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This paper presents the outcome of a workshop, held in Berlin in February 2009, concerned with current research on the glacial history of northern Europe, including the British Isles. The methodologies presently used to resolve this topic are outlined. Particular attention is given to new analytical methods deriving from high resolution remote imaging of glacial terrain both on land and on the sea-bed, key new stratigraphic sections, higher resolution results from conventional geochronological methods like radiocarbon and more recently developed technologies such as luminescence and cosmogenic radionuclide dating. The relationships between the results derived from these two methods are discussed in further detail along with possible explanations for these differences. An outline of a 'most likely' glacial history of the Scandinavian and British and Irish Ice Sheets is presented along with possible links to global climate change as represented by the marine isotope (MIS) record. Tentative evidence for glaciation is identified in MIS 22, 16, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4 and 2 and correlations of 'phases' within the Last Glaciation are also explored for both the Scandinavian and British and Irish Ice Sheets. The results show that the character and extent of glaciation in different parts of the region are not synchronous and much more geochronological work is required before regional correlations can be established with confidence. Keywords: glaciation, marine isotope stages (MIS), Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS), British and Irish Ice Sheet (BIIS), Last Glacial Maximum Introduction and objectivesThe glaciation of northern Europe has been a subject of interest and debate for over 200 years and today, at a time of greater awareness to the consequences of climate change, the subject retains its relevance to science and society. With the development of new methodologies for dating glacial deposits and important new findings for modelling glacier response to climate change this subject requires re-evaluation and re-interpretation. Likewise it has been possible to identify critical issues that should be the focus for future research. Consequently, in February 2009 an exploratory workshop was held at the Freie Universität Berlin to examine the frequency and timing of glaciations in northern Europe (including Britain) during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. The workshop was funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgmeinschaft/ German Research Foundation) and involved 24 participants. This issue of Quaternary Science Reviews includes a number of the contributions presented and discussed at the meeting along with certain invited papers that present new findings on the topic of the special issue. This paper will begin by briefly reviewing the contents of the issue giving particular attention to new and important findings. This will be followed by a section that will evaluate the methodologies currently being applied to understand the glaciations of northern Europe. Some of these methodologies, such as lithostratigraphy and morphostratig...

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Abstract. Elevated Quaternary sedimentary complexes in the western foreland of the central mountain ranges of Taiwan are called tablelands. Their mostly flat surfaces are deeply incised by fluvial processes. The landforms and the fluvial systems in the Miaoli Tableland are investigated by high-resolution terrain analyses based on different datasets. Sediments are described in 51 outcrops and characterized by grain size composition. The outcrops revealed complete or incomplete sequences of the general scheme from bottom to top: sandy tidal–coastal units overlain by gravel- and cobble-rich fluvial deposits always with a fine-grained silt-rich top cover layer influenced by aeolian deposits. All layers are unconsolidated sediments. Three subtypes of this sequence were identified, with respect to the occurrence of the fluvial deposits. The relation of tectonic and erosional processes including the rework of gravels is discussed. The results reveal a tableland surface much more disaggregated than previously mapped, suggesting that individual tableland segments represent remnants of an inferred palaeotopography. The tableland surfaces have been separated into Sedimentary Highlands (SH-I and SH-II) and Sedimentary Terraces (ST) by geometrical properties. The Alluvial and Coastal Plains (AL) represent broad valley bottoms (“box-shaped valleys”) in the dendritic drainage systems below 150 m and the coastal plains. The landforms and predominantly the sediment sequences are discussed in the context of the existing stratigraphical schemes of the Toukoshan Formation and the so far rarely used Lungkang Formation. The latter is recommended as the stratigraphical term for the refined subdivision of the uppermost part of late Quaternary sediments in the Miaoli Tableland.

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