The purpose of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union for Quaternary Research (USNC/INQUA) is to promote the advancement of Quaternary research—the interdisciplinary study of natural environment and its history during the Quaternary period—both in the United States of America and throughout the world and to effect appropriate participation by the United States in INQUA through the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) on behalf of scientists in the United States who are professionally engaged in Quaternary research.
Committee membership includes scientists who have expertise in Quaternary research, which spans a number of scientific disciplines, including archeology, botany, climatology, ecology, geochemistry, geography, geology, geomorphology, geophysics, hydrology, invertebrate paleontology, limnology, oceanography, palynology, physical anthropology, soil science, vertebrate paleontology and zoology. Members are drawn from academia, research, government, and industry.		Long Valley Creek and its Holocene sediments
The USNC/INQUA promotes a coherent program in Quaternary research based on the mutual interests of these diverse groups. The committee plans and arranges for U.S. participation in INQUA congresses and programs. The INQUA congresses are held every four years and provide the only forum in which the multidisciplinary, international Quaternary research community can collaborate and exchange ideas. The USNC/INQUA normally holds two meetings each year, of which one is commonly in association with the meetings of the American Quaternary Association, the Geological Society of America or the American Geophysical Union. The USNC/INQUA also conducts an outreach program to the U.S. scientific community that includes providing information about union and committee activities; sponsoring symposia at scientific association meetings on topics of international interest in the geosciences; sponsoring teaching workshops for college-level educators on topics of interest to the community and advocating participation in international interdisciplinary projects on such issues as biodiversity and sustainability.

		The International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA) was founded in 1928 to bring together scientists concerned with the history of the Earth’s natural environment during the Quaternary period—the roughly 2 million year interval during and since the Pleistocene ice ages—to improve understanding of the processes by which the environment has changed and to enhance the forecasting of future changes.
INQUA is a full member of the International Council for Science (ICSU). INQUA's goal of promoting improved communication and international collaboration in basic and applied aspects of Quaternary research is achieved mainly through the activities of its commissions and committees. The 2003-2007 INQUA Commissions include: Coastal and Marine Processes Palaeoclimate Paleoecology and Human Evolution Stratigraphy and Chronology Terrestrial Processes, Deposits and History

Revised: 12 March 2008