Quaternary Chart Explanation
Quaternary Chart Explanation
7 million years,
v. 2016a
The table provides a correlation of chronostratigraphical subdivisions of late Cenozoic geological time,
spanning the last 2.7 million years. The formal division of the Quaternary is the responsibility of the IUGS
International Commission on Stratigraphy’s (ICS) Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS), in
partnership with the International Union for Quaternary Research’s (INQUA) Commission on
Stratigraphy and Chronology (SACCOM). Previous versions of the chart (see websites1) were published
as Gibbard et al. (2004, 2005) and Gibbard & Cohen (2008). Since then semi-annually updated versions
have appeared on the web (e.g. Cohen & Gibbard, 2010). A major update is in progress. This 2016a
version is a minor update, prepared for the 35th International Geological Congress held at Cape Town,
South Africa from August 27th to September 4th 2016.
Pleistocene GSSPs
Formal GSSPs for the Pleistocene Subseries will be proposed shortly. The INQUA Commission on
Stratigraphy/ICS Working Group on Major Subdivision of the Pleistocene agreed to place the
Early/Lower - Middle boundary at the Brunhes / Matuyama magnetic reversal Chron boundary
(Richmond, 1996). A stratotype locality has yet to be identified, but two candidate sections are being
considered by an ICS Working Group (Head et al., 2008). Following recent re-evaluation, the Middle –
1
http://www.quaternary.stratigraphy.org.uk/charts; also at: www.stratigraphy.org and www.inqua-saccom.org
1
Late/Upper boundary is placed, following historical precedent in NW Europe, at the Saalian-Eemian Stage
boundary. The former is positioned at the basal-boundary stratotype of the Eemian in the Amsterdam-
Terminal borehole, the Netherlands (Gibbard, 2003; Litt & Gibbard, 2008).
The start of the Eemian in NW Europe (defined on pollen biostratigraphy) lags the start of MIS 5e by a
few 1000 years (Sánchez-Goñi et al., 1999; Sier et al., 2015). Establishing the exact lag time is an
important current research goal, tying global sea-level, ice-mass and crustal glaciohydro-isostasy studies
with regional climatic variation, oceanography and palaeomagnetics (e.g. Shackleton et al., 2003; Lourens,
2004; Lambeck et al., 2006; Sier et al., 2015). Accurate age-control on the timing of the Eemian and the
relation to MIS 5e is important as it is frequently used to deduce background tectonic uplift/subsidence
rates, which is in turn input sea-level rise and glacio-isostatical adjustment studies for the Late Pleistocene
and Holocene (e.g. Dutton & Lambeck, 2012; Dutton et al. 2015). Accurate age-control on the last
interglacial is also of importance as input to astronomically tuned timescales that in the Quaternary are
used for the Middle and Early Pleistocene (e.g. Head et al. 2008) and in the Neogene, Paleogene and
beyond (Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005).
The Holocene is generally regarded as having begun 10,000 radiocarbon years before 1950 AD, or 11.7k
calendar years before 2000 AD (cf. Wolff, 2008). This boundary has been defined as a Global Stratotype
Section and Point (GSSP) in the North-GRIP ice core of the Greenland Ice-Core Project (NGRIP:
Rasmussen et al., 2006; Walker et al., 2008, 2009; Hoek, 2008). Auxiliary stratotypes are also defined, for
example, in an annually-laminated lake sequence in western Germany (Litt et al., 2001). The Holocene
Series is not divided into named stages, however, at the time of writing formal definition of stage
subdivisions is under consideration by the ICS. At the same time ICS are discussing the possibility of
formalising the definition of subseries for the same period (Early, Middle and Late Holocene cf. Walker et
al. 2012).
2
substantially increased global ice volume during glacials after 940 ka. The Early-Middle Pleistocene
transition, through the increased severity and duration of cold stages, had a profound effect on the biota
and the physical landscape, especially in the northern hemisphere (Head & Gibbard 2005). Orbital and
non-orbital climate forcing, palaeoceanography, stable isotopes, organic geochemistry, marine
micropalaeontology, glacial history, loess–palaeosol sequences, pollen analysis, large and small mammal
palaeoecology and stratigraphy, and human evolution provide a series of discrete events identified from
Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 36 (c. 1.2 Ma) to MIS 13 (c. 540–460 Ma). Of these, the cold MIS 22 (c.
880–870 ka) is the most profound. On this basis Head & Gibbard (2005) and Head et al. (2008), following
earlier suggestions (e.g. Richmond 1996), concluded that on practical grounds the Matuyama–Brunhes
palaeomagnetic Chron boundary (mid-point at c.773-4 ka, with an estimated duration of 7 ka; within MIS
19; Channell et al. 2004; Channell et al. 2008) is the best overall point for establishing the Early–Middle
Pleistocene Subseries boundary.
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