level remained high until about 3000 radiocarbon y.a. when it gradually dropped to its present position. It is concluded that the ancient Aleuts that settled Anangula about 8400 y.a. used boats; all major passes in the eastern Aleutians were flooded, and did not have winter ice. Those ancient Aleuts did not have available the major year-around food resources of the present strandflats as they were cut during the high sea level stand 8250–3000 yr BP. The ancient Aleuts must have been marine oriented, for land-based food resources would have been limited.The cause of relative sea level changes on Umnak Island is considered indeterminate with present data. Eustatic, glacial isostatic, water isostatic, tectonic, and volcanic causes are considered the main possible controls in combinations such that a basic eustatic sea level curve and likely a glacial-water isostatic curve must be common to any solution. Representative solutions are given to illustrate some of the problems.

Beschreibung: Disagreement on the time of the end of the Last Interglacial stems from lack of an agreed definition of an Interglacial. Although strictly a climatic episode, “Interglacial” as commonly used is essentially a chronologic unit equivalent to an Age, corresponding in time range to the chronostratigraphic unit Stage.The name “Last Interglacial” has gained a global connotation so that its definition must take into account global rather than local effects of temperature fluctuations. An Interglacial begins with a warming to full interglacial warmth (as warm as the present day). It continues until a cooling of full glacial severity occurs, and includes any lesser coolings within a period of fluctuating climate. Such lesser coolings are recorded, particularly in deep-sea cores, following a period of warmth about 125,000 y.a. The cooling that led to the next full glacial cold began about 50,000 yr later. The Last Interglacial lasted from about 128,000 to 73,000 yr BP, equivalent to stage 5 of Shackleton and Opdyke.

Beschreibung: Quaternary terraces and pediments along Ralston Creek and Clear Creek, near Golden, Colorado, are associated with Verdos, Slocum, Louviers, and Broadway Alluviums. Terrace deposits can be locally correlated on the basis of elevation and relict paleosols. The terrace sediments probably represent aggradation by braided streams flowing from glaciated drainage basins. Engineering hydraulic calculation procedures suggest that flood flows were 2–3 m deep on steep gradients (0.008–0.01). Discharges were as great as 1400 m3/sec, nearly an order of magnitude greater than modern flood discharges. The most useful paleohydraulic calculation techniques were found to be the dimensionless shear approach applied to stream competence and bedload function theory applied to stream capacity.

Beschreibung: Pleistocene alluvium along Little Kettle Creek in east-central Georgia contains a unique record of vertebrate life in the Appalachian Piedmont during a colder phase of the late Quaternary. The small fauna includes fishes and the following mammals: Synaptomys cooperi, the southern bog lemming; Clethrionomys sp., a redback vole; Mammut americanum, the American mastodon; a mammoth, Mammuthus sp.; Odocoileus cf. virginianus, a deer; and Bison sp. Both Synaptomys and Clethrionomys are primarily boreal genera of rodents which today reach their southern limits at higher elevations in the Great Smoky Mountains about 175 km north of the fossil locality. The American mastodon is also commonly associated with Pleistocene spruce bogs in eastern North America. Catfish (Ictalurus (?) sp.) vertebrae from the deposit show well-defined annual rings in contrast with the weakly marked annuli produced by fish living in the same area today. The total aspect of the fauna is one of considerably lower temperatures than those prevailing in the Georgia Piedmont now. The joint occurrence of bison and proboscideans indicates an age no older and no younger than late Pleistocene (Rancholabrean) for the assemblage. Because no pollen was found in the sediments and there was insufficient organic matter present for 14C dating, no more precise age can yet be assigned to the fauna.

Beschreibung: Mean monthly temperatures for the Northern Hemisphere were determined for the years 1955 through 1968 following the same procedures used by H. C. Willett and J. M. Mitchell, Jr., in their studies of long-term trends. It was found that the downward trend they reported starting in the 1940s continued, though interrupted, into the 1960s.The temperature data when combined with radiation data and other components of the hemispheric energy budget led to the formulation of the response ratio, the relationship between change in incoming solar radiation and change in temperature. When this response ratio was applied to the reported trends in direct solar radiation and to the decrease in direct solar radiation following the eruption of Agung in 1963, a probable cause-effect relationship was suggested.