We report on the existence and nature of Holocene solar and climatic variations on centennial to millennial timescales. We introduce a new solar activity proxy, based on nitrate (NO3−) concentration from the Talos Dome ice core, East Antarctica. We also use a new algorithm for computing multiple-cross wavelet spectra in time–frequency space that is generalized for multiple time series (beyond two). Our results provide a new interpretive framework for relating Holocene solar activity variations on centennial to millennial timescales to co-varying climate proxies drawn from a widespread area around the globe. Climatic proxies used represent variation in the North Atlantic Ocean, Western Pacific Warm Pool, Southern Ocean and the East Asian monsoon regions. Our wavelet analysis identifies fundamental solar modes at 2300-yr (Hallstattzeit), 1000-yr (Eddy), and 500-yr (unnamed) periodicities, leaves open the possibility that the 1500–1800-yr cycle may either be fundamental or derived, and identifies intermediary derived cycles at 700-yr and 300-yr that may mark rectified responses of the Atlantic thermohaline circulation to external solar modulation and pacing. Dating uncertainties suggest that the 1500-yr and 1800-yr cycles described in the literature may represent either the same or two separate cycles, but in either case, and irrespective too of whether it is a fundamental or derived mode in the sense of Dima and Lohmann (2009), the 1500–1800-yr periodicity is widely represented in a large number of paleoclimate proxy records. It is obviously premature to reject possible links between changing solar activity at these multiple scales and the variations that are commonly observed in paleoclimatic records.

Precipitation in low latitudes is primarily controlled by the position of the intertropical convergence zone, which migrates from south to north seasonally. The Little Ice Age (defined as AD 1400–1850) was associated with low solar irradiance and high atmospheric aerosol concentrations as a result of several large volcanic eruptions. The mean position of the intertropical convergence zone over the western Pacific has been proposed to have shifted southwards during this interval, which would lead to relatively dry Little Ice Age conditions in the northern extent of the intertropical convergence zone and wet conditions around its southern limit. However, here we present a synthesis of palaeo-hydrology records from the Asian–Australian monsoon area that documents a rainfall distribution that distinctly violates the expected pattern. Our synthesis instead documents a synchronous retreat of the East Asian Summer Monsoon and the Australian Summer Monsoon into the tropics during the Little Ice Age, a pattern supported by the results of our climate model simulation of tropical precipitation over the past millennium. We suggest that this pattern over the western Pacific is best explained by a contraction in the latitudinal range over which the intertropical convergence zone seasonally migrates during the Little Ice Age. We therefore propose that rather than a strict north–south migration, the intertropical convergence zone in this region may instead expand and contract over decadal to centennial timescales in response to external forcing.

In many instances, humans accomplish recognition by a Gestalt comparison of the feature with a catalog, either in hand or in memory. Some recognition tasks require an extensive catalog and organization, as represented by the typical field guides for identifying birds, plants, and so on. The horizontal axis of each plot is the magnitude of the differences in the parameters for each airplane shape. One thing that cross-correlation is quite good at is finding a feature in a cluttered or camouflaged scene. In some situations, such as searching reconnaissance images for objects of military interest, the cross-correlation is performed with target images oriented at angles in steps of about 15 to 20 degrees. When shape is used for classification, choosing the appropriate shape parameters may be done by humans based on prior knowledge and experience, or mathematically by techniques such as principal components analysis …

A vigorous public debate over possibly dangerous human-caused global warming exists. In reality, the great majority of scientists hold balanced and non-extreme views about the complex issue of climate change. Scientists accept (i) that global climate has and will change; (ii) that human activities (not just carbon dioxide emissions) definitely affect local climate, and have the potential, summed, to measurably affect global climate; and (iii) that carbon dioxide is a mild greenhouse gas. The true scientific debate is about the sign and magnitude of any global human effect, and its likely significance when considered in the context of natural climate change. Modern temperature measurements, from thermometers to satellite measurements, only go back 150 years. Geological datasets do not provide direct temperature measurements, least of all of Average Global Temperature. Instead, they comprise local or regional proxy records of climate change of varying quality. Nonetheless, numerous high quality palaeo-climate records, and especially those from ice cores and deep-sea mud cores, exist, and comprise the essential context within modern climate change must be studied. Scientists agree that natural climate-related events and change are real, with real human and environmental costs. These hazards include storms, floods, droughts, bushfires, and temperature steps and longer term cooling or warming trends. Natural climate-related events and change will continue, and human and environmental damage will be wrought. In our present state of knowledge they can neither be predicted far ahead nor prevented once underway. The matter of dealing with future climate change, therefore, is primarily one of risk appraisal and minimization, as that for natural risks which vary from place to place around the globe.

Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 317 was devoted to understanding the relative importance of global sea level (eustasy) versus local tectonic and sedimentary processes in controlling continental margin sedimentary cycles.The expedition recovered sediments from the Eocene to recent period, with a particular focus on the sequence stratigraphy of the late Miocene to recent, when global sea level change was dominated by glacioeustasy.Drilling in the Canterbury Basin, on the eastern margin of the South Island of New Zealand, takes advantage of high rates of Neogene sediment supply, which preserves a high-frequency (0.1-0.5 m.y.) record of depositional cyclicity.Because of its proximity to an uplifting mountain chain (the Southern Alps) and strong ocean currents, the Canterbury Basin provides an opportunity to study the complex interactions between processes responsible for the preserved sequence stratigraphic record.Currents have locally built large, elongate sediment drifts within the prograding Neogene section.These elongate drifts were not drilled during Expedition 317, but currents are inferred to have strongly influenced deposition across the basin, including locations lacking prominent mounded drifts.Upper Miocene to recent sedimentary sequences were cored in a transect of three sites on the continental shelf (landward to basinward, Sites U1353, U1354, and U1351) and one on the continental slope (Site U1352).The transect provides a stratigraphic record of depositional cycles across the shallow-water environment most directly affected by relative sea level change.Lithologic boundaries provisionally correlative with seismic sequence boundaries were identified in cores from each site, providing insight into the origins of seismically resolvable sequences.This record will be used to estimate the timing and amplitude of global sea level change and to document the sedimentary processes that operate during sequence formation.Sites U1353 and U1354 provide significant double-cored, high-recovery sections through the Holocene, allowing for high-resolution study of recent glacial cycles in a continental shelf setting.Continental slope Site U1352 represents a complete section from modern slope terrigenous sediment to hard Eocene limestone, with all the associated lithologic, biostratigraphic, physical, geochemical, and microbiological transitions.This site also provides a record of ocean circulation and fronts during the last ~35 m.y.

Clay mineralogical and particle size data from Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 1119 reflect processes associated with the deposition of the Canterbury Drifts and the evolution of the New Zealand south-eastern shelf, and are strongly correlated with Pliocene–Pleistocene climatic and oceanographic fluctuations. Elevated smectite contents at the base of Site 1119 (latest Early Pliocene ∼3.9–3.5Ma) also occur regionally in the Southern Ocean and point towards an alternative sediment source other than nearby New Zealand terranes. The abrupt reduction in smectite content at ∼3.5Ma and replacement by dominant chlorite–illite assemblages corresponds to the onset of Late Pliocene cooling climate conditions and more intense onland physical weathering. High illite contents in Late Pliocene–Early Pleistocene (∼3.0–1.7Ma) sediments suggest a more southern terrane (e.g. Haast Schist) source influence and widened shelf conditions. An upward increase in clay content reflects an increased supply of glacier-derived detrital sediment, concurrent with global climate deterioration during the Late Pliocene–Pleistocene. Grainsize fining of the background mean sortable silt (mss) signal indicates reduced Southland Current flow, consistent with its forced seaward migration across Site 1119 over time due to continual eastward shelf progradation. Clay mineralogy and particle size data at ODP Site 1119 exhibit a relationship with both global climatic conditions and with Southwest Pacific paleoceanographic and paleoclimatic regimes.

The response of Robert M. Carter to an error pointed out by Robert Ward in his 2008 paper is discussed. The main comment on a more extended critique of Carter's EAP paper by Ward is highlighted.

Three major sediment facies belts occur on the Great Barrier Reef shelf: an inner shelf prism of Holocene terrigenous sand and mud, a patchy middle shelf veneer of palimpsest muddy shelly calcsand (<1m thick) above a weathered Pleistocene erosion surface, and an apron of modern carbonate mud and sand around reefs of the main reef tract. These sediments were mobilized and strongly affected by the passage of severe tropical Cyclone Winifred (central pressure 958hPa), which traversed the central Great Barrier Reef shelf on February 1, 1986.Re-surveys after the passage of Cyclone Winifred showed that (i) a storm-induced shell lag and/or a normally graded bed of terrigenous fine sand-mud had been deposited at depths down to 20m; (ii) middle shelf longitudinal bedforms were widespread at depths of 28–35m, and comprised a furrowed substrate of palimpsest muddy shell gravel surmounted by 40–150m wide ribbons of quartzose and bioclastic sand up to 15cm thick; (iii) fields of northward-facing, 1–2m wavelength megaripples were present adjacent to zones of ribbons, and in the alleys between ribbons; (iv) five days after the cyclone, mud was still settling from suspension, and large parts of the inner shelf were bathed in muddy hypopycnal river plumes, some of which reached 30km seaward to the inner edge of the reef tract; and (v) suspended mud, derived in part by unmixing of the seabed, was present throughout the shelf water column, and a seaward-thinning mud drape up to 40cm thick had accumulated on and seawards of the inshore sediment prism, tapering seawards to a few mm thick only over most of the middle shelf.It is inferred that storm-waves and currents associated with the passage of Cyclone Winifred caused widespread unmixing of bottom sediments. Offshore, long-shelf transport of bedload sand ribbons and megaripples was affected by powerful shelf-parallel currents of velocity 1–3m/s. As the storm passed, the graded, seaward-thinning sand–mud bed was deposited over the inner-middle shelf. On the middle shelf, bioturbation and downward mixing of the mud drape started immediately after the passage of the cyclone, and was well advanced after 3months. In this way, the ephemeral seabed features produced by passage of a cyclone are gradually degraded, and the storm-layer stratigraphy becomes incorporated within a thin middle shelf veneer of muddy shelly calcsand.

‘The new religion of global warming …. is a great story, and a phenomenal best seller. It contains a grain of truth and a mountain of nonsense. And that nonsense could be very damaging indeed. We appear to have entered a new age of unreason, which threatens to be as economically harmful as it is profoundly disquieting. It is from this, above all, that we really do need to save the planet’. Nigel Lawson, p. 106, ‘An Appeal to Reason: A Cool Look at Global Warming’, 2008.

A sequence is an unconformity-bounded body of strata deposited over a single sinusoidal cycle of 'low-high-low' relative sea-level change. Sequence stratigraphy is a way of classifying and interpreting sedimentary rocks and fossils according to their stratal geometry and in terms of the changing environments under which they were deposited. The oscillating glacial/interglacial conditions of the Quaternary drove recurring eustatic sea-level fluctuations up to 130 m in magnitude, which had profound effects on the deposition of coastal and shelf marine strata on continental margins worldwide. Because the high-quality proxy record of sea-level history represented by the oceanic oxygen isotope curve is independent of any local sedimentary record, sequence stratigraphic interpretations controlled by comparisons with this curve are an exceptionally powerful way of studying Quaternary successions. Such studies have yielded fundamental insights into the ways in which continental margin strata are deposited under the influence of changing sea levels.

19th and 20th century stratigraphy often concerned itself primarily with classification and nomenclature, during what can be termed the heroic and codex ages of stratigraphy. In contrast, 21st century stratigraphy will fall within the post-modern age. In possession of agreed classification schemes, future stratigraphers will concentrate on (i) the reconstruction of earth environments and processes (including evolution) through time, (ii) the eficient location and recovery of useful earth resources, and (iii) the study of those geological hazards that can be understood within a stratigraphic context. The first objective -reconstructing environments through time -requires the use of a conceptual framework similar to the one that we term the geological time scale (GTS). The 21st century GTS will be based on GSSP designations at the base of all geological Periods and, ultimately, Ages, i.e. it will comprise an internationally agreed chronologic hierarchy. Recognition of local chronologic schemes (as distinct from biostratigraphies based on Oppelzones) will thereafter serve no useful purpose and local "Ages" will become redun-dant. Globally, recognition of a separate but completely parallel chronostratigraphic classification will also serve no useful purpose, and this hierarchy too will be abandoned. Correlation of events into the GTS will be undertaken using a wide variety of methods, including numeric dating, fossil occurrence, physical and chemical properties, tephrochronology and astrochronologic retrodictions. Biostrati-graphy, though remaining a vital tool, especially for Phanerozoic strata, will carry no necessary correlation primacy. Meeting the second and third objectives -locating and recovering earth resources, and studying hazards -requires first and fore-most the creation of detailed geological maps and stratigraphic columns. The lithostratigraphic hierarchy of Bed-Member-Forma-tion-Group-Supergroup is an efficient and mostly objective classification whereby useful maps and columns are created. Because geological mapping is concerned with local stratigraphic detail and complexity, it cannot, like chronology, be organized within a global nomenclature. Over different large areas, different major, genetically-related packages of sediments correspond to the form ation, filling and sometimes destruction of sedimentary basins -as driven by regional tectonic events, and as influenced by regional climatic and oceanographic histories. At the supra-Group or supra-Supergroup level, major sediment assemblages of this type are separated by re-gional unconformities, as recognized by the creation of a category of Unconformity-bounded Units (UBU) in the 1994 2nd edition of the International Stratigraphic Guide. Whether or not UBU are continued with as a formal unit of classification, the strong need will persist for the type of regional, unconformity-bounded units that have successively been termed Sequence and Synthem, for use as the highest level within the lithostratigraphic hierarchy.