User:Fabartus/scratchpads/Glacial Vs Interglacial Epocs

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There have been four major periods of glaciation in the Earth's past. The first, and possibly most severe, may have occurred from 800 to 600 million years ago (the late Proterozoic Age) and it has been suggested that it produced a Snowball Earth in which the earth iced over completely. It has been suggested also that the end of this cold period was responsible for the subsequent Cambrian Explosion — this theory is recent and controversial.

A minor series of glaciations occurred from 460 to 430 million years ago. There were extensive glaciations from 350 million years before present to 250 million. The present Pleistocene ice age has seen more or less extensive glaciation on 40,000 and 100,000 year cycles. The last glacial period ended about 10,000 years ago.

The last glacial and interglacial phases of the Pleistocene are named, from most recent to most distant, as follows (names before the '/' are North America, names after it Northern European, dates in thousand years BCE. In the UK, Eastern Europe and the Alps yet other names are used; see Geology of the United Kingdom for UK names).

Originally, the periods were named after characteristic geological features, and these names vary from region to region. It is now perhaps more common (before the previous interglacial, the Eemian) to refer to periods by their Marine isotopic stage number. The marine record preserves all the past glaciations; the land-based evidence is less complete because successive glaciations may wipe out evidence of their predecessors. Hence the "names" system is incomplete: the Pastonian glaciation is MIS63, ie the 30th interglacial before present.

The Brunhes-Matuyama reversal occurred 780 kyr ago, approximately coincident with MIS19, the "Cromerian Complex" interglacial I, and can be used to date sediment cores.

Name	Inter/Glacial	Period / MIS	Geologic period
Holocene	interglacial	present – 12 / MIS1
Wisconsinan / Weichsel or Vistula	glacial period,	15 – 70 / MIS2-4 & 5a-d	Pleistocene
Sangamon / Eemian	interglacial,	110 – 130 / MIS5e
Illinoian / Saale	glacial,	130 – 180 / MIS6
Yarmouth / Holstein	interglacial,	180 – 230 / MIS7
Kansan / Elster	glacial,	230 – 300
Aftonian / Cromer	interglacial,	300 – 330
Nebraskan / Gunz	glacial,	330 – 470
— / Waalian	interglacial	470 – 540
— / Donau II	glacial	540 – 550
— / Tiglian	interglacial	550 – 585
— / Donau I	glacial	585 – 600
/ Pastonian interglacial	interglacial	600 – 800
/ Pre-Pastonian glaciation	glacial	800 – 1.3 mill
Bramertonian Interglacial	interglacial	1.3 mill – 1.55 mill
	glacial	250-350 Myr	Devonian, Carboniferous, Permian
	glacial	430-460 Myr	Ordovician
Cryogenian (or Sturtian-Varangian)	glacial	650-900 Myr	late Proterozoic

References[edit]

http://www-qpg.geog.cam.ac.uk/people/gibbard/GTS2004Quat.pdf (fig 22.1)

References[edit]

See also[edit]