New perspectives on Beringian Quaternary paleogeography, stratigraphy and glacial history

Aspects of the paleogeography, stratigraphy, and glacial history of Beringia have been greatly revised over the past 15}20 yr. Access to North East Russia, in particular, has provided the opportunity to evaluate the Beringia landscape as a contiguous subcontinent during the Quaternary. For the "rst time, new research has made clearer the connection between tectonic forces and the submergence of the Bering Strait during the middle Pliocene. Revisions in the regional stratigraphy of glacial and interglacial deposits in northwest Alaska and northeast Russia provide a new foundation for assessing the causes for di!erences in glacial ice extent through time. The consensus of all "eld workers veri"es that glacial ice throughout most of Beringia was of very limited extent during the last glacial maximum. The onset of regional glaciation during the waning stages of the last interglaciation is clearly out of phase with glaciation at lower latitudes. Despite the lack of much glacial activity during the early Holocene, Alaska contains a rich record of late Holocene glacial response to Neoglacial cooling. Changes in the Holocene environment of Beringia likely had a profound a!ect on early inhabitants. The curiosity-driven vision and spirit of both David Hopkins and the late Troy Pewe have had a profound in#uence on Arctic paleoenvironmental research. ( 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. Quaternary science has always progressed incremen-tally as new research, techniques, and proxies emerge as standard tools for understanding environmental change