In geology

Geology

Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...

 and climatology

Climatology

Climatology is the study of climate, scientifically defined as weather conditions averaged over a period of time, and is a branch of the atmospheric sciences...

, a pluvial (Latin pluvilis, from pluvia, "rain") was an extended period of abundant rainfall lasting many thousands of years. Pluvial is also applied to the sediments of these periods (e.g. Lake Bonneville

Lake Bonneville

Lake Bonneville was a prehistoric pluvial lake that covered much of North America's Great Basin region. Most of the territory it covered was in present-day Utah, though parts of the lake extended into present-day Idaho and Nevada. Formed about 32,000 years ago, it existed until about 14,500 years...

, Lake Lahontan

Lake Lahontan

Lake Lahontan was a large endorheic Pleistocene lake of modern northwestern Nevada that extended into northeastern California and southern Oregon...

, Lake Manly

Lake Manly

Lake Manly is a pluvial, former freshwater, endorheic, rift lake that filled the Death Valley basin of Inyo County, California through the Holocene before the area's climate changed to desert. Following its isolation from the Colorado River system, Lake Manly receded by evaporation with Badwater...

). The term is especially applied to such periods during the Pleistocene Epoch. A minor, short pluvial may be termed a "subpluvial".

See also

• Pluvial lake
  Pluvial lake
  A pluvial lake is a landlocked basin which fills with rainwater during times of glaciation, when precipitation is higher. Pluvial lakes that have since evaporated and dried out may also be referred to as paleolakes.-Geology:...
  
  
• Abbassia Pluvial
  Abbassia Pluvial
  The Abbassia Pluvial was an extended wet and rainy period in the climate history of North Africa. It began c. 120,000 years before the present , lasted approximately 30,000 years, and ended c. 90,000 ybp...
  
  
• Mousterian Pluvial
  Mousterian Pluvial
  The Mousterian Pluvial was an extended wet and rainy period in the climate history of North Africa. It occurred during the Upper Paleolithic era, beginning around 50,000 years before the present , lasting 20,000 years, and ending around 30,000 ybp .During the Mousterian Pluvial, the now-desiccated...
  
  
• Neolithic subpluvial
  Neolithic Subpluvial
  The Neolithic Subpluvial — sometimes called the Holocene Wet Phase — was an extended period of wet and rainy conditions in the climate history of northern Africa...