Wolstonian Stage

Last updated
Wolstonian
.374 – .130 Ma
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
Chronology
Preceded by Hoxnian
Followed by Ipswichian
Usage information
Celestial body Earth
Regional usageRegional
Used by Flag of the United Kingdom.svg United Kingdom
Definition
Chronological unit Age
Stratigraphic unit Stage

The Wolstonian Stage is a middle Pleistocene stage of the geological history of Earth from approximately 374,000 until 130,000 years ago. It precedes the Last Interglacial (also called the Eemian Stage) and follows the Hoxnian Stage in the British Isles.

Contents

It is also approximately analogous to the Warthe and Saalian stages in northern Europe; the Riss glaciation in the Alps; and the Illinoian Stage in North America. The colder last part from around 194,000 years ago is called the Penultimate Glacial Period.

It is equivalent to Marine isotope stages (MIS) 10 through 6. MIS 10, 8 and 6 were glacial periods and 9 and 7 were interglacials.

It is named after Wolston in the English county of Warwickshire.

Description

The Wolstonian Stage is a middle Pleistocene stage of the geological history of Earth that precedes the Ipswichian Stage (Eemian Stage in Europe) and follows the Hoxnian Stage in the British Isles. The Wolstonian Stage apparently includes three periods of glaciation. The Wolstonian Stage is temporally analogous to the Warthe Stage and Saalian Stage in northern Europe and the Riss glaciation in the Alps, and temporally equivalent to all of the Illinoian Stage and the youngest part of the Pre-Illinoian Stage in North America. It is contemporaneous with the North American Pre-Illinoian A, Early Illinoian, and Late Illinoian glaciations. [1] [2] [3]

The Wolstonian Stage is equivalent to Marine isotope stages 6 through 10. [2] [3]

Britain became an Island during this period (350,000 years ago). [4]

It started 374,000 years ago and ended 130,000 years ago. [5] [6]

Etymology

The Wolstonian Stage was named after the site of Wolston in the English county of Warwickshire where corresponding deposits were first identified. [7]

Archaeology

Acheulian flint tools have been found in Wolstonian deposits.

Pleistocene glaciation

Historical names of the "four major" glacials in four regions.
RegionGlacial 1Glacial 2Glacial 3Glacial 4
Alps Günz Mindel Riss Würm
North Europe Eburonian Elsterian Saalian Weichselian
British Isles Beestonian Anglian Wolstonian Devensian
Midwest U.S. Nebraskan Kansan Illinoian Wisconsinan
Historical names of interglacials.
RegionInterglacial 1Interglacial 2Interglacial 3
Alps Günz-Mindel Mindel-Riss Riss-Würm
North EuropeWaalianHolsteinian Eemian
British Isles Cromerian Hoxnian Ipswichian
Midwest U.S. Aftonian Yarmouthian Sangamonian

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of glaciation</span> Chronology of the major ice ages of the Earth

There have been five or six major ice ages in the history of Earth over the past 3 billion years. The Late Cenozoic Ice Age began 34 million years ago, its latest phase being the Quaternary glaciation, in progress since 2.58 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglian stage</span> Period of the Pleistocene epoch

The Anglian Stage is the name used in the British Isles for a middle Pleistocene glaciation. It precedes the Hoxnian Stage and follows the Cromerian Stage in the British Isles. It correlates to Marine Isotope Stage 12, which started about 478,000 years ago and ended about 424,000 years ago.

The Cromerian Stage or Cromerian Complex, also called the Cromerian, is a stage in the Pleistocene glacial history of north-western Europe, mostly occurring more than half a million years ago. It is named after the East Anglian town of Cromer in Great Britain where interglacial deposits that accumulated during part of this stage were first discovered. The stratotype for this interglacial is the Cromer Forest Bed situated at the bottom of the coastal cliff near West Runton. The Cromerian stage preceded the Anglian and Elsterian glacials and show an absence of glacial deposits in western Europe, which led to the historical terms Cromerian interglacial and the Cromerian warm period. It is now known that the Cromerian consisted of multiple glacial and interglacial periods.

The Hoxnian Stage was a middle Pleistocene stage of the geological history of the British Isles. It was an interglacial which preceded the Wolstonian Stage and followed the Anglian Stage. It is equivalent to Marine Isotope Stage 11. Marine Isotope Stage 11 started 424,000 years ago and ended 374,000 years ago. The Hoxnian is divided into sub-stages Ho I to Ho IV. It is likely equivalent to the Holstein Interglacial in Central Europe.

The Kansan glaciation or Kansan glacial was a glacial stage and part of an early conceptual climatic and chronological framework composed of four glacial and interglacial stages.

The Illinoian Stage is the name used by Quaternary geologists in North America to designate the Penultimate Glacial Period c.191,000 to c.130,000 years ago, during the late Middle Pleistocene (Chibanian), when sediments comprising the Illinoian Glacial Lobe were deposited. It precedes the Sangamonian Stage and follows the Pre-Illinoian Stage in North America. The Illinoian Stage is defined as the period of geologic time during which the glacial tills and outwash, which comprise the bulk of the Glasford Formation, accumulated to create the Illinoian Glacial Lobe. It occurs at about the same time as the penultimate glacial period.

The Yarmouthian stage and the Yarmouth Interglacial were part of a now obsolete geologic timescale of the early Quaternary of North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elster glaciation</span>

The Elster glaciation or, less commonly, the Elsterian glaciation, in the older and popular scientific literature also called the Elster Ice Age (Elster-Eiszeit), is the oldest known ice age that resulted in the large-scale glaciation of North Germany and other parts of Europe. It took place approximately 500,000–400,000 years ago. It succeeded a long period of rather warmer average temperatures, the Cromerian Complex. The Elster was followed by the Holstein interglacial, which was followed Saale glaciation. The glacial period is named after the White Elster, a right tributary of the Saale.

The Beestonian Stage is an early Pleistocene stage in the geological history of the British Isles. It is named after Beeston Cliffs near West Runton in Norfolk where deposits from this stage are preserved.

The Pastonian interglacial, now called the Pastonian Stage, is the name for an early or middle Pleistocene stage of geological history in the British Isles. It precedes the Beestonian Stage and follows the Pre-Pastonian Stage. Unfortunately the precise age of this stage cannot yet be defined in terms of absolute dating or MIS stages. The Pre-Pastonian Stage is equivalent to the Tiglian C5-6 Stage of Europe and the Pre-Illinoian I glaciation of the early Pre-Illinoian Stage of North America.

The Pre-Pastonian Stage or Baventian Stage, is the name for an early Pleistocene stage of geological history in the British Isles. It precedes the Pastonian Stage and follows the Bramertonian Stage. This stage ended 1.806 Ma at the end of Marine Isotope Stage 65. It is not currently known when this stage started. The Pre-Pastonian Stage is equivalent to the Tiglian C4c Stage of Europe and the Pre-Illinoian J glaciation of the early Pre-Illinoian Stage of North America.

The Bramertonian Stage is the name for an early Pleistocene biostratigraphic stage of geological history the British Isles. It precedes the Pre-Pastonian Stage. It derives its name from Bramerton Pits in Norfolk, where the deposits can be found on the surface. The exact timing of the beginning and end of the Bramertonian Stage is currently unknown. It is only known that it is equivalent to the Tiglian C1-4b Stage of Europe and early Pre-Illinoian Stage of North America. It lies somewhere in time between Marine Oxygen Isotope stages 65 to 95 and somewhere between 1.816 and 2.427 Ma. The Bramertonian is correlated with the Antian stage identified from pollen assemblages in the Ludham borehole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine isotope stages</span> Alternating warm and cool periods in the Earths paleoclimate, deduced from oxygen isotope data

Marine isotope stages (MIS), marine oxygen-isotope stages, or oxygen isotope stages (OIS), are alternating warm and cool periods in the Earth's paleoclimate, deduced from oxygen isotope data derived from deep sea core samples. Working backwards from the present, which is MIS 1 in the scale, stages with even numbers have high levels of oxygen-18 and represent cold glacial periods, while the odd-numbered stages are lows in the oxygen-18 figures, representing warm interglacial intervals. The data are derived from pollen and foraminifera (plankton) remains in drilled marine sediment cores, sapropels, and other data that reflect historic climate; these are called proxies.

The Ancestral Thames is the geologically ancient precursor to the present day River Thames. The river has its origins in the emergence of Britain from a Cretaceous sea over 60 million years ago. Parts of the river's course were profoundly modified by the Anglian glaciation some 450,000 years ago. The extensive terrace deposits laid down by the Ancestral Thames over the past two million years or so have provided a rich source of material for studies in geology, geomorphology, palaeontology and archaeology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cromer Forest Bed</span> Geological formation in Norfolk, England

The Cromer Forest-bed Formation, sometimes known as the Cromer Forest Bed, is a geological formation in Norfolk, England. It consists of river gravels, estuary and floodplain sediments predominantly silt, sand, and muds as well as peat along the coast of northern Norfolk. It is the type locality for the Cromerian Stage of the Pleistocene between 0.8 and 0.5 million years ago. The deposit itself range varies in age from about 0.8 to 0.5 million years ago. It is about 6-to-8-metre thick and is exposed in cliff section near the town of West Runton.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phil Gibbard</span>

Philip Leonard Gibbard is a Quaternary geologist and has been Professor of Quaternary Palaeoenvironments in the University of Cambridge, Department of Geography since 2005. A PhD student of Professor Richard Gilbert West in the Subdepartment of Quaternary Research, University of Cambridge (1971–1974), he investigated the diversion of the River Thames from its course through Hertfordshire to its present course through London. Later he established the stratigraphy and palaeogeography of the Thames in the Middle (1985) and Lower Thames Valley (1994). He has since undertaken many collaborative, palaeoenvironmental investigations. This multidisciplinary approach has led to him working throughout Britain, offshore areas, especially the North Sea, English Channel and the formation of the Strait of Dover, and neighbouring countries. For an example of this work, see Britain's island heritage: reconstructing half a million years of history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saale glaciation</span> Glacial period in Europe

The Saale glaciation or Saale Glaciation, sometimes referred to as the Saalian glaciation, Saale cold period, Saale complex (Saale-Komplex) or Saale glacial stage, covers the middle of the three large glaciations in Northern Europe and the northern parts of Eastern Europe, Central Europe and Western Europe by the Scandinavian Inland Ice Sheet. It follows the Holstein interglacial and precedes the Eemian interglacial, spanning from around 400,000 years ago to 130,000 years ago. The Saalian covers multiple glacial cycles punctuated by interglacial periods. In its latter part it is coeval with the global Penultimate Glacial Period.

The Pre-Illinoian Stage is used by Quaternary geologists for the early and middle Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods of geologic time in North America from ~2.5–0.2 Ma.

The Sangamonian Stage is the term used in North America to designate the Last Interglacial and depending on definition, part of the early Last Glacial Period, corresponding to Marine Isotope Stage 5. While often historically considered equivalent in scope to MIS 5, it is now often used in a more narrow sense to refer to the Last Interglacial only. It preceded the Wisconsinan (Wisconsin) Stage and followed the Illinoian Stage in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Glaciation</span> Major glaciation of eastern Europe

The Don Glaciation, also known as the Donian Glaciation and the Donian Stage, was the major glaciation of the East European Plain, 0.8–0.5 million years ago, during the Cromerian Stage of the Middle Pleistocene. It is correlated to Marine Isotope Stage 16, approximately 650,000 years ago, which globally contained one of the largest glacial volumes of the Quaternary.

References

  1. Richmond, G.M.; Fullerton, D.S. (1986). "Summation of Quaternary glaciations in the United States of America". Quaternary Science Reviews. 5: 183–196. Bibcode:1986QSRv....5..183R. doi:10.1016/0277-3791(86)90184-8.
  2. 1 2 McMillan, A.A. (2005). "A provisional Quaternary and Neogene lithostratigraphic framework Great Britain". Netherland Journal of Geosciences. 84 (2): 87–107. doi: 10.1017/S0016774600022988 .
  3. 1 2 Gibbard, P.L.; Boreham, S.; Cohen, K.M.; Moscariello, A. (2007). "Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years" (JPG 844 kb). Cambridge UK: Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge.
  4. Gibbard, Phil (2007). "How Britain Became An Island: The report". Nature Precedings. doi:10.1038/npre.2007.1205.1
  5. Lisiecki, L.E., 2005, Ages of MIS boundaries. LR04 Benthic Stack Boston University, Boston, MA
  6. Lisiecki, L.E.; Raymo, M.E. (2005). "A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic d18O records" (PDF). Paleoceanography. 20: PA1003. Bibcode:2005PalOc..20.1003L. doi:10.1029/2004PA001071. hdl: 2027.42/149224 .
  7. Gibson, Sebastian M. et al. (2022) Timing and dynamics of Late Wolstonian Substage ‘Moreton Stadial’ (MIS 6) glaciation in the English West Midlands, UK, Royal Society Publishing, (Open access), June 2022. Deposits from Wolston are described and dated (as 150 ka) in sections 4.1.4 and 4.2.1.4.

Further reading