Quaternary stratigraphic nomenclature: A historic review

Abstract

© 2018 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. The Quaternary is the most recent geological period of time in Earth’s history, spanning the last 2.588 million years. The Quaternary System is subdivided into the Pleistocene and the Holocene Series, with the Pleistocene spanning most of the Quaternary, while the Holocene covers the last 11 700 calendar years. The lower boundary of the Quaternary was only accepted in 2009 and was the result of more than 150 years of research by the community of Quaternary scientists. The Quaternary, or the socalled “Ice Age(s),” was traditionally considered to be the period of global cooling followed by alternating glacial and interglacial phases. However, this is more of an interval of gradual cooling and aridization followed by climatic changes of different amplitudes and time spans. The attention paid to contemporary climate change served to draw attention to the phenomenon of the Ice Age(s). The historical background is necessary for understanding contemporary stratigraphic terms and subdivisions of the Quaternary. Besides the traditional chronostratigraphical and geochronological division, the Quaternary has divided also on climatostratigraphic principles - based on the recorded climatic changes.