Cromerian Stage

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Cromerian Stage or Cromerian Complex, also called the Cromerian (German: Cromerium), is a stage in the Pleistocene glacial history of north-western Europe, mostly occurring more than half a million years ago. It is named after the East Anglian town of Cromer in Great Britain where interglacial deposits that accumulated during part of this stage were first discovered. The stratotype for this interglacial is the Cromer Forest Bed situated at the bottom of the coastal cliff near West Runton. The Cromerian stage preceded the Anglian and Elsterian glacials and show an absence of glacial deposits in western Europe, which led to the historical terms Cromerian interglacial and the Cromerian warm period (German: Kromer-Warmzeit). It is now known that the Cromerian consisted of multiple glacial and interglacial periods.[1]

Chronology

The core of the Cromerian is the first half of the

Marine isotope stages (MIS) this corresponds to MIS 19 to MIS 13.[2] Some authors instead put the start at MIS 22, corresponding to a start 900 ka ago, which includes the last 100 ka of the Calabrian stage, after the Beestonian Stage.[3] Some sources today correlate the Elster glaciation to MIS 10 instead of MIS 12, while keeping the Cromerian running up to the start of the Elsterian. The result is an end to the Cromerian stage in continental Europe at the end of MIS 11 (400 ka ago), and that the continental Cromerian continues beyond its end in Britain and Ireland and runs in parallel to the Anglian and Hoxnian Stages (MIS 12-11).[4]

In the

Alpine region the corresponding stage is called Günz
.

The Cromerian had been equated to the

Yarmouthian (Yarmouth), Kansan, and Nebraskan, have been abandoned by North American Quaternary geologists and merged into the Pre-Illinoian.[5][6] At this time, the Cromerian is correlated with the period of time, which includes the Pre-Illinoian C, Pre-Illinoian D, and Pre-Illinoian E glaciations of North America.[7][6]

Proposals for structuring the Cromerian complex have become quite confusing. Great potential for a full breakdown has been provided by the extensive, continental series at Gorleben.[8]

Glacial cycles

Based on a lack of glacial evidence in Western Europe for the

Marine Isotope Stage 16 (MIS 16), is globally as strong as the most recent glaciations, MIS 6 (main Saale) and MIS 2 (Weichsel/Devensian). There is plenty of evidence in Russia for a major glaciation during this stage, which is called the Don Glaciation and believed to correspond to MIS 16. It is not clear why western Europe seems so unaffected by this major glacial.[1][9]

Fossils

In 1990 the

Mammuthus trogontherii
to be unearthed so far.

A significant fossil site, with animal remains dating about 600,000 years ago, is the Mosbach Sands in Germany, named after an abandoned village near Wiesbaden, Germany.[10]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Böse et al. (2012), Quaternary Glaciations of Northern Europe, Quaternary Science Reviews 44, 1-25.
  2. S2CID 12788441
    .
  3. ^ a b c Lee et al. (2011), The Glacial History of the British Isles during the early and Middle Pleistocene: Implications for the long-term development of the British Ice Sheet, Quaternary Glaciations-Extent and Chronology, pages 59-74, Elsevier.
  4. ^ "German Stratigraphic Commission: Stratigraphische Tabelle von Deutschland 2016" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-11-23. Retrieved 2019-03-31.
  5. ^ Hallberg, G.R., 1986, Pre-Wisconsin glacial stratigraphy of the Central Plains region in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri, Quaternary Science Reviews. vol. 5, pp. 11-15.
  6. ^ a b Richmond, G.M. and D.S. Fullerton, 1986, Summation of Quaternary glaciations in the United States of America, Quaternary Science Reviews. vol. 5, pp. 183-196.
  7. ISBN 0 470 86927 5
  8. ISSN 0424-7116
  9. ^ Cambridge Quaternary Palaeoenvironments Group: Don Glaciation
  10. ^ Ernst Probst: Deutschland in der Urzeit. Munich: Bertelsmann, 1986. German National Library catalogue

Sources

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cromerian_Stage&oldid=1148852534"