Abstract The behaviour of ice caps and glaciers on sub-Antarctic islands during previous periods of warming provide key empirical evidence for understanding the behaviour of marine ice sheets in the future. However, the extent of ice on sub-Antarctic islands during the last 100 kyr is poorly constrained. Here, we investigate the past glacial extents on South Georgia, where previous Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) reconstructions vary between small fjord-terminating glaciers and a large marine-based ice sheet. To help resolve this uncertainty, we apply Schmidt hammer relative-age dating to measure rock hardness and, thus, exposure age of a range of glacial deposits. Applying a hardness–age calibration curve constructed from well-dated Holocene, late-glacial deposits and terminal LGM deposits, we determine that deglaciation of the approximately 600 m-high peaks on the outer Lewin Peninsula occurred during the latter half of the last glacial stage, and probably the end of the LGM. We infer that South Georgia was covered by a marine-based ice cap during the latter part of the last glacial stage.

Hydromorphological and hydroclimatic methods were used to reconstruct the former surface runoff from the East European part of the Black Sea drainage basin. Data on the shape and dynamics of the last Fennoscandian ice sheet were used to calculate meltwater supply to the headwaters of the Dnieper River. The channel width and meander wavelength of well-preserved fragments of large paleochannels were measured at 51 locations in the Dnieper and Don River basins (East European Plain), which allowed reconstruction of the former surface runoff of the ancient rivers, as well as the total volume of flow into the Black Sea, using transform functions. Studies of the composition of fossil floras derived from radiocarbon-dated sediments of various origins and ages make it possible to locate their modern region analogues. These analogues provide climatic and hydrological indexes for the Late Pleniglacial and Late Glacial landscapes. Morphological, geological, geochronological, and palynological studies show that the landscape, climatic, and hydrologic history of the region included: (1) a cold and dry interval close to the Last Glacial Maximum characterized by high meteoritic surface runoff supplemented by meltwater flow from ice-dam lakes; (2) a warmer humid interval at the end of the Late Pleniglacial with very high surface runoff and formation of extremely large meandering channels, combined with a short event of substantial inflow from the Caspian Sea; and (3) a period from the Oldest Dryas to the Preboreal of nonsteady surface runoff decrease, and transformation of large meandering channels into smaller ones against the background of climate warming.

This paper presents geophysical and core data obtained from several marine geology surveys carried out in the western Black Sea. These data provide a solid record of water-level fluctuation during the Last Glacial Maximum in the Black Sea. A Last Glacial Maximum lowstand wedge evidenced at the shelf edge in Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey represents the starting point of this record. Then, a first transgressive system is identified as the Danube prodelta built under ~40 m of water depth. The related rise in water level is interpreted to have been caused by an increase in water provided to the Black Sea by the melting of the ice after 18,000 yr B.P., drained by the largest European rivers (Danube, Dnieper, Dniester). Subsequently, the Black Sea lacustrine shelf deposits formed a significant basinward-prograding wedge system, interpreted as forced regression system tracts. On top of these prograding sequences, there is a set of sand dunes that delineates a wave-cut terrace-like feature around the isobath −100 m. The upper part of the last prograding sequence is incised by anastomosed channels that end in the Danube (Viteaz) canyon, which are also built on the lacustrine prograding wedge. Overlying this succession, there is a shelfwide unconformity visible in very high-resolution seismic-reflection profiles and present all over the shelf. A uniform drape of marine sediment above the unconformity is present all over the continental shelf with practically the same thickness over nearby elevations and depressions. This mud drape represents the last stage of the Black Sea water-level fluctuation and is set after the reconnection of this basin with the Mediterranean Sea.

On the basis of the areal distribution of glacial erosional and depositional features, western Gaspé is divided into four zones. From north to south, glacial erosion increases in depth and the deposits become thicker across Zones I and II; they are absent in Zone III, and reappear in Zone IV. Zone II also includes high-altitude occurrences of periglacial features which formed prior to the last glacial maximum. Glaciation in Gaspé began in the highlands with the development of an ice cap which had a frozen base over the periglacial deposits protecting them from erosion, while elsewhere in the highlands it actively eroded the rock surface with a melting base. Radial flow of this ice cap dispersed local lithologies. The Laurentide Ice Sheet entered the peninsula from the west and northwest, flowed southeastward, and merged with the ice cap to form a single ice sheet over Gaspé. The zonal distribution of glacial features is due to changes in the conditions at the base of the glacier: it was melting in the St. Lawrence channel, freezing through Zones I and II, frozen in Zone III and melting in Zone IV. Breakup of the ice sheet occurred through the calving-bay-surge type of mass wastage in the St. Lawrence Gulf-Estuary system, owing to eustatically rising sea level. The resulting reversed ice flow transported rocks from the south to north, including a few Shield rocks (a few erratic rocks of Precambrian age formerly brought into the area from the Canadian Shield in the north). Further retreat of the ice front caused the development of a Gaspé ice dome which subsequently broke up into several individual ice caps.

We investigate the fate of permafrost since the Last Glacial Maximum in the Laptev and East Siberian Seas, a submergent coastal environment. The shelf here is up to 700 km wide and less than 80 m deep, a large area highly sensitive to changes in environmental conditions. Climate and sea-level histories and the terrestrial and coastal geomorphology of the region are combined with direct observations from drilling campaigns to review existing notions on the distribution, thickness, physical state, and history of the development of terrestrial and offshore permafrost since the Last Glacial Maximum. Drilling transects running perpendicular to the coast in the nearshore zone show that the interface between unfrozen and frozen sediments varies in its angle of inclination as a result of a number of factors, primarily coastal retreat rate. A conceptual model of permafrost development prior to submergence suggests that thermokarst and nearshore processes are critical in altering the development of permafrost in the submarine environment.