Quaternary

Pleistocene 1.6 myrs. -10,000 yrs

Holocene 10,000 - present

Why Quaternary Geology is Important

• Climate Change
  
  • Global Warming
    
  • Global Cooling
    
• Geoarcheology
  

Age Dating Quaternary Deposits

• Carbon-14
  
• Tree Rings
  
• Fission Track dating
  
• U-series dating (U-Th)
  
• Paleomagnetic dating
  

Deep Sea Deposits

• Microfossils
  

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foraminifera
(Fig. 18.10 a, left coiling Globorotalia)

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• Stable Isotope Data 18O/16O
  

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Terrestrial Deposits

• Glacial Stratigraphy
  

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(fig. 18.9, Wisconsin Glacial deposits)

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• Lake deposits
  
  • pollen
    

Record of Sea level Fluctuations

Ice Cores

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Causes of Glaciation

1st order - millions of years

• past glacial episodes
  
  Precambrian 2.7 byrs & 600 myrs
  Pennsylvanian 320 myrs
  Pleistocene 1.6 myrs
  
• plate tectonics
  

2nd order - 100's thousand years

• glacial-interglacial cycles
  
• Milankovitch orbital parameters
  
  • orbital ecentricity
    
  • tilt of Earth's axis
    
  • precession of equinoxes
    

3rd order - 100's of years

• Little ice age 400 yrs ago
  
• CO2
  
• volcanics
  

Glacial Stages

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• Glacial
  
  Wisconsin
  Illinoian
  Kansan
  Nebraska
  
• Interglacial
  
  Sangamonian
  Yarmouthian
  Aftonian
  

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last updated 5-1-00

All original material copyright (c) 1998 by Annabelle Foos. All rights reserved.