We present two astronomy-based timescales for climate records from the Pacific Ocean. These records range from 24 to 22 million years ago, a time period when Earth was warmer than today and the only land ice was located on Antarctica. We use tectonic plate-pair spreading rates to test the two timescales, which shows that the carbonate record yields the best timescale. In turn, this implies that Earth’s climate system and carbon cycle responded slowly to changes in incoming solar radiation.

This paper finds a close tie between loess magnetic susceptibility and wind strength in the Ili Basin, eastern Central Asia, and identifies three distinct aerodynamic environments with end-member modeling analysis of grain size. The Siberian High is the dominant influence on wind dynamics, resulting in loess deposition, and acts as a teleconnection between the climatic systems of the North Atlantic and East Asia in the high northern latitudes, but not for the mid-latitude westerlies.

Significant climate changes and biotic turnovers occurred across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (KTB) interval. It is of great significance to carry out research on palaeoclimate evolution across the KTB in terrestrial basins because we lack many KTB records in this part of the world. Here we provide a new terrestrial record from the Nanxiong Basin (SE China) and compare it with marine records to provide reliable terrestrial records for future investigation of ocean–land climate interactions.

Here we present a high-resolution timescale synchronization of continental and marine deposits for one of the most pronounced global warming events, the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, which occurred 56 million years ago. New high-resolution age models for the Bighorn Basin Coring Project (BBCP) drill cores help to improve age models for climate records from deep-sea drill cores and for the first time point to a concurrent major change in marine and terrestrial biota 54.25 million years ago.

North Atlantic Site 982 is key to our understanding of climate evolution over the past 12 million years. However, the stratigraphy and age model are unverified. We verify the composite splice using XRF core scanning data and establish a revised benthic foraminiferal stable isotope astrochronology from 8.0–4.5 million years ago. Our new stratigraphy accurately correlates the Atlantic and the Mediterranean and suggests a connection between late Miocene cooling and dynamic ice sheet expansion.

We study the variability in Mediterranean–Atlantic exchange, focusing on the surface Atlantic inflow across the mid-Pliocene warm period and the onset of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation, still unresolved by previous works. Oxygen isotope gradients between both sides of the Strait of Gibraltar reveal weak inflow during warm periods that turns stronger during severe glacials and the start of a negative feedback between exchange at the Strait and the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation.

The first high-resolution Lake Dojran pollen record for the last 12 500 years is presented. The ecological succession shows Late Glacial steppe vegetation gradually replaced, since 11 500 yr BP, by Holocene mesophilous forests. The first human traces are recorded around 5000 yr BP and increased considerably since the Bronze Age. Pollen data and sedimentological, biomarker and diatom data available from the same core contribute to an understanding of the environmental history of the Balkans.

Here we present a multi-proxy study of flowstones in fractures of crystalline rocks with the aim of assessing the palaeoclimate significance of this new type of speleothem archive. Our results indicate a high degree of spatial heterogeneity, whereby changes in speleothem mineralogy and carbon isotope composition are likely governed by aquifer-internal processes. In contrast, the oxygen isotope composition reflects first-order climate variability.

The chironomid-inferred temperature record from Gonghai Lake exhibits a stepwise decreasing trend since 4 ka. A cold event in the Era of Disunity, the Sui-Tang Warm Period, the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age can all be recognized in our record, as well as in many other temperature reconstructions in China. Local wars in Shanxi Province, documented in the historical literature during the past 2700 years, are statistically significantly correlated with changes in temperature.

The buildup and melting of ice during the early glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere, around 2.5 million years ago, were far shorter in duration than during the last million years. Based on molecular compounds and microfossils from sediments dating back to the early glaciations we show that the temperature on land and in the sea changed simultaneously and was a major factor in the ice buildup in the Northern Hemisphere. These data provide key insights into the dynamics of early glaciations.

This work reconstructs a continuous 305-year rainfall record for Ireland. The series reveals remarkable variability in decadal rainfall – far in excess of the typical period of digitised data. Notably, the series sheds light on exceptionally wet winters in the 1730s and wet summers in the 1750s. The derived record, one of the longest continuous series in Europe, offers a firm basis for benchmarking other long-term records and reconstructions of past climate both locally and across Europe.