Book Description

This monograph reviews the nature of Quaternary environmental changes over the largest continent in the Southern Hemisphere. Moreover, since South America makes a transect across most climatic belts of an entire hemisphere, it provides a unique opportunity to examine the impact of changing Quaternary climates on a variety of environments. It also forms the basis for judging the synchrony or non-synchrony of Quaternary climatic changes between hemispheres and this has important implications for climatic modelling.As South America has a dynamic tectonic regime along its western margin, 3 chapters discuss the geomorphological impact of Quaternary tectonics and volcanism. The following 6 chapters integrate evidence for Quaternary changes in the great alluvial basins of the Continent Orinoco, Amazon, Paranaacute;) and in the contiguous highland massifs (Guyana, Brazil, Patagonia). As parts of the Andes have been high enough to support glaciers since the late Miocene, 5 chapters review the nature and consequences of Quaternary glacier fluctuations. The following 4 chapters select major process-form systems that impacted the continent during the Quaternary, including geocryogenic activity, palaeolake development, palaeo-gravel formations and coastal changes. Three chapters provide the first major review of Quaternary vegetation changes in South America (primarily the Andes) deduced from palaeoecological data. The final chapter weaves most of the environmental threads together in an overall synthesis of the Quaternary of South America.The book is lavishly illustrated with photographs and line diagrams. As it provides a compendium of data and analyses about Quaternary changes for a whole continent, this book should appeal to a wide range of environmental disciplines.