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The Pliocene (/ ˈ p l aɪ. ə s iː n, ˈ p l aɪ. oʊ-/ PLY-ə-seen, PLY-oh-; [6] [7] also Pleiocene) [8] is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58 [9] million years ago (Ma). It is the second and most recent epoch of the Neogene Period in the Cenozoic Era. The Pliocene follows the Miocene Epoch and is followed by ...
A permanent El Niño state existed in the early-mid-Pliocene. Warmer temperature in the eastern equatorial Pacific caused an increased water vapor greenhouse effect and reduced the area covered by highly reflective stratus clouds, thus decreasing the albedo of the planet. Propagation of the El Niño effect through planetary waves may have ...
The Mid-Piacenzian Warm Period (mPWP) (prior to 2009 known as the Middle Pliocene Warm Period), or the Pliocene Thermal Maximum, was an interval of warm climate during the Pliocene epoch that lasted from 3.3 to 3.0 million years ago (Ma).
The third ice age, and possibly most severe, is estimated to have occurred from 720 to 635 Ma (million years) ago, [3] in the Neoproterozoic Era, and it has been suggested that it produced a second [4] "Snowball Earth", i.e. a period during which Earth was completely covered in ice.
The present pattern of ice ages began about , then intensified at the end of the Pliocene. The polar regions have since undergone repeated cycles of glaciation and thawing, repeating every 40,000–100,000 years. The Last Glacial Period of the current ice age ended about 10,000 years ago.
The Plio-Pleistocene is an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago (Mya) and, drawing forward, combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs—marking from about 5 Mya to about 12 kya.
Violet: Extent of the Alpine ice sheet in the Würm glaciation.Blue: Extent in earlier ice ages. The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the Upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective.
Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary extinction: 2 Ma: Possible causes include a supernova [7] [8] or the Eltanin impact [9] [10] Middle Miocene disruption: 14.5 Ma Climate change due to change of ocean circulation patterns. Milankovitch cycles may have also contributed [11] Paleogene: Eocene–Oligocene extinction event: 33.9 Ma