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Full-Glacial Southwestern United States: Mild and Wet or Cold and Dry?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

R. W. Galloway
R. W. Galloway*
Affiliation:
CSIRO, Division of Water and Land Resources, P.O. Box 1666, Canberra City, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia
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Abstract

This paper considers a model of cold and dry full-glacial climates for the southwestern United States in the light of published studies. The evidence from fossil plants is shown to be reconcilable with temperatures some 10°C below their present levels and a concomitant shift of the upper timberline which varied according to regional summer lapse rates. Fossils of “thermophilous” or “mesophytic” plants are cited by some writers as evidence for mild, pluvial conditions although today these plants occur in relatively cold and dry situations. Mean annual and July temperatures for the United States as a whole, derived from the model, are in accord with periglacial and palynological evidence.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , March 1983 , pp. 236 - 248
Copyright
University of Washington

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