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An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene, about 11,700 years ago.
The main causes for glacial and interglacial periods are variations in the movement of Earth around the Sun. [24] The astronomical components, discovered by the Serbian geophysicist Milutin Milanković and now known as Milankovitch cycles , include the axial tilt of Earth, the orbital eccentricity (or shape of the orbit ), and the precession ...
The Earth is currently in such an interglacial period of the Quaternary glaciation, with the Last Glacial Period of the Quaternary having ended approximately 11,700 years ago. The current interglacial is known as the Holocene epoch. [1] Based on climate proxies, paleoclimatologists study the different climate states originating from glaciation.
For a period to be considered an interglacial, it changes from Arctic through sub-Arctic to boreal to temperate conditions and back again. An interstadial reaches only the stage of boreal vegetation. [1] The MIS 1 interstadial encompasses the entirety of the present Holocene interglacial, but the Wisconsin glaciation encompasses MIS 2, 3, and 4.
From 2.58 million years ago to about 1.73 million ± 50,000 years ago, the degree of axial tilt was the main cause of glacial and interglacial periods. [ 24 ] Around 850,000 ± 50,000 years ago, the degree of orbital eccentricity became the main driver of glacial and interglacial periods rather than the degree of tilt, and this pattern ...
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials , on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate between glacial periods.
High CO 2 contents correspond to warm interglacial periods, and low CO 2 to glacial periods. However, studies indicate that CO 2 may not be the primary cause of the interglacial-glacial transitions, but instead acts as a feedback. The explanation for this observed CO 2 variation "remains a difficult attribution problem". [19]
The Last Interglacial, also known as the Eemian, was the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago at the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and ended about 115,000 years ago at the beginning of the Last Glacial Period. [1] It corresponds to Marine Isotope Stage 5e. [2]