The Quaternary Period in the United States

About this book

Reviews advances in understanding of the past ca. two million years of Earth history - the Quaternary Period - in the region now occupied by the US. Topics covered include: glaciers, ice sheets, oceans, rivers, lakes, caves, sea-level fluctuations, volcanoes, earthquakes, evolution models, vegetation, vertebrate paleontology, the extinctions of large mammals at the end of the last glaciation and the peopling of North America.

Contents

Preface (A.R. Gillespie, S.C. Porter, B.F. Atwater). 1. The southern Laurentide Ice Sheet in the United States: What have we learned in the last 40 years? (D.M. Mickelson, P.M. Colgan). 2. The Cordilleran Ice Sheet (D.B. Booth, K. Goetz Troost et al.). 3. Controls, history, outbursts, and impact of large late-quaternary proglacial lakes in North America (J.T. Teller). 4. Pleistocene glaciations of the Rocky Mountains (K.L. Pierce). 5. Quaternary alpine glaciation in Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, Sierra Nevada, and Hawaii (D.S. Kaufman, S.C. Porter, A.R. Gillespie). 6. Coupling ice sheet and climate models for simulation of former ice sheets (S.J. Marshall, D. Pollard et al.). 7. Advances in permafrost process research in the United States since 1960 (B. Hallet, J. Putkonen et al.). 8. Quaternary sea-level history of the United States (D.R. Muhs, J.F. Wehmiller et al.). 9. Western Lakes, (L. Benson). 10. Isotopic records from ground-water and cave speleothem calcite in North America (J. Quade). 11. Rivers and riverine landscapes (D.R. Montgomery, E.E. Wohl). 12. Landscape evolution models (F.J. Pazzaglia). 13. Eolian sediments (A.J. Busacca, J.E. Beget et al.). 14. Soils and the quaternary climate system (M.J. Pavich, O.A. Chadwick). 15. Earthquake recurrence inferred from paleoseismology (B.F. Atwater, M.P. Tuttle et al.). 16. Quaternary volcanism in the United States (W.E. Scott). 17. Late quaternary vegetation history of the eastern United States (E.C. Grimm, G.L. Jacobson Jr.). 18. Quaternary vegetation and climate change in the western United States: Developments, perspectives, and prospects (R.S. Thompson, S.L. Shafer et al.). 19. Results and paleoclimate implications of 35 years of paleoecological research in Alaska (P.M. Anderson, M.E. Edwards, L.B. Brubaker). 20. Quaternary history from the US tropics (S. Hotchkiss). 21. Climatically forced vegetation dynamics in eastern North America during the late quaternary (T. Webb III, B. Shuman, J.W. Williams). 22. Holocene fire activity as a record of past environmental change (C. Whitlock, P.J. Bartlein). 23. Interannual to decadal climate and streamflow variability estimated tree rings (D.W. Stahle, F.K. Fye, M.D. Therrell). 24. Quaternary coleoptera of the United States and Canada (A.C. Ashworth). 25. Vertebrate paleontology (S.D. Webb, R.W. Graham et al.). 26. Peopling of North America (D.J. Meltzer). 27. Modeling paleoclimates (P.J. Bartlein, S.W. Hostetler).

Customer Reviews