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Legacy pollution research has established that over the past 3000 years, mining and metallurgical activities have resulted in widespread deposition of lead (Pb) pollution. However, there is still a limited understanding of how humans have impacted the long-term cycling of Pb in the environment. We present a 4,000-year lake sediment Pb isotope record from Laguna Roya, northwestern Iberia, that identifies and quantifies the predominant sources of atmospheric Pb pollution. For the first time, Pb isotopic compositions of ancient slag samples dated (∼600 BCE–200 CE) from a mining district in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula are compared to Pb isotope ratios of Pb pollution deposited contemporaneously in lake sediments. In addition, literature Pb isotope ratios of ores from mining regions throughout Iberia are compared with those of leaded gasoline and coal to identify additional sources of anthropogenic Pb. Deposition of atmospheric Pb pollution begins after 950 BCE, and until 1750 CE, the Pb isotopic composition most resembles the southwestern slag deposits, containing a mixture of Pb ores from southeast Iberia (up to 36%) and southwest Iberia (∼74%). Between 1750 and 1960 CE, Pb pollution is attributed to Pb mining in southcentral Iberia. After 1960 CE, the dominant Pb pollution source (∼85%) is again metal refining in southwestern Iberia, and only ∼15% is from leaded gasoline. Provenance and reconstruction of the temporal and spatial distribution of legacy Pb pollution further our understanding of how humans have affected the biogeochemical cycle of this toxic element in the environment over time.

Our understanding of the climatic teleconnections that drove ice-age cycles has been limited by a paucity of well-dated tropical records of glaciation that span several glacial–interglacial intervals. Glacial deposits offer discrete snapshots of glacier extent but cannot provide the continuous records required for detailed interhemispheric comparisons. By contrast, lakes located within glaciated catchments can provide continuous archives of upstream glacial activity, but few such records extend beyond the last glacial cycle. Here a piston core from Lake Junín in the uppermost Amazon basin provides the first, to our knowledge, continuous, independently dated archive of tropical glaciation spanning 700,000 years. We find that tropical glaciers tracked changes in global ice volume and followed a clear approximately 100,000-year periodicity. An enhancement in the extent of tropical Andean glaciers relative to global ice volume occurred between 200,000 and 400,000 years ago, during sustained intervals of regionally elevated hydrologic balance that modified the regular approximately 23,000-year pacing of monsoon-driven precipitation. Millennial-scale variations in the extent of tropical Andean glaciers during the last glacial cycle were driven by variations in regional monsoon strength that were linked to temperature perturbations in Greenland ice cores1; these interhemispheric connections may have existed during previous glacial cycles.

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in [Schiller, C. M., Whitlock, C., Elder, K. L., Iverson, N. A., & Abbott, M. B. Erroneously old radiocarbon ages from terrestrial pollen concentrates in Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming, USA. Radiocarbon, 63(1), (2021): 321-342, https://doi.org/10.1017/RDC.2020.118., Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating of pollen concentrates is often used in lake sediment records where large, terrestrial plant remains are unavailable. Ages produced from chemically concentrated pollen as well as manually picked Pinaceae grains in Yellowstone Lake (Wyoming) sediments were consistently 1700–4300 cal years older than ages established by terrestrial plant remains, tephrochronology, and the age of the sediment-water interface. Previous studies have successfully utilized the same laboratory space and methods, suggesting the source of old-carbon contamination is specific to these samples. Manually picking pollen grains precludes admixture of non-pollen materials. Furthermore, no clear source of old pollen grains occurs on the deglaciated landscape, making reworking of old pollen grains unlikely. High volumes of CO2 are degassed in the Yellowstone Caldera, potentially introducing old carbon to pollen. While uptake of old CO2 through photosynthesis is minor (F14C approximately 0.99), old-carbon contamination may still take place in the water column or in surficial lake sediments. It remains unclear, however, what mechanism allows for the erroneous ages of highly refractory pollen grains while terrestrial plant remains were unaffected. In the absence of a satisfactory explanation for erroneously old radiocarbon ages from pollen concentrates, we propose steps for further study., This research was supported by NSF Grant No. 1515353 to C. Whitlock and sampling in Yellowstone National Park was conducted under permits YELL-SCI-0009 and YELL-SCI-5054.

© 2020, The Author(s). Abrupt warming events recorded in Greenland ice cores known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) interstadials are linked to changes in tropical circulation during the last glacial cycle. Corresponding variations in South American summer monsoon (SASM) strength are documented, most commonly, in isotopic records from speleothems, but less is known about how these changes affected precipitation and Andean glacier mass balance. Here we present a sediment record spanning the last ~50 ka from Lake Junín (Peru) in the tropical Andes that has sufficient chronologic precision to document abrupt climatic events on a centennial-millennial time scale. DO events involved the near-complete disappearance of glaciers below 4700 masl in the eastern Andean cordillera and major reductions in the level of Peru’s second largest lake. Our results reveal the magnitude of the hydroclimatic disruptions in the highest reaches of the Amazon Basin that were caused by a weakening of the SASM during abrupt arctic warming. Accentuated warming in the Arctic could lead to significant reductions in the precipitation-evaporation balance of the southern tropical Andes with deleterious effects on this densely populated region of South America.

© Copyright © 2020 Hatfield, Stoner, Solada, Morey, Woods, Chen, McGee, Abbott and Rodbell. Normalized remanence, a proxy for relative geomagnetic paleointensity, along with radiocarbon and U-Th age constraints, facilitates the generation of a well-constrained chronology for sediments recovered during International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP) coring of Lake Junín, Peru. The paleomagnetic record of the ∼88 m stratigraphic section from Lake Junín was studied, and rock magnetic variability constrained, through analysis of 109 u-channel samples and 56 discrete samples. Downcore variations in sediment lithology reflect climate and hydrological processes over glacial-interglacial time frames and these changes are strongly reflected in the bulk magnetic properties. Glacial sediments are characterized by higher detrital silt content, higher magnetic susceptibility and magnetic remanence values, and a magnetic coercivity that is characteristic of ferrimagnetic (titano)magnetite and/or maghemite. Interglacial sediments and low lake-level facies are dominated by carbonate lithologies and/or peat horizons that result in lower magnetic concentration values. Sediments with moderately high Natural Remanent Magnetization (NRM) intensity (>1 × 10–3 A/m) have well resolved component directions and inclination values that vary around geocentric axial dipole expectations. This remanence value can be used as a threshold to filter the lowest quality paleomagnetic data from the record. Normalized NRM intensity values are also sensitive to lithologic variability, but following NRM remanence filtering, only the highest quality ferrimagnetic dominated data are retained which then show no coherence with bulk magnetic properties. Constrained by the existing radiocarbon based chronology over the last 50 kyrs and 18 U-Th age constraints that are restricted to five interglacial sediment packages, filtered normalized remanence parameters compare well with global relative paleoin

© 2020, The Author(s). Abrupt warming events recorded in Greenland ice cores known as Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) interstadials are linked to changes in tropical circulation during the last glacial cycle. Corresponding variations in South American summer monsoon (SASM) strength are documented, most commonly, in isotopic records from speleothems, but less is known about how these changes affected precipitation and Andean glacier mass balance. Here we present a sediment record spanning the last ~50 ka from Lake Junín (Peru) in the tropical Andes that has sufficient chronologic precision to document abrupt climatic events on a centennial-millennial time scale. DO events involved the near-complete disappearance of glaciers below 4700 masl in the eastern Andean cordillera and major reductions in the level of Peru’s second largest lake. Our results reveal the magnitude of the hydroclimatic disruptions in the highest reaches of the Amazon Basin that were caused by a weakening of the SASM during abrupt arctic warming. Accentuated warming in the Arctic could lead to significant reductions in the precipitation-evaporation balance of the southern tropical Andes with deleterious effects on this densely populated region of South America.

Global warming due to anthropogenic factors can be amplified or dampened by natural climate oscillations, especially those involving sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the North Atlantic which vary on a multidecadal scale (Atlantic multidecadal variability, AMV). Because the instrumental record of AMV is short, long-term behavior of AMV is unknown, but climatic teleconnections to regions beyond the North Atlantic offer the prospect of reconstructing AMV from high-resolution records elsewhere. Annually resolved titanium from an annually laminated sedimentary record from Ellesmere Island, Canada, shows that the record is strongly influenced by AMV via atmospheric circulation anomalies. Significant correlations between this High-Arctic proxy and other highly resolved Atlantic SST proxies demonstrate that it shares the multidecadal variability seen in the Atlantic. Our record provides a reconstruction of AMV for the past ∼3 millennia at an unprecedented time resolution, indicating North Atlantic SSTs were coldest from ∼1400–1800 CE, while current SSTs are the warmest in the past ∼2,900 y. -- Keywords : Atlantic multidecadal variability ; Arctic climate ; global warming.

Accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) dating of pollen concentrates is often used in lake sediment records where large, terrestrial plant remains are unavailable. Ages produced from chemically concentrated pollen as well as manually picked Pinaceae grains in Yellowstone Lake (Wyoming) sediments were consistently 1700–4300 cal years older than ages established by terrestrial plant remains, tephrochronology, and the age of the sediment-water interface. Previous studies have successfully utilized the same laboratory space and methods, suggesting the source of old-carbon contamination is specific to these samples. Manually picking pollen grains precludes admixture of non-pollen materials. Furthermore, no clear source of old pollen grains occurs on the deglaciated landscape, making reworking of old pollen grains unlikely. High volumes of CO2 are degassed in the Yellowstone Caldera, potentially introducing old carbon to pollen. While uptake of old CO2 through photosynthesis is minor (F14C approximately 0.99), old-carbon contamination may still take place in the water column or in surficial lake sediments. It remains unclear, however, what mechanism allows for the erroneous ages of highly refractory pollen grains while terrestrial plant remains were unaffected. In the absence of a satisfactory explanation for erroneously old radiocarbon ages from pollen concentrates, we propose steps for further study.

Global warming due to anthropogenic factors can be amplified or dampened by natural climate oscillations, especially those involving sea surface temperatures (SSTs) in the North Atlantic which vary on a multidecadal scale (Atlantic multidecadal variability, AMV). Because the instrumental record of AMV is short, long-term behavior of AMV is unknown, but climatic teleconnections to regions beyond the North Atlantic offer the prospect of reconstructing AMV from high-resolution records elsewhere. Annually resolved titanium from an annually laminated sedimentary record from Ellesmere Island, Canada, shows that the record is strongly influenced by AMV via atmospheric circulation anomalies. Significant correlations between this High-Arctic proxy and other highly resolved Atlantic SST proxies demonstrate that it shares the multidecadal variability seen in the Atlantic. Our record provides a reconstruction of AMV for the past ∼3 millennia at an unprecedented time resolution, indicating North Atlantic SSTs were coldest from ∼1400–1800 CE, while current SSTs are the warmest in the past ∼2,900 y. -- Keywords : Atlantic multidecadal variability ; Arctic climate ; global warming.

Roman mining and metallurgy left a detectable signal of lead pollution throughout Europe, northern Africa, and the Middle East. Las Médulas, in Northwestern Iberia, was the largest Roman gold mine and fundamentally altered the local landscape. To document the environmental consequences of this activity, we present a 4000-year record of lake sediment geochemistry from Laguna Roya, 35 km south of Las Médulas. Using the concentrations of trace metals weakly bound to sediment including lead, antimony, bismuth, and arsenic, we find increased levels of these metals from 300 BC to AD 120, during the Roman Republic/Empire. We attribute these increases to the atmospheric deposition of heavy metals arising from the regional extraction, processing, and/or smelting of gold ores. Lead pollution at the peak of this activity (15 BC) is twice as high as modern-day concentrations, suggesting that the amount of pollution generated by pre-Industrial civilizations and the associated environmental impacts are much larger than previously estimated. We find additional increases in antimony and bismuth from AD 1500 to 1700, possibly associated with post-medieval mining activity. Concentrations of lead begin to increase again ~AD 1860 during the start of the Industrial Revolution and reach a peak in AD 1990. Declining modern-day levels of lead can be attributed to the phase out of leaded gasoline. This is one of only a handful of studies to document pre-industrial pollution levels substantially higher than present-day, adding to a growing body of evidence that anthropogenic environmental degradation has been taking place for several thousands of years., Hewlett Foundation, University of Pittsburgh International Studies Fund, CSIC I-Link program, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, US National Science Foundation, Depto. de Geodinámica, Estratigrafía y Paleontología, Fac. de Ciencias Geológicas, TRUE, pub

Land degradation and soil erosion are key environmental problems in Mediterranean mountains characterized by a long history of human occupation and a strong variability of hydrological regimes. To assess recent trends and evaluate climatic and anthropogenic impacts in these highly human modified watersheds we apply an historical approach combining lake sediment core multi-proxy analyses and reconstructions of past land uses to El Tobar Lake watershed, located in the Iberian Range (Central Spain). Four main periods of increased sediment delivery have been identified in the 8 m long sediment sequence by their depositional and geochemical signatures. They took place around 16th, late 18th, mid 19th and early 20th centuries as a result of large land uses changes such as forest clearing, farming and grazing during periods of increasing population. In this highly human-modified watershed, positive synergies between human impact and humid periods led to increased sediment delivery periods. During the last millennium, the lake depositional and geochemical cycles recovered quickly after each sediment delivery event, showing strong resilience of the lacustrine system to watershed disturbance. Recent changes are characterized by large hydrological affections since 1967 with the construction of a canal from a nearby reservoir and a decreased in anthropic pressure in the watershed as rural areas were abandoned. The increased fresh water influx to the lake has caused large biological changes, leading to stronger meromictic conditions and higher organic matter accumulation while terrigenous inputs have decreased. Degradation processes in Iberian Range watersheds are strongly controlled by anthropic activities (land use changes, soil erosion) but modulated by climate-related hydrological changes (water availability, flood and runoff frequency).

The vegetation of the southern Gran Sabana (SE Venezuela) consists primarily of a treeless savanna with morichales (Mauritia flexuosa palm stands), despite the prevailing climate being more favorable for the development of extensive rainforests. Here, we discuss the results of our 8700-year paleoecological reconstruction from Lake Encantada based on the analysis of pollen, algal remains, charcoal, and geochemical proxies. We use the findings to assess a number of hypotheses that seek to explain the dominance of savanna vegetation and consider the relative importance of factors such as climate, fire, and erosion on the landscape. The reconstruction of vegetation changes suggests the following trends: open savanna with scattered forest patches (8700–6700 yr BP), forest-savanna mosaic (6700–5400 yr BP), open savanna with forest patches (5400–1700 yr BP), and treeless savanna with morichales (1700 yr BP–the present). We conclude that the interplay between climate and fire and the positive feedback between the presence of grasses and increased fire frequency played a major role in the vegetation dynamics from the early to middle Holocene (8700–6700 yr BP). The synergistic action between reduced fires and wetter conditions appears to be a determinant in the development of rainforest around 6700 yr BP. Despite higher available moisture at ~5400 yr BP, the savanna expanded with the increased frequency of fire, potentially driven by human land-use practices. We also propose that the interplay between fire and erosion created forest instability during the middle and late Holocene. The current southern Gran Sabana landscape is the result of the complex interplay between climate, fire, erosion, and vegetation.

Holocene variations of tropical moisture balance have been ascribed to orbitally forced changes in solar insolation. If this model is correct, millennial-scale climate evolution should be antiphased between the northern and southern hemispheres, producing humid intervals in one hemisphere matched to aridity in the other. Here we show that Holocene climate trends were largely synchronous and in the same direction in the northern and southern hemisphere outer-tropical Andes, providing little support for the dominant role of insolation forcing in these regions. Today, sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean modulate rainfall variability in the outer tropical Andes of both hemispheres, and we suggest that this mechanism was pervasive throughout the Holocene. Our findings imply that oceanic forcing plays a larger role in regional South American climate than previously suspected, and that Pacific sea-surface temperatures have the capacity to induce abrupt and sustained shifts in Andean climate.

The southern Gran Sabana (SE Venezuela) holds a particular type of neotropical savanna characterized by the local occurrence of morichales (Mauritia palmswamps), in a climate apparentlymore suitable for rain forests. We present a paleoecological analysis of the last millennia of Lake Chonita (4°39′N–61°0′W, 884m elevation), based on biological and physico-chemical proxies. Savannas dominated the region during the last millennia, but a significant vegetation replacement occurred in recent times. The site was covered by a treeless savanna with nearby rainforests from 3640 to 2180 cal yr BP. Water levels were higher than today until about 2800 cal yr BP. Forests retreated since about 2180 cal yr BP onwards, likely influenced by a higher fire incidence that facilitated a dramatic expansion of morichales. The simultaneous appearance of charcoal particles and Mauritia pollen around 2000 cal yr BP supports the potential pyrophilous nature of this palm and the importance of fire for its recent expansion. The whole picture suggests human settlements similar to today – in which fire is an essential element – since around 2000 yr ago. Therefore, present-day southern Gran Sabana landscapes seem to have been the result of the synergy between biogeographical, climatic and anthropogenic factors, mostly fire.

The occurrence of the Younger Dryas cold reversal in northern South America midlands and lowlands remains controversial. We present a palaeoecological analysis of a Late Glacial lacustrine section from a midland lake (Lake Chonita, 4.6501¿°N, 61.0157¿°W, 884¿m elevation) located in the Venezuelan Gran Sabana, based on physical and biological proxies. The sediments were mostly barren from ~15.3 to 12.7¿k cal a BP, probably due to poor preservation. A ligneous community with no clear modern analogues was dominant from 12.7 to 11.7¿k cal a BP (Younger Dryas chronozone). At present, similar shrublands are situated around 200¿m elevation above the lake, suggesting a cooling-driven downward shift in vegetation during that period. The interval from 11.7 to 10.6¿k cal a BP is marked by a dramatic replacement of the shrubland by savannas and a conspicuous increase in fire incidence. The intensification of local and regional fires at this interval could have played a role in the vegetation shift. A change to wetter, and probably warmer, conditions is deduced after 11.7¿k cal a BP, coinciding with the early Holocene warming. These results support the hypothesis of a mixed origin (climate and fire) of the Gran Sabana savannas, and highlight the climatic instability of the Neotropics during the Late Glacial.

[EN] A radiocarbon dated sediment record from Laguna de Los Anteojos, a cirque lake in the Mérida Andes of Venezuela, indicates that warmer and wetter atmospheric conditions occurred in the northern tropics at the onset of the Bølling (∼14,600 cal yr BP), and abruptly colder and drier conditions around the time of the Younger Dryas (YD). Geochemical and clastic sediment analyses from Los Anteojos show that glaciers advanced at ∼12,850 cal yr BP, reached their YD maximum extent at ∼12,650 cal yr BP, and then retreated until complete deglaciation of the watershed at ∼11,750 cal yr BP. The onset of warmer conditions that ended the coldest phase of the YD occurred several hundred years earlier at Los Anteojos than in the high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. During the peak YD glacial advance, glacier equilibrium-line altitudes in the region were ∼360 to 480 m lower, and temperature was ∼2.2 to 2.9 °C colder than modern. Independent palynological evidence from the Los Anteojos sediment core indicates that the northern Andes were more arid and at least 2.3 °C colder during the YD. The direction and timing of glacial fluctuations in Venezuela are consistent with observations of marine sediment records from the Cariaco Basin that suggest abrupt cooling occurred at ∼12,850 cal yr BP, followed by a shift to higher temperature after ∼12,300 cal yr BP. The timing and pattern of climatic changes in northern South America are also consistent with paleoclimate records from the southern Tropical Andes that suggest a southward shift in the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone occurred at the start of the cooling event, followed by a return to wetter conditions in northern South America during the late stages of the YD. The early warming of the tropical atmosphere and invigoration of the hydrologic cycle likely contributed to the shift to increased temperature in the higher latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere at the end of the late Glacial stage.

[EN] The occurrence, or not, of the Younger Dryas cold reversal in the tropical Andes remains a controversial topic. This study reports a clear signal for this event in the Venezuelan Andes, employing high-resolution palynological analysis of a well-dated sediment core from Laguna de Los Anteojos, situated around 3900 m elevation, within grass páramo vegetation. The lake is surrounded by some Polylepis forests which are close to their upper distribution limit. The section of the core discussed here is 150-cm long and dated between about 14.68 and 9.35 cal kyr BP, using a polynomial age-depth model based on six AMS radiocarbon dates. Between 12.86 and 11.65 cal kyr BP, an abrupt shift occurred in the pollen assemblage, manifested by a decline of Podocarpus, Polylepis and Huperzia, combined with an increase in Poaceae and Asteraceae. The aquatic pteridophyte Isoëtes also decreased and disappeard, and the algae remains show their minimum values. Pollen assemblages from the Younger Dryas interval show maximum dissimilarity values compared with today’s pollen assemblage, and are more similar to modern analogs from superpáramo vegetation, growing at elevations 400e500 m higher. A lowering of vegetation zones of this magnitude corresponds to a temperature decline of between 2.5 and 3.8 C. During this colder interval lake levels may have been lower, suggesting a decrease in available moisture. The vegetation shift documented in Anteojos record between 12.86 and 11.65 cal kyr BP is comparable to the El Abra Stadial in the Colombian Andes but it differs in magnitude. The Anteojos shift is better dated and coincides with the Younger Dryas chron as recorded in the Cariaco Basin sea surface temperature reconstructions and records of continental runoff, as well as in the oxygen isotope measurements from the Greenland ice cores. When compared to other proxies of quasi-immediate response to climate, the time lag for the response of vegetation to climate is found to be negligible at

The underlying causes of late-Holocene climate variability in the tropics are incompletely understood. Here we report a 1,500-year reconstruction of climate history and glaciation in the Venezuelan Andes using lake sediments. Four glacial advances occurred between anno Domini (A.D.) 1250 and 1810, coincident with solaractivity minima. Temperature declines of 3.2 1.4°C and precipitation increases of 20% are required to produce the observed glacial responses. These results highlight the sensitivity of highaltitude tropical regions to relatively small changes in radiative forcing, implying even greater probable responses to future anthropogenic forcing.

[EN] Pollen analysis of sediments from a high-altitude (4215 m), Neotropical (9-N) Andean lake was conducted in order to reconstruct local and regional vegetation dynamics since deglaciation. Although deglaciation commenced 15,500 cal yr B.P., the area around the Laguna Verde Alta (LVA) remained a periglacial desert, practically unvegetated, until about 11,000 cal yr B.P. At this time, a lycopod assemblage bearing no modern analog colonized the superpa´ramo. Although this community persisted until ¨6000 cal yr B.P., it began to decline somewhat earlier, in synchrony with cooling following the Holocene thermal maximum of the Northern Hemisphere. At this time, the pioneer assemblage was replaced by a low-diversity superpa´ramo community that became established ¨9000 cal yr B.P. This replacement coincides with regional declines in temperature and/or available moisture. Modern, more diverse superpa´ramo assemblages were not established until ¨4600 cal yr B.P., and were accompanied by a dramatic decline in Alnus, probably the result of factors associated with climate, humans, or both. Pollen influx from upper Andean forests is remarkably higher than expected during the Late Glacial and early to middle Holocene, especially between 14,000 and 12,600 cal yr B.P., when unparalleled high values are recorded. We propose that intensification of upslope orographic winds transported lower elevation forest pollen to the superpa´ramo, causing the apparent increase in tree pollen at high altitude. The association between increased forest pollen and summer insolation at this time suggests a causal link; however, further work is needed to clarify this relationship.

[EN] Radiocarbon-dated sediment cores from seven lakes and two bogs spanning the Cordillera de Me´rida in the Venezuelan Andes were used to identify and date the regional history of late Pleistocene and Holocene glacial activity. Coring sites were selected at different elevations across a pronounced rain shadow from southeast (wet) to northwest (dry). Sediment lithostratigraphy and magnetic susceptibility, in conjunction with AMS radiocarbon dates on macrofossils and charcoal, were used to constrain deglaciation. The local expression of the Last Glacial Maximum occurred between 22 750 and 19 960 cal. yr BP. On the wetter southeastern side of the Cordillera de Me´rida, glaciers had significantly retreated by 15 700 cal. yr BP, followed by several minor glacial advances and retreats between 14 850 and 13 830 cal. yr BP. At least one major glacial readvance occurred between 13 830 and 10 000 cal. yr BP in the wetter southeastern sector of the region. The drier northwest side of the Cordillera de Me´rida records initial glacial retreat by 14 240 cal. yr BP. Multiple sites on both sides of the Me´rida Andes record a further phase of extensive deglaciation approximately 10 000 cal. yr BP. However, the north-northwest facing Mucubajı´ catchment remained partially glaciated until ca. 6000 cal. yr BP. Deglacial ages from the Venezuelan Andes are consistently younger than those reported from the Southern Hemisphere Andes, suggesting an inter-hemispheric deglacial lag in the northern tropics of the order of two thousand years.