Holstein interglacial

Graph of Pleistocene glacial cycles in Europe from 600-100,000 years ago, with the Holstein interglacial labelled

The Holstein or Holsteinian interglacial (German: Holstein-Warmzeit or Holstein-Interglazial), also called the Mindel-Riss interglacial (Mindel-Riß-Interglazial) in the Alpine region, is the third to last major interglacial in Europe before the Holocene, the present warm period. It followed directly after the Elster glaciation and came before the Saale glaciation, during the Middle Pleistocene. The more precise timing was historically controversial since Holstein was commonly correlated to two different marine isotope stages, MIS 11[1] (424–374 thousand years ago[2]) and MIS 9[3] (337–300 thousand years ago[2]). Recent scholarship has supported a MIS 11 date, spanning approximately 421-395,000 years ago.[4]

  1. ^ Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years, v. 2011
  2. ^ a b Lisiecki, Lorraine E.; Raymo, Maureen E. (2005). "A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic δ18O records". Paleoceanography. 20 (1): n/a. Bibcode:2005PalOc..20.1003L. doi:10.1029/2004PA001071. hdl:2027.42/149224. S2CID 12788441.
  3. ^ German Stratigraphic Commission: Stratigraphische Tabelle von Deutschland 2016
  4. ^ Fernández Arias, Sophie; Förster, Michael W.; Sirocko, Frank (August 2023). "Rieden tephra layers in the Dottinger Maar lake sediments: Implications for the dating of the Holsteinian interglacial and Elsterian glacial". Global and Planetary Change. 227: 104143. doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2023.104143.