Environmental processes of the ice age: land, oceans, glaciers (EPILOG)

Knowledge of the state of the earth at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, an interval around 21,000 years ago) is an important benchmark for understanding the sensitivity of global environmental systems to change. Much progress in understanding climates of the LGM has occurred in the similar to 20 years since the end of the CLIMAP project of the 1970s (Climate Long-range Investigation, Mapping and Prediction). Here we review this progress, based on presentations and discussion at a first open science meeting of the EPILOG project (Environmental Processes of the Ice age: Land, Oceans, Glaciers) held in Delmenhorst, Germany, May 1999. We outline key controversies and document protocols for EPILOG contributions, so that a new synthesis of the LGM Earth can emerge as an open project of the world's community of scientists. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.