Middle Pleistocene

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Middle Pleistocene

So far, the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the epoch from 1.8 million to 10,000 years Before Present covering the world's recent period of repeated glaciations. The name pleistocene is derived from the Greek and ....
Series is not subdivided into formal units (i.e., Stages). Several solutions were proposed, and dedicated working groups are presently pursuing an agreed solution. Since the base of the Pleistocene is already pinned down at Vrica (Calabria

Calabria

Calabria , is a Regions of Italy in Southern Italy Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the region of Basilicata, to the south-west by the region of Sicily, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the Ionian Sea....
, Southern Italy), only Middle and Upper Pleistocene are to be formally defined yet. Concerning the Middle Pleistocene, an agreement has been achieved by proposing the so-called “Ionian” Stage.

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So far, the Pleistocene

Pleistocene

Calabria

Brunhes-Matuyama reversal

The Brunhes-Matuyama Reversal was a Geology event, approximately 780,000 years ago, when the Earth's magnetic field last underwent Geomagnetic reversal....
, while its top would coincide with the base of the Upper Pleistocene, which in turn spans from the beginning of the last interglacial (i.e. Marine isotopic stage

Marine isotopic stage

Marine isotope stages or marine oxygen-isotope stages, in older literature called oxygen isotope stages , are alternating warm and cool periods in the Earth's paleoclimatology, deduced from Oxygen isotope ratio cycle reflecting temperature curves derived from data from deep sea core samples....
5) to the base of the Holocene

Holocene

The Holocene is a geological Epoch which began approximately 11,700 years ago . According to traditional geological thinking, the Holocene continues to the present....
(~10.5 Ka). Especially suitable sections for defining the base of the Ionian stage are located in Southern Italy. In fact, during Lower and Middle Pleistocene the Adriatic-Ionian

Ionian Sea

The Ionian Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea, south of the Adriatic Sea. It is bounded by southern Italy, including Calabria, Sicily and the Salento peninsula, to the west, by southwestern Albania, including Saranda and Himara, and a large number of Greek islands, including Corfu, Zante, Kephalonia, Ithaka, and Lefkas to the east....
margin was characterized by high sedimentation rates, in response to intense differential tectonic subsidence and massive sedimentary yield. Specifically, candidate sections are the “Montalbano Jonico

Montalbano Jonico

Montalbano Jonico is a town and comune in the province of Matera, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata....
” Section (Bradanic Trough, Basilicata

Basilicata

Basilicata is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the east, Calabria to the south, it has one short coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea and another of the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea to the south-east....
Region) and the “Valle di Manche Nord” Section (San Mauro Marchesato, Crotone Basin, Calabria

Calabria

Calabria , is a Regions of Italy in Southern Italy Italy, south of Naples, located at the "toe" of the Italian peninsula. It is bounded to the north by the region of Basilicata, to the south-west by the region of Sicily, to the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea, and to the east by the Ionian Sea....
Region). In the former, a spectacular succession of marls laid in the Apennine foredeep is exposed which, however, are unfortunately unsuitable for magnetostratigraphic

Magnetostratigraphy

Magnetostratigraphy is a Chronostratigraphy technique used to date sedimentary and volcanic sequences. The method works by collecting oriented samples at measured intervals throughout the section....
analyses. The latter, which is represented by a shallowing-upward succession that developed in an outer-shelf environment, has the bonus of a sharp biomagnetostratigraphic record, which provides tighter age control. Besides these exposures, a number of ODP

Ocean Drilling Program

The Ocean Drilling Program was an international cooperative effort to explore and study the composition and structure of the earth's ocean basins....
cores drilled either in the Ionian Sea (Site 964) and in the Sicily Channel-Capo Rossello area (Site 963) are available, which correlate well with the on-land sections mentioned above based on a significant number of criteria (magnetostratigraphy, biostratigraphy

Biostratigraphy

Biostratigraphy is the branch of stratigraphy which focuses on correlating and assigning relative ages of rock Stratum by using the fossil assemblages contained within them....
, sapropel

Sapropel

Sapropel is a term used in marine geology to describe dark-coloured sediments that are rich in organic matter. Organic carbon concentrations in sapropels commonly exceed 2% in weight....
stratigraphy, stable isotopes, Tephrochronology

Tephrochronology

Tephrochronology is a Geochronology technique that utilises discrete layers of tephra—volcanic ash from a single eruption—to create a chronological framework in which Paleoenviroment or Archaeology records can be placed....
). The interval corresponding to the Ionian Stage is especially well represented in Site 963, where no turbidites and/or hiatuses are recognized. Presently, the Montalbano Ionico section is possibly the main candidate for defining the Lower - Middle Pleistocene boundary, once a reliable magnetostratigraphic record is found.

Paleoclimatology stages

Preboreal
Boreal
Boreal

Boreal may refer to*Northern, from Boreas, god of the North Wind in Greek mythology*Boreal climate, the climate found in a region of boreal forests, and designated Dfc, Dwc or Dsc in the K?ppen climate classification scheme....
Atlantic
Atlantic (period)

The Atlantic in palaeoclimatology was the warmest and moistest Blytt-Sernander period, pollen zone and chronozone of Holocene north Europe. The climate was generally warmer than today....
Subboreal
Subatlantic

Faunal stages

North American Land Mammal Ages
North American Land Mammal Ages

The North American Mammal Ages establishes a geologic timescale for prehistoric North American fauna beginning 66.5 Megaannum during the Paleocene and continuing through to the Middle Pleistocene ....
within the Middle Pleistocene:
South American Land Mammal Ages within the Middle Pleistocene:
Asian Land Mammal Ages
Asian land mammal ages

The Asian Land Mammal Ages establishes a geologic timescale for prehistoric Asian fauna beginning 58.7 Mya during the Paleogene and continuing through to the Middle Pleistocene ....
within the Middle Pleistocene:
European Land Mammal Ages
European Land Mammal Ages

The European Land Mammal Ages establishes a geologic timescale for prehistoric European fauna beginning 66.5 Megaannum during the Paleocene and continuing through to the Middle Pleistocene ....
within the Middle Pleistocene: