The Pleistocene comprises most of the geological epoch of the Quaternary. It started at the end of the Tertiary 1.8–2.3 million years ago with a remarkable cooling of the earth’s climate. The beginning of the Pleistocene is set when the first “cold guests,” such as the mollusk Cyprina islandica or the foraminifer Hyalinea balthica, appeared in the Mediterranean (1.6 million years ago), or at the boundary of the Gauss- Normal paleomagnetic period to the Matuyama-Reverse paleomagnetic epoch 2.3–2.4 million years ago (Figure P25). It ended with the establishment of a warmer climate similar to modern conditions about 10,000–11,000 years ago, called the Holocene. Most characteristic of the Pleistocene was not only cooling, but a multitemporal change between cold and warm periods, established by oxygen isotope measurements (ratio of 16O/18O in foraminifera of the tropical Pacific). There were more than 20 of these cool and warm periods, the cold ones becoming real ice ages during the...
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Geochronology
Holocene Epoch
Holocene Coastal Geomorphology
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Kelletat, D.H. (2005). Pleistocene Epoch. In: Schwartz, M.L. (eds) Encyclopedia of Coastal Science. Encyclopedia of Earth Science Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-3880-1_247
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