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Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Introduction

The Bølling-Allerød interstadial is the initial warm phase during the Weichselian late glacial that is followed by the cold Younger Dryas stadial.

The Weichselian late glacial, often referred to as last glacial-interglacial transition or last termination (ca. 13,000–10,000 14C yr bp), was a period of rapid climate change. The late glacial is classically sub-divided into a series of stadials named after the occurrence of the characteristic arctic-alpine plant species Dryas octopetala, separated by interstadials named after the type localities Bølling and Allerød in Denmark. The biostratigraphic sub-division has been extensively used in northwest Europe, usually in a chronostratigraphic sense, and is still widely used globally.

History

Hartz and Milthers (1901) showed that, based on deposits in a clay-pit near Allerød (Denmark), a climatic warming had occurred during the late glacial. Between clay layers containing mountain avens (Dryas octopetala) and reindeer fossils, an...

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Hoek, W.Z. (2009). Bølling-Allerød Interstadial. In: Gornitz, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Paleoclimatology and Ancient Environments. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4411-3_26

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