Late Pleistocene Glaciation of the Kosciuszko Massif, Snowy Mountains, Australia

A comparison of three Last Interglacial pollen records from eastern Australia

Harle, K.J.¹, Heijnis, H.¹, D'Costa, D.M.² and Kershaw, A.P.²

^{1Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Menai, NSW, Australia
^{2Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia}
Lying between 10°
S to 44°
S, the Australian continent encompasses a range of climates, with dry winters and monsoonal wet summers in the north and wet winters and dry summers in the south. Through comparison of pollen records from terrestrial sites in northeastern and southeastern Australia an attempt has been made to reconstruct Last Interglacial climates across this climatic range. This in turn has allowed the investigation of issues such as synchroneity of climate change, shifts in atmospheric circulation patterns and the degree and nature of regional variation in Last Interglacial climates in comparison with those of the Holocene.

Palaeoclimates have been reconstructed using modern analogue and principle component analysis of pollen assemblages. Chronologies for two of the records have been refined by the use of uranium/thorium dating of peat and lake sediments.}