Holocene

Bibliographic Data

ID23681835
AuthorsО К Борисова (0000-0003-1728-7610, corresponding author), Olga K Borisova
Year2017
Pages1-6
Publication date2017-03-06
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueInternational Encyclopedia of Geography (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/9781118786352.wbieg0442
OpenAlexW4252025244
ISBN9781118786352
LanguageEN
References cited4

Holocene is the most recent interval of Earth history which lasted approximately 10 300 radiocarbon years, or 11 700 calibrated (calendar) years and extends to the present day. Despite a relatively short duration of the Holocene, significant changes in climate and landscape occurred during this interglacial epoch. Multiple studies of globally distributed high‐resolution climate proxy records indicate that a rapid warming developed at the transition from the Pleistocene to the Holocene. A subsequent slower rise of the mean global temperature reached its maximum (the Holocene climatic optimum) approximately 6–5.5 14 C kyr bp , or 6000–7000 cal year ago. The early Holocene warming was followed by approximately 0.7°C cooling through the Middle to Late Holocene, culminating in the coolest temperatures of the Holocene during the Little Ice Age, between 1350 and 1850 ce , when the lower summer insolation in the Northern Hemisphere due to orbital forcing coincided with minimum solar activity and several strong tropical volcanic eruptions.

Climate change · Climatology · Geography · Holocene · Holocene climatic optimum · Insolation · Interglacial · Northern Hemisphere · Orbital forcing · Paleoclimatology · Physical geography · Pleistocene · Quaternary · Radiocarbon dating · Geology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Oceanography · Paleontology · Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology