The Beestonian Stage is an early
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
stage used in the
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...
. It is named after
Beeston Cliffs near
West Runton in
Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
where deposits from this stage are preserved.
The Beestonian precedes the
Cromerian Stage 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 t ...
and follows the
Pastonian Stage
The Pastonian interglacial, now called the Pastonian Stage (from Paston, Norfolk), is the name for an early or middle Pleistocene stage used in the British Isles. It precedes the Beestonian Stage and follows the Pre-Pastonian Stage. Unfortunately ...
. This stage consists of alternating glacial and interglacial phases instead of being a continuous
glacial
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...
epoch. It is equivalent to
Marine isotope stage
Marine isotope stages (MIS), marine oxygen-isotope stages, or oxygen isotope stages (OIS), are alternating warm and cool periods in the Earth's paleoclimate, deduced from oxygen isotope data reflecting changes in temperature derived from data f ...
s 22 to (60?).
[Walker, M., 2005, ''Quaternary Dating Methods'', John Wiley & Son, Chichester, United Kingdom. ][Gibbard, P.L., S. Boreham, K.M. Cohen and A. Moscariello, 2007]
''Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years v. 2007b''
, jpg version 844 KB. Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England The Beestonian Stage and Marine Isotope Stage 22 ended about 866,000 years ago.
[ Lisiecki, L.E., 2005]
Ages of MIS boundaries.
Boston University, Boston, MA
The Beestonian corresponds temporally to the
Danube Stage in the glacial history of the
Alpine region
The main valleys of the Alps, orographically by drainage basin.
Rhine basin (North Sea)
High Rhine
*Aare
** Limmat
***Linth (Glarus)
****Lake Walen
*****Seeztal
**** Klöntal
****Sernftal
** Reuss
***Lake Lucerne
****Sarner Aa (Brünig Pass co ...
. Based on finding in the
Low Countries
The term Low Countries, also known as the Low Lands ( nl, de Lage Landen, french: les Pays-Bas, lb, déi Niddereg Lännereien) and historically called the Netherlands ( nl, de Nederlanden), Flanders, or Belgica, is a coastal lowland region in N ...
, the corresponding stage in northern continental Europe is divided into four stages, the Bavelian, Menapian, Waalian, and Eburonian.
[Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years, v. 2011](_blank)
/ref>
The Beestonian had also been equated to the Nebraskan glaciation in North America. However, the Nebraskan Stage, along with the Kansan and Aftonian Stages, have been abandoned by North American Quaternary geologists and merged into the Pre-Illinoian Stage.
See also
*Ice age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
*Glacial period
A glacial period (alternatively glacial or glaciation) is an interval of time (thousands of years) within an ice age that is marked by colder temperatures and glacier advances. Interglacials, on the other hand, are periods of warmer climate betwe ...
*Timeline of glaciation
There have been five or six major ice ages in the history of Earth over the past 3 billion years.
The Late Cenozoic Ice Age began 34 million years ago, its latest phase being the Quaternary glaciation, in progress since 2.58 million years ago ...
* Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
, which covers:
References
Further reading
*Bowen, D.Q., 1978, ''Quaternary geology: a stratigraphic framework for multidisciplinary work. '' Pergamon Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. 221 pp.
*Ehlers, J., P. L. Gibbard, and J. Rose, eds., 1991, ''Glacial deposits in Great Britain and Ireland.'' Balkema, Rotterdam. 580 pp
*Mangerud, J., J. Ehlers, and P. Gibbard, 2004, ''Quaternary Glaciations: Extent and Chronology 1: Part I Europe'', Elsevier, Amsterdam.
*Sibrava, V., Bowen, D.Q, and Richmond, G.M., 1986, ''Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere, Quaternary Science Reviews'', vol. 5, pp. 1-514.
External links
*Aber, J.S., 2006
''Regional Glaciation of Kansas and Nebraska''
, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas.
*anonymous, 2000
Work Group on Geospatial Analysis of Glaciated Environments (GAGE), INQUA Commission on Glaciation, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas.
*anonymous, 2007
Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England.
{{Ice Ages
Glaciology
History of climate variability and change
Pleistocene