Controversy over the alpine route that Hannibal of Carthage followed from the Rhône Basin into Italia has raged amongst classicists and ancient historians for over two millennia. The motivation for identifying the route taken by the Punic Army through the Alps lies in its potential for identifying sites of historical archaeological significance and for the resolution of one of history's most enduring quandaries. Here, we present stratigraphic, geochemical and microbiological evidence recovered from an alluvial floodplain mire located below the Col de la Traversette (~3000 m asl—above sea level) on the French/Italian border that potentially identifies the invasion route as the one originally proposed by Sir Gavin de Beer (de Beer 1974). The dated layer is termed the MAD bed (mass animal deposition) based on disrupted bedding, greatly increased organic carbon and key/specialized biological components/compounds, the latter reported in Part II of this paper. We propose that the highly abnormal churned up (bioturbated) bed was contaminated by the passage of Hannibal's animals, possibly thousands, feeding and watering at the site, during the early stage of Hannibal's invasion of Italia (218 bc).

As discussed in Part I, a large accumulation of mammalian faeces at the mire site in the upper Guil Valley near Mt. Viso, dated to 2168cal C-14 yr., provides the first evidence of the passage of substantial but indeterminate numbers of mammals within the time frame of the Punic invasion of Italia. Specialized organic biomarkers bound up in a highly convoluted and bioturbated bed constitute an unusual anomaly in a histosol comprised of fibric and hemist horizons that are usually expected to display horizontal bedding. The presence of deoxycholic acid and ethylcoprostanol derived from faecal matter, coupled with high relative numbers of Clostridia 16S rRNA genes, suggests a substantial accumulation of mammalian faeces at the site over 2000years ago. The results reported here constitute the first chemical and biological evidence of the passage of large numbers of mammals, possibly indicating the route of the Hannibalic army at this time. Combined with the geological analysis reported in Part I, these data provide a background supporting the need for further historical archaeological exploration in this area.

The presence of Mn-Fe nodules in the epipedons (surface horizons) of paleosols of presumed Upper Neogene age in the northwestern Venezuelan Andes have been interpreted as products of inorganic oxidation and reduction processes operating over the full range of glacial and interglacial cycles that affected paleosol morphogenesis. New microscopic/chemical data from combined SEM-EDS-FIB analyses of representative Mn-Fe nodules indicate microbes play an important role in Mn/Fe precipitation leading to their genesis in alpine Mollisols (Argiustolls). Although the prevailing new data are based mainly on fossil forms of filamentous bacteria and fungi and other biogenic pseudomorphs that may represent the former resident bacteria, the presence of extant microbes must await field experiments/collection, followed by a molecular microbiology approach to determine the biological drivers of metal precipitation. As in other terrestrial niche environments, microbes are seen here to play a role, perhaps a key one, in the morphogenesis of paleosols of importance in upper Neogene paleoenvironmental reconstruction.

Coprolites from the Beechy Member of the Cretaceous Bearpaw Formation, southern Saskatchewan, presumably deposited by one or more species of mosasaur or large fish/shark, were recovered and analyzed using SEM/EDS. The data reveal the presence of pseudomorphous coccoid bacteria, potential filamentous bacteria, bacterial endospores and filamentous fungi. No recorded fossil plant or bone material could be identified, either within the highly compressed coprolitic mat-flattened full coprolite bolus – of recovered marine sediment encased in a mixed mat of hematite–apatite primary minerals heavily coated with Ca-smectite and nontronite, or the full coprolite bolus. The presence of fossil bacteria with morphological characteristics similar to those of endospores in other environments suggests that only robust microbial forms such as these survive diagenesis, partly with some carbon still intact, the remainder replaced with silica and iron. The data support the view that coprolites can serve as a useful source of information on the ancient microbial world.

Weathering-rind thicknesses on pebble-and cobble-size sediment have been used for the past half-century, at least, as an age indicator of postdepositional time following a geologic event. In mountainous terrain, rind thickness is taken as a measurement of weathering over time frames of 0.5 m.yr.; variable thicknesses are used to discriminate relative ages of glacial deposits. The effects of chemical and physical weathering that together produce rinds are only rarely considered, and most research objectives have centered on lichen alteration of clast surfaces. Recent microscopic analyses of weathering rinds on volcanic clasts of similar to 70.0-ka to similar to 2.0-m.yr. age produced new data on weathering products as well as unexpected incorporated biotic materials undergoing diagenesis. The question as to how much physical/mineral/chemical/ biotic paleoenvironmental data might be archived in rinds is discussed. The character and classification of organic materials undergoing diagenesis are also discussed.

Red pine (Pinus resinosa) growing in sandy soil of Glacial Lake Whittlesey age (~13–12ka) in the town of Waterford, Ontario, Canada, north of Lake Erie, was struck by lightning in a fierce thunderstorm, May, 2010. The lightning strike was strong enough to destroy television sets and telephones in nearby houses and two red pines were struck, one split down the middle from above the bole to near the crown. Samples of bark and inner tissue were examined to determine the composition of black silt-size specs seen on the severed material. In addition to minerals found in abundance in the local soil, C clots/spherules, disrupted cellulose structures, blackened tissue, fused disfigured Si and metallic sheets of Na, the latter sourced from melted albite (Na-rich plagioclase), were analyzed. Many silt and sand size particles, sourced from the local soil were presumably electrically-levitated along and within the bark by the lightning discharge. Iron-rich micas, other Fe minerals and a great range of light minerals moistened by torrential rain were among the silts and sands transported to great height and embedded in the bark.

Numerous small, low volume rockfalls around the crest of the Italian and French Alps, principally formed from calcareous mica schist and metabasalt, have impeded travel across the major cols for millennia. As documented by Polybius and Livy in the ancient literature, Hannibal's Army was blocked by a two‐tier rockfall on the lee side of the Alps, a rubble sheet of considerable volume that delayed his exit into the upper Po River Country. An in‐depth study of the possible cols reveals that the only such two‐tier landform lies below the Col de la Traversette, at ∼2600 m above sea level. In addition, it represents a problem in applied geomorphology, namely, to accurately determine the nature of the surface rubble sheet in Hannibal's time (218 bc ). A reconstruction of the initial deposit, likely Late Glacial, following the retreat of the Po Glacier, is based upon an analysis of the source rock and geological setting. Further specifications on the geometry of the Neoglacial cover sediment are based on weathering characteristics, lichen cover and soil development. The ‘myth’ that Hannibal fired the rockfall to comminute boulders is plausible given the vegetation records which support tree growth nearby, but is unsubstantiated by the lack of any carbonized rock.

A carbon-rich black layer encrusted on a sandy pebbly bed of outwash in the northern Venezuelan Andes, previously considered the result of an alpine grass fire, is now recognized as a ‘black mat’ candidate correlative with Clovis Age sites in North America, falling within the range of ‘black mat’ dated sites (~12.9ka cal BP). As such, the bed at site MUM7B, which dates to <11.8ka 14C years BP (raw dates) and appears to be contemporaneous with the Younger Dryas (YD) cooling event, marks a possibly much more extensive occurrence than previously identified. No fossils (megafauna) or tool assemblages were observed at this newly identified candidate site (3800a.m.s.l.), as in the case of the North American sites. Here, evidence is presented for an extraterrestrial impact event at ~12.9ka. The impact-related Andean bed, located ~20cm above 13.7–13.3ka cal BP alluvial and glaciolacustrine deposits, falls within the sediment characteristics and age range of ‘black mat’ dated sites (~12.9ka cal BP) in North America. Site sediment characteristics include: carbon, glassy spherules, magnetic microspherules, carbon mat ‘welded’ onto coarse granular material, occasional presence of platinum group metals (Rh and Ru), planar deformation features (pdfs) in fine silt-size fragmental grains of quartz, as well as orthoclase, and monazite (with an abundance of Rare Earth Elements—REEs). If the candidate site is ‘black mat’, correlative with the ‘black mat’ sites of North America, such an extensive occurrence may support the hypothesized airburst/impact over the Laurentide Glacier, which led to a reversal of Allerød warming and the onset of YD cooling and readvance of glaciers. While this finding does not confirm such, it merits further investigation, which includes the reconnaissance for additional sites in South America. Furthermore, if confirmed, such an extensive occurrence may corroborate an impact origin.

Late Glacial and Neoglacial (Little Ice Age) deposits on the Humboldt Massif were analyzed for relative-age dating parameters, including geomorphic and weathering characteristics, geochemical and soil properties. The soil chronosequence, formed in chemically uniform parent materials, provides an important database to study soil evolution in a tropical alpine environment. Extractable and total Fe and Al concentrations, examined to assess their use in relative-age determination, and as paleoenvironmental indicators, provide an important measure of the accumulation and downward profile movement over time of organically-bound Al, ferrihydrite and other crystalline forms (hematite and goethite) of extractable Fe. Ferrihydrite is particularly useful in determining former perched water levels in soils with relation to paleoclimate. The ratios of most Fe extracts are time dependent. The Fed/Fet ratio, within statistical limits, shows a slow increase from LIA (Little Ice Age) to Late Glacial soils, which closely correlates with other alpine soil studies in the middle latitudes and other tropical alpine locales. Values of Ald (dithionite) and Alo (oxalate extractable) generally do not correlate with time; however, Alp (pyrophosphate extractable) measured against Alt (total) provides insight on the downward translocation over time of organically-bound Al. Low leaching rates in this chronosequence are further supported by clay mineralogy trends and the geochemical data.

Deposits of push moraine, outwash and glaciolacustrine sediments, recovered from two areas in the northwestern Venezuelan Andes document the latest Pleistocene advance of Merida ice. Underlying peats provide maximum ages on till and outwash evidently emplaced during the Younger Dryas (YD) climatic event. One example recovered from the Humboldt Massif, where the farthest extent of YD ice buried peat in the surface of Late Glacial til I, provides a within-glacier advance age of 12.4 ka cal BP. The peat lies on moraine deposited during a stillstand event when the Humboldt Glacier retreated to the area of Lago Verde at similar to 4000 m a.s.l. Approximately 0.5 km upvalley, toward Lago Suero, YD till buries peat deposited in glaciolacustrine sediments of presumed Late Glacial age. Farther north, in the Mucu (n) over tilde uque-Mucubaji Catchment of the eastern cordillera, a push moraine of possible YD age buries older till of Late Glacial age; similar to 0.2 km upvalley, outwash of YD age buries glaciolacustrine peat and organic-rich alluvial sediment dated to 13.7 and 13.3 ka cal BP. The latest Wrida advance documented here is approximately synchronous with the YD cold event of Europe and the North Atlantic Region (ca. 11.6-12.7 ka cal BP). The YD event in both areas of the northwestern Venezuelan Andes nearly reestablished earlier Late Glacial ice positions, and termination appears to have been abrupt; the valleys in both areas were evacuated of YD ice without emplacement of recessional moraines as during the main deglaciation. At the Humboldt site, equilibrium line altitudes (ELA's) for the Late Glacial were about 50 m lower than during the inferred YD; in the Mucu (n) over tilde uque-Mucubaji catchment, ELA's for the Late Glacial (similar to 3900 m a.s.l.) are difficult to establish given the absence of lateral moraines. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The actual route Hannibal followed during the invasion of Italia in the Second Punic War is one of the major questions of antiquity, one that historians/archaeologists have long studied. There are six possible passes Hannibal could have used and one of the many bits of evidence in the ancient literature that might help answer this question is the location of fired rock, the result of a conflagration Hannibal is reputed to have employed to reduce the size of boulders in a two-tier blocking rockslide on the lee side (e.g. Italian) some distance down from the high col. The only route with fired rock along the roadway leading to the Po River Valley or the Dora Riparia is below the Col du Clapier, one of the possible northern routes. ToF-SIMS investigation of the 100-μm thick burned crust in hornblende schist interlaced with veins of quartz-feldspathic minerals yields various elements C, Mg, Na, Ca, Si, Ti, P, Al, Fe and their associated fragments. Hydrocarbon fragments are thought to be products of combustion whereas Ca and Na along with Mg–Fe silicates are derived from the country rock. Aeolian components along with clay minerals settled onto rock surfaces following firing. While the SIMS data clearly would not provide an age for the burnt rock, compositional evidence of the conflagration may relate to Hannibal's actual route.

At Pedregal, more than 40m of sediments are exposed within a ‘fan complex’ formed between lateral moraines of the adjacent Mucuchache and El Caballo valleys. Early and late Mérida (Wisconsinan) glaciations are represented by till and till plus proglacial sediments, respectively. A middle Wisconsinan interstadial event, here termed the Pedregal interstade, began at the end of the Early Mérida glaciation at approximately 60ka BP. Following the retreat of ice from the small Pedregal Basin, a lake formed when the local drainage was blocked due to movement of the Mesa de Caballo along the Boconó Fault. Shallow lake or no-lake phases lasted approximately a few hundred to, at most, 2000 years, and each lake phase was marked by peat accumulation. Four of seven peats identified formed during sufficiently long intervals for soil profiles (incipient to mature Spodosols) also to develop. The Spodosol with the strongest development (Eb/Bsb/Coxb/Cub horizons) is found adjacent to the lowest peat and reflects ongoing early Mérida stadial (MIS 3) conditions; the youngest peats, associated with weak podzolic soils (Eb/Bsb horizons), formed under slightly warmer interstadial conditions, presumably with less soil water. Cyclic lacustrine deposition is related to lake level and relative depth fluctuations, due in part to variable shoreline/delta progradation and shallowing as the lake deepened in general. Whereas final drainage of the lake is related to movement of the Boconó Fault and breach of the moraines that form the Mesa de Caballo, earlier lake level fluctuations appear related to climate change. Radiocarbon dating of the peats suggests they are related to warmer periods and may tentatively correlate with small ‘interstadials’ or ‘D-O events’ detected in the oxygen-isotope record of Greenland ice cores and North Atlantic marine sediments.

Ancient wet aeolian (wet-sabkha) environments on Earth, represented in the Entrada and Navajo sandstones of Utah, contain pipe structures considered to be the product of gas/water release under pressure. The sediments originally had considerable porosity allowing the ingress of living plant structures, microorganisms, clay minerals, and fine-grained primary minerals of silt and sand size from the surface downward in the sedimentary column. Host rock material is of a similar size and porosity and presumably the downward migration of fine-grained material would have been possible prior to lithogenesis and final cementation. Recent field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and EDS (energy-dispersive spectrometry) examination of sands from fluidized pipes in the Early Jurassic Navajo Sandstone reveal the presence of fossil forms resembling fungal filaments, some bearing hyphopodium-like structures similar to those produced by modern tropical leaf parasites. The tropical origin of the fungi is consistent with the paleogeography of the sandstone, which was deposited in a tropical arid environment. These fossil fungi are silicized, with minor amounts of CaCO3 and Fe, and in some cases a Si/Al ratio similar to smectite. They exist as pseudomorphs, totally depleted in nitrogen, adhering to the surfaces of fine-grained sands, principally quartz and orthoclase. Similar wet aeolian paleoenvironments are suspected for Mars, especially following catastrophic sediment-charged floods of enormous magnitudes that are believed to have contributed to rapid formation of large water bodies in the northern plains, ranging from lakes to oceans. These events are suspected to have contributed to a high frequency of constructional landforms (also known as pseudocraters) related to trapped volatiles and water-enriched sediment underneath a thick blanket of materials that were subsequently released to the martian surface, forming piping structures at the near surface and constructional landforms at the surface. This constructional process on Mars may help unravel the complex history of some of the piping structures observed on Earth; on Earth, evidence for the constructional landforms has been all but erased and the near-surface piping structures exposed through millions of years of differential erosion and topographic inversion now occur as high-standing promontories. If the features on both Earth and Mars formed by similar processes, especially involving water and other volatiles, and since the piping structures of Earth provided suitable environments for life to thrive in, the martian features in the northern plains should be considered as prime targets for physico/mineral/chemical/microbiological analyses once the astrobiological exploration of the red planet begins in earnest.

Glaciolacustrine sediments, ranging in age from Early to Late Merida (Wisconsinan) in sections in the northern Venezuelan Andes near Pedregal, were studied to assess the effect of small-scale folding and faulting on the surface microtextures of individual grains. At site PED5, faulting of sediments beneath 35 m of Middle to Late Merida glaciolacustrine, glaciofluvial and probable till deposits, has resulted in a maximum displacement of 1 m and many crushed sand grains are found along the shear zone. These dominantly quartz particles are typically smoothed and/or faceted with surface skins split from parent grains to produce adhering blade or wafer-shaped coarse silts. Faulting with displacement of <40 cm occurs in Late Merida glaciolacustrine beds at sites PED13 and PED11, beneath ca. 1-5 m of sediment and is thought to result from the removal of lateral support during valley erosion and possibly seismic disturbance. Associated sediments exhibit a greater incidence of small-scale fold structures and convoluted bedding but with similar numbers and types of crushed grains. All of the fault traces examined exhibit microstructural modifications, including microfaulting, folding and multiple domains associated with fluidisation and liquefaction. The microtextures described are distinct from those produced by glacial or glaciofluvial transport processes and potentially may be used to infer glaciotectonic or other post-depositional disturbance of sediments. Rare euhedral quartz grains with distorted crystallographic axes may derive from the shear zone of the regional transform Bocono Fault, although many of these grains appear to be overprinted by glacial and/or recent deformation processes. Copyright (C) 2004 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.

Paleosols in northern Venezuela, which have formed in residual regoliths of metaargillite rock complexes, have been considered to have developed in tropical, humid climates at low elevation. Their reddish colors and clay-enriched horizons have been used to support the hypothesis of significant recent uplift of the Andes Mountains in Late Quaternary time. We suggest an alternative hypothesis of long-term (+5Myr) pedogenesis in a paleohydrogeochemical regime, characterized by fluctuating redox conditions at high elevation (2000–2500ma.s.l.); the evidence for this redox history is the presence of Mn–Fe nodules in the surface epipedon. The sites, though relatively dry now, are interpreted to have been much wetter in the past, with soil moisture levels capable of translocating clay to form argillic horizons. The presence of thick Ah horizons, complete with large (1–2mm) Mn–Fe nodules and approximately 30cm thick argillic horizons, suggests long-term pedogenesis. The previous classification of these paleosols as Oxisols is untenable because of the presence of a mollic epipedon and the concentration of Mn–Fe nodules in the epipedon. The paleosols bear some resemblance to Placosols of the Canadian taxonomy, previously described for the maritime cool, moist climates of the Pacific and North Atlantic areas of Canada, but in Venezuela they occur without an impermeable subsurface Fe oxide layer. In the US taxonomy, they are classified as Typic or Aridic Argiustolls.

Samples of horizons in paleosols from the Quartermain Mountains of the Antarctic Dry Valleys (Aztec and New Mountain areas) were analyzed for their physical characteristics, mineralogy, chemical composition, and microbiology to determine the accumulation and movement of salts and other soluble constituents and the presence/absence of microbial populations. Salt concentrations are of special interest because they are considered to be a function of age, derived over time, in part from nearby oceanic and high-altitude atmospheric sources. The chemical composition of ancient Mioceneage paleosols in these areas is the direct result of the deposition and weathering of airborne-influxed salts and other materials, as well as the weathering of till derived principally from local dolerite and sandstone outcrops. Paleosols nearer the coast have greater contents of Cl, whereas near the inland ice sheet, nitrogen tends to increase on a relative basis. The accumulation and vertical distribution of salts and other soluble chemical elements indicate relative amounts of movement in the profile over long periods of time, in the order of several million years.Four of the six selected subsamples from paleosol horizons in two ancient soil profiles contained nil concentrations of bacteria and fungi. However, two horizons at depths of between 3 and 8 cm, in two profiles, yielded several colonies of the fungi Beauveria bassiana and Penicillium brevicompactum, indicating very minor input of organic carbon. Beauveria bassiana is often reported in association with insects and is used commercially for the biological control of some insect pests. Penicillium species are commonly isolated from Arctic, temperate, and tropical soils and are known to utilize a wide variety of organic carbon and nitrogen compounds. The cold, dry soils of the Antarctic bear a close resemblance to various present and past martian environments where similar weathering could occur and possible microbial populations may exist. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science.

Buried Spodosols (podzols) within a thick lithostratigraphic section in the northern Venezuelan Andes are interbedded with tills and a succession of multicyclic lacustrine clays, silts and sands from the early and middle stades of the Wisconsinan/Weichselian Glaciation. The peats, dated by AMS radiocarbon, allow calculations of the time required for pedogenesis. These Spodosols were studied to determine compositional changes from initial to full soil development. During lake low water stands, peats of variable thickness developed, along with soils belonging to the Spodosol order. On a relative time scale, the initial stage of soil genesis produced peat with a weathered mineral zone (Bs)—initial spodic horizon of a few centimeters thickness. With a longer time for soil genesis of a few centuries, a thin Spodosol developed with an E/Bs horizon sequence. With still longer time spans of a few thousand years, between 55 and 60 ka, more mature Spodosols with E/Bs/Cox/Cu profiles formed beneath very thick peat in conjunction with groundwater fluctuations. The lowermost peat (VII) in the section varies from 15 to 26.5 cm in thickness. The paleosols are sandy, with little evidence of either clay transformations, or silt accretion from airfall influx, apparent from the particle size analysis. XRD analysis of the clay fraction shows minor weathering of illite to vermiculite and chlorite in the Bs horizons. Chemically extractable forms of Fe and Al show increases of both soluble and insoluble minerals from the E to the Bs horizons in the buried Spodosols, a considerably different trend compared with the surface soils (Entisols). Geochemical trace element analysis shows a moderate degree of translocation of soluble chemical elements from the E to the Bs horizons.

Bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata) in the Marakkanam Reserved Forest of southern India consume termitaria soils. Samples from the ingested termite mounds are compared with samples taken from the surrounding uneaten soils in an attempt to determine why the termitaria soils are eaten. Particle size, clay and primary mineral composition, geochemistry, and scanning electron microscopic analyses are used to search for a possible explanation for geophagy among the bonnet macaques. Kaolin minerals abound throughout the Marakkanam soil sample suite. But the termitaria soils are distinguished by the presence of small amounts of smectite. An abundance of kaolin minerals in combination with small amounts of smectite strongly resembles the mineralogy ofeko, a traditional African remedy for stomach ailments, and Kaopectate™, a western anti-diarrhoeal preparation. The percentage of mature leaves and fruits ofAzadirachta indica consumed by the bonnet macaques is relatively high. Plant feeding deterrents, such as, acid detergent fibre (ADF) and the inherent nature of the fruits ofAzadirachta indica, when consumed in large quantities to act as a purgative, could cause gastrointestinal upsets and diarrhoea. At Marakkanam, bonnet macaques ingest termitaria earth that would act as a pharmaceutical agent to alleviate gastrointestinal upsets and control diarrhoea.