Welcome to AMQUA

The American Quaternary Association (AMQUA) is a professional organization of North American scientists devoted to studying all aspects of the Quaternary Period, about the last 2 million years of Earth history.

Studying the Quaternary is critically important because it has been a time of frequent and dramatic environmental changes, exemplified by growing and decaying continental ice sheets and mountain glaciers.

Beyond understanding the forces that shaped our modern environment, studying the Quaternary Period is significant because the Ice Age environmental changes were the backdrop for global changes in floral and faunal communities, including extinction of a diverse megafauna, and for the evolution of modern humans and their dispersal throughout the world.

Latest News

  • PAGES 3rd Open Science Meeting and PAGES 1st Young Scientists Meeting: Retrospective Views on our Planet's Future

    6-7 and 8-11 July 2009, Corvallis, Oregon

    The Young Scientists Meeting is being held from 6-7 July 2009 at Oregon State University in Corvallis, USA. The aim is to support the development of young paleoscientists by providing the opportunity to advance their scientific skills and to build international networks among colleagues at a similar career level, as well as with leading senior scientists and program representatives.

    ELIGIBILITY The YSM is open on a competitive basis to approx. 70 outstanding early-career researchers who meet the following criteria: Age – usually under 35 Career status – PhD students - usually in the latter stages of their degree – Post-PhD - usually within 5 years of completing their degree - Scientific scope – paleoscientists (data-based or modelers) or global change scientists with a strong, proven interest in paleoscience. Some travel support will be available.

    PAGES 3rd Open Science Meetings is being held directly afterwards, from 8-11 July, also at Oregon State University. The theme for PAGES 3rd Open Science Meeting (OSM) is “Retrospective views on our planet's future.”

    Details …

    Flyer …

  • 7th International Conference on Geomorphology (ANZIAG) “ancient landscapes – modern perspectives”

    Melbourne, Australia, July 6-11, 2009

    Details …

  • 21st Biennial Meeting of AMQUA

    Laramie, Wyoming, August 13-15, 2010

    The University of Wyoming in Laramie is pleased to host the 21st Biennial Meeting of the American Quaternary Association (AMQUA) in early August 2010. Plenary sessions will take place Friday 13 August through Sunday 15 August, with a half-day interlude on Saturday for entertainment and short hikes in the Veedauwoo Recreation Area of the Medicine Bow National Forest, a 20-minute drive from campus.

    A 1-day pre-meeting field trip is planned for Thursday, 12 August, which will feature geology, ecology, and archeology of the Laramie Basin (ca. 2200 m elevation) and adjacent Snowy Mountains (summit 3300 m). The field trip will focus on a variety of paleoenvironmental archives and proxies, including geomorphic (permafrost features, mima mounds, dunefields, cirques, moraines), sedimentary (lakes, playas, and peatlands), and biological (tree-rings, fire scars, middens). A 2-day post-meeting field trip (16-17 August) will tour North Park, Middle Park, and the Front Range, with emphasis on geomorphology, paleoecology, and archeology.

    Laramie has modest regional air service (3-4 flights/day to and from Denver, all planes small (19-seaters). Cheyenne (50 miles east) also has regular air service to Denver. Denver International Airport (DIA) is a 2-hour drive from Laramie. Car rentals are available at all three airports, and shuttle service will be available from the Laramie airport.

    Local sponsors for the meeting include the Departments of Anthropology, Botany, Geography, and Geology & Geophysics, the George C. Frison Institute of Anthropology and Archeology, the Program in Ecology, the Robert and Carol Berry Biodiversity and Conservation Center, the Roy J. Shlemon Center for Quaternary Studies, the Wyoming State Climate Office, and the Wyoming Water Resources Data System.

    We hope you'll be able to join us next summer for an exciting meeting. There is no better place to be than Wyoming during August!

    Local Planning Committee:

    • Stephen T. Jackson
    • Stephen T. Gray
    • Marcel Kornfeld
    • Jacqueline J. Shinker
    • Bryan Shuman

    For more information, contact Steve Jackson at: Jackson@uwyo.edu

  • 2009 Friends of the Pleistocene Initial Announcement – Great Basin, Nevada

    Title: Earthquake Geology and Alluvial Fan Stratigraphy along US Highway 50, Great Basin, Nevada: A Late Pleistocene Regional Extension Rate

    Date: Although a firm date has not been set, a late September early October time frame is anticipated.

    Further details will be disseminated through the FOP email list as they develop and eventually posted on a web site that is expected to be up and running later this spring. At the present time, please direct questions to Rich Koehler through email: Koehler@seismo.unr.edu.

  • International Conference “Soil Geography: New Horizons”

    Huatulco Santa Cruz, Oaxaca, Mexico, 16-20 of November 2009

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