The Quaternary Period

• Main Authors: Pillans, B., Gibbard, P.
• Other Authors: Gradstein, Felix M., Ogg, James G., Schmitz, Mark D., Ogg, Gabi M.
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Elsevier 2012
• Subjects: 01 - Climate Change and Earth-Ocean Atmosphere Systems; 99 - Other; Greenland; ice core; NGRIP
• Online Access: http://eprints.esc.cam.ac.uk/2605/; https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-444-59425-9.00030-5

The Quaternary Period, comprising the Holocene and Pleistocene Epochs, encompasses the last ~2.6 Ma during which time Earth’s climate was strongly influenced by bi- polar glaciation and the genus Homo first appeared and evolved. The base of the Quaternary System/Period and Pleistocene Series/Epoch is defined by the GSSP for the Gelasian Stage at Monte San Nicola section in Italy. The base of the Holocene Series/Epoch is defined at a depth of 1492.45 m in the NGRIP ice core from Greenland, with an age based on annual layer counting, of 11 700 years b2k (before AD2000), with a 2s uncertainty of 99 years; it is the first and only GSSP to be defined in an ice core.