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        The most recent additions occurred on 8 February 2021.  

       The nature of Quaternary Science
       The nature of Quaternary records
       Quaternary geochronology
       Quaternary time series
       Processes and drivers I: climate
       Processes and drivers II: glaciation
       The most important Quaternary animal
       Recent climate change

The nature of Quaternary Science

What is the Quaternary?

Why care about the Quaternary?

A timeline of the history of Quaternary and paleoclimate studies

Scientific journals focusing on the Quaternary

Diminishing knowledge with increasing age through Quaternary time

The nature of Quaternary records

From deep-sea sediments to paleoclimate records

Oxygen isotope records of the Quaternary from planktic and benthic foraminifera

Stalagmites of CaCO₃ as records of past environmental/climatological change

Controls on the δ¹³C and δ¹⁸O of spelean CaCO₃

Intelligent sampling of layered deposits, like stalagmites

The temporal extent of Quaternary records and dating methods

Erratics and dropstones

Calibration of radiocarbon dates I

Calibration of radiocarbon dates II

Radiometric dating via U-series disequlibrium I

Radiometric dating via U-series disequlibrium II

Quaternary geochronology

What is the Quaternary?

The bias of Quaternary geochronology toward the recent

The evolution of the Quaternary Period, or
"How the Pleistocene got so big and the Holocene got so small"

Marine isotope stages and substages

Ages of boundaries between marine isotope stages

The integrated schizophrenia of Quaternary geochronology I

The integrated schizophrenia of Quaternary geochronology II

The four glaciations inferred by early North American geologists

The Holocene and MIS 1: not quite the same

AD, CE, BC, BP, calendar years, radiocarbon years, and all that

Quaternary time series

      Modern records

Instrumental record of Earth's average temperature

Temperatures from the Last Glacial Maximum to the future

Temperatures from the Middle Pleistocene to the future

      The Holocene

Northern Hemisphere climate over the past 2000 years

Holocene ice core isotopic records, climatic events, and human history

Holocene temperature change recorded in Greenland ice cores

The Holocene Thermal Maximum, I: the early-Holocene alternative

The Holocene Thermal Maximum, II: the mid-Holocene alternative

The 4 kyr cyclicity of major cooling events in the last 18,000 years

      The Pleistocene

Terminology and timing of some later Quaternary climatic events

The last glacial cycle in marine sediments, Greenland ice, and Antarctic ice

Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles, Heinrich events, and the biopolar see-saw

Changing sea-surface temperature and sea level over the last nineteen marine isotope stages

The Paleolithic in the context of oxygen isotope records of Cenozoic global cooling and glaciation

Five million years of climate and hominin history

Oxygen isotope records of Cenozoic global cooling and glaciation

Processes and drivers I: climate

Global climate zones Ia: building an idealized simple view

Global climate zones Ib: building an idealized simple view

Global climate zones Ic: building an idealized simple view

Global climate zones Id: an idealized simple view

Global climate zones II: an idealized simple view, with weather

Global climate zones III: an idealized simple view, with seasons and weather

Global climate zones IV: an idealized simple view, with seasons and continents

Global climate zones V: an idealized simple view, with seasons and a huge continent

   Global climate zones: a Powerpoint file of the eight pages above

Seasonality of atmospheric precipitation I: an overview

Seasonality of atmospheric precipitation II: summer rainfall

Seasonality of atmospheric precipitation III: equinoctial rainfall

Seasonality of atmospheric precipitation IV: warm-season rainfall

Seasonality of atmospheric precipitation V: winter precipitation

Seasonality of atmospheric precipitation VI: winter-and-summer

Seasonality of atmospheric precipitation VII: some extreme cases

    Seasonality of atmospheric precipitation: a Powerpoint file of the seven pages above

Four understandings of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (the ITCZ)

Tropical rainfall and the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone: TRMM images

Shifts of the ITCZ with changing NH temperature

A very schematic explanation of the bipolar seesaw

Processes and drivers II: glaciation

Seasonality and the survival of glacial ice

Milankovitch cycles I: eccentricity of Earth's orbit, seasonality, and extent of glaciation

Milankovitch cycles II: tilt of Earth's axis, seasonality, and extent of glaciation

Milankovitch cycles III: precession of the seasons, seasonality, and extent of glaciation

Change of sea level and seawater δ¹⁸O with glaciation

The world from the Cretaceous to the Quaternary

Quaternary climate change: similarity of pattern despite difference in scale.

The most important Quaternary animal

Advances in human cognitive/psychological evolution 1: language

Advances in human cognitive/psychological evolution 2: temporal perspective

Advances in human cognitive/psychological evolution 2: relational perspective

Advances in human cognitive/psychological evolution 4: literacy

Human evolution, as opposed to that of Homo sapiens

Recent global change

Global temperature change 1880-2016: one summary plot

Global temperature change 1880-2019: land vs. ocean

Global temperature change 1880-2016: Northern vs. Southern Hemisphere

Wally Broecker's prediction of global warming when the world was cooling

Temperatures from the Middle Pleistocene to the future

Temperatures from the Last Glacial Maximum to the future

The variability of weather and the predictability of climate

Holocene variation in atmospheric CO₂ and global temperature

Holocene variation in global temperature and in concentration and δ¹³C of atmospheric CO₂:
The smoking tailpipe of global warming

Human introduction of CO₂ to the atmosphere I: fossil fuels

Human introduction of CO₂ to the atmosphere II: landscape modification

Per capita CO₂ emissions

Investigations finding no deception in the alleged "Climategate" incident

Weakening of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation in the Anthropocene

Explosion of nuclear weapons in the twentieth century