Late Quaternary Environments of the United States

<div> <p><i>Late Quaternary Environments of the United States</i> was first published in 1983. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions.</p> <p>In the late 1970s American and Russian scientists met twice in conferences on Quaternary paleoclimates sponsored by the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Bilateral Agreement on the Environment. The conferees agreed to prepare volumes summarizing the current status of research in the two countries. <i>Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States</i> provides a two-volume overview of new and significant information on research of the last fifteen years since the 1965 publication of <i>Quaternary of the United States</i>edited by H E. Wright Jr. and D. G. Frey. The volume on the late Quaternary in the Soviet Union will also be published by the University of Minnesota Press.</p> <p>Volume 1 of <i>Late-Quaternary Environments of the United States</i> covers the Late Pleistocene the interval between 25000 and 10000 years ago-a time of extreme environmental stress as the world passed from full-glacial conditions of the last ice age into the present interglacial age. The interval of geologic time since the last glacial period-termed the Holocene-is the subject of Volume 2. The complexity of the natural changes occurring in the late Quaternary and their interrelationships make it impossible for a single scientific discipline to encompass them. Thus the papers in both volumes come from authors in many research fields-geology ecology physical geography archaeology geochemistry geophysics limnology soil science paleontology and climatology. Many of the hypotheses presented-especially on the dynamic Late Pleistocene environments-are still hotly debated and will require additional testing as scientists strive to reconstruct the changing world of the glacial and postglacial ages.</p> </div>