Three piston cores in the subarctic region of the North Pacific show consistent changes in relative abundance of diatom species throughout the Brunhes magnetic epoch. These events can be used both as stratigraphic markers to subdivide the interval and as indicators of oceanographic conditions. The stratigraphic record shows an acme for A. ochotensis from about 625-350 Kyr (Isotope Stages 15-10); a marked increase in amplitude of abundance fluctuations for R. hebetata 300-0 Kyr (Stages 8-1), the extinction of R. curvirostris at 276 Kyr (Stage 8), and abundance fluctuations of D. seminae roughly in phase with the global oxygen isotope record from 450-0 Kyr (Stages 12-1). In the subarctic Pacific, an abrupt change in species abundance is not a reliable indicator of hiatus occurrence. Although details are not clear, there appears to have been a fundamental change of the subarctic gyre during the middle Brunhes (Stages 10-8 time), with more intense glacial intervals and stronger glacial-interglacial contrast occurring after that time. Coarse clastic detritus is not restricted to glacial intervals, suggesting that ice-rafting has occurred throughout the Brunhes interval; peak levels of ice-rafting may occur during ice-growth and decay, as well as during short intervals within a stage.