In order to establish paleoenvironmental conditions during the late Quaternary, four cores from the Basin of Mexico (central Mexico) were drilled in Chalco Lake, located in the southeastern part of the basin. The upper 8 m of two parallel cores were studied, using paleomagnetic, loss-on-ignition, pollen, and diatom analyses. Based on 11 14C ages, the analyzed record spans the last 19,000 14C yr B.P. Volcanic activity has affected microfossil abundances, both directly and indirectly, resulting in absence or reduction of pollen and diatom assemblages. Important volcanic activity took place between 19,000 and 15,000 yr B.P. when the lake was a shallow alkaline marsh and an increase of grassland pollen suggests a dry, cold climate. During this interval, abrupt environmental changes with increasing moisture occurred. From 15,000 until 12,500 yr B.P. the lake level increased and the pollen indicates wetter conditions. The highest lake level is registered from 12,500 to ca. 9000 yr B.P. The end of the Pleistocene is characterized by an increase in humidity. From 9000 until ca. 3000 yr B.P. Chalco Lake was a saline marsh and the pollen record indicates warmer conditions. After 3000 yr B.P. the lake level increased and human disturbance dominates the lacustrine record.

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In order to aid palaeoenvironmental research of Late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits of central Mexico, tephra layers collected from the sediments of the Texcoco and Chalco sub-basins, in the southern part of the Basin of Mexico, are geochemically characterized and used as stratigraphic markers. The tephra layers range in composition from basaltic andesites to rhyolites and are calc-alkaline. The tephras range in age from >34,000 to ca. 260014C yr B.P. New names are used informally to designate correlated tephras. The Tlahuac tephra is present in Chalco, at a depth of 18 m; in the southeastern part of Texcoco, at a depth of around 10 m; and at the Tlapacoya archaeological site, where it had been mistakenly described as basaltic. This basalt–andesite tephra is dated to at least 34,00014C yr B.P. The Tlapacoya 1 tephra is dated to between 15,020 ± 450 and 14,430 ± 190 yr B.P. and is present in all Chalco sections. The Tlapacoya 2 tephra corresponds to the previously described “pomez gruesa con fragmentos de andesita” (ca. 14,400 yr B.P.) and is present in all Chalco and Texcoco sections. The likely source of these three tephras is the volcano Popocatepetl. Tephra II at Chalco dates to 12,520 ± 135 yr B.P. and correlates with the Upper Toluca Pumice from Nevado de Toluca volcano. These represent the first geochemical glass-shard analysis of tephras from the Basin of Mexico, and so further research is necessary before a reliable tephrochronology can be established.

A lacustrine sequence from Laguna Seca San Felipe, Baja California, in the southwestern Sonoran Desert, provides the first record of mid- to late-Wisconsin vegetation in one of the driest regions of North America. Pollen analysis was performed in the intermediate part of the sequence from ca. 44,000 to ca. 13,000 14C yr B.P. according to six 14C radiocarbon dates. Sedimentation of eolian sands prior to 44,000 14C yr B.P. indicates dry conditions. High pollen concentration of montane and chaparral species in the pollen assemblages contrast with the modern desert vegetation. Sixty-four pollen types were identified. The source of mid- to late-Wisconsin sedimentation must have been the plant communities in the surrounding highlands of the basin. Mid-Wisconsin pollen assemblages dominated by pines, junipers, and Artemisia reflect humid conditions in the area. By late Wisconsin time, a significant increment in junipers indicates a lowering in the altitudinal ranges of woodlands/chaparral. Pollen from wind-pollinated species is abundant while desert plants, specifically animal or insect pollinated species, are poorly represented. The San Felipe record does not identify the Last Glacial Maximum as the time of greatest effective moisture, as suggested by pluvial lake levels and other paleoclimatic evidence in the soutwestern United States.

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A 10-m-long core was recovered from the coastal flood plain on the eastern margin of the Gulf of California (Bahia Kino, Sonora). Sediments were analysed for loss-on-ignition, magnetic susceptibility, pollen, diatoms, ostracodes and foraminifera. Three levels were dated by 14C. The combined data suggest that the site was flooded during the middle Holocene as sea level increased. At about 6600 yr BP the area was a freshwater to brackish marsh dominated by Typha domingensis and Cyperaceae. Freshwater to brackish conditions suggest the presence of a local source of freshwater during this time and therefore a climate wetter than present. Continued rise in sea level was associated with an increase in depth and salinity. By c. 6350-6250 yr BP, the coring site was an inner lagoon, by c. 6125 yr BP a central lagoon and by c. 5900 yr BP the site was close to the mouth of the lagoon (lower lagoon). Lower lagoon conditions persistel until the top of the record, showing sea-level stabilization; which was followed by the formation of the dune ridge that presently separates the coring site from the sea.

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