The Eburonian ( or ''Eburonium''), or, much less commonly, the Eburonian Stage, is a glacial complex in the Calabrian age of the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( ; referred to colloquially as the ''ice age, Ice Age'') is the geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fin ...

epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided b ...

and lies between the Tegelen and the Waalian interglacial. The transition from the Tegelen to the Eburonian started about 1.78 million years ago, lasted 480,000 years (to 1.3 million years ago). In geologic strata, at its base, from its startpoint, the

Neogene The Neogene ( ,) is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period million years ago. It is the second period of th ...

underlies different

Gelasian The Gelasian is an age in the international geologic timescale or a stage in chronostratigraphy, being the earliest or lowest subdivision of the Quaternary Period/System and Pleistocene Epoch/Series. It spans the time between 2.58 Ma (million y ...

deposits starkly in much of the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

.Hey, R. W. ''The Plio-Pleistocene of England and Iceland'' in Van Couvering, John A. (editor), (1997) ''The Pleistocene Boundary and the Beginning of the Quaternary'', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, p. 183. .

Discovery

As early as the 1920s, the names of the three well known glaciations - the Elster, the

Saale The Saale (), also known as the Saxon Saale ( ) and Thuringian Saale (), is a river in Germany and a left-bank tributary of the Elbe. It is not to be confused with the smaller Fränkische Saale, Franconian Saale, a right-bank tributary of the M ...

and the Weichselian - had become established at the recommendation of Konrad Keilhack and Paul Woldstedt. After Penck & Brückner successfully identified a fourth glaciation in the

Alps The Alps () are some of the highest and most extensive mountain ranges in Europe, stretching approximately across eight Alpine countries (from west to east): Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. ...

, there were many attempts to find traces of this ice age in the northern Central Europe. Investigations in the

, into both

sedimentology Sedimentology encompasses the study of modern sediments such as sand, silt, and clay, and the processes that result in their formation (erosion and weathering), transport, deposition and diagenesis. Sedimentologists apply their understanding of m ...

and

vegetation Vegetation is an assemblage of plants and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular Taxon, taxa, life forms, structure, Spatial ecology, spatial extent, or any other specific Botany, botanic ...

, revealed that the number of cold and warm periods must have been considerably greater. In 1957 Zagwijn expanded the hitherto known

glacial A glacier (; or ) is a persistent body of dense ice, a form of rock, that is constantly moving downhill under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires ...

s and

interglacial An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene i ...

s (the Weichselian,

Eemian The Last Interglacial, also known as the Eemian, was the interglacial period which began about 130,000 years ago at the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and ended about 115,000 years ago at the beginning of the Last Glacial Period. It cor ...

, Saalian,

Holstein Holstein (; ; ; ; ) is the region between the rivers Elbe and Eider (river), Eider. It is the southern half of Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost States of Germany, state of Germany. Holstein once existed as the German County of Holstein (; 8 ...

, Elster and

Cromer Cromer ( ) is a coastal town and civil parish on the north coast of the North Norfolk district of the county of Norfolk, England. It is north of Norwich, northwest of North Walsham and east of Sheringham on the North Sea coastline. The local ...

) by the Menapian glacial, Waalian interglacial, Eburonian glacial, Tegelen interglacial and Pre-Tegelen glacial. After the initial view that there had been continuous warm or cold periods, it quickly became clear that we were looking at "complexes" that included both warm and cold periods. The Eburonian was subdivided into four cold periods, each separated from one another by warmer periods.

Climate & vegetation

Very little is known about the development of the climate and vegetation during the Eburonian. The cold period is subdivided into 7 climatic sections, which differ in their average temperatures. As in the cold periods of the Menapian glacial and the Tegelen interglacial, the average temperature of the Eburonian in summer was about ca. 10 °C and the average annual temperature was -6 to -4 °C. During the warmer sections of the Eburonian, the land was covered by cool coniferous forests; during the cold periods the vegetation was open and treeless.

References

Literature

* Ehlers, Jürgen: Allgemeine und historische Quartärgeologie / Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke Verlag, 1994 * Liedtke, Herbert: Eiszeitforschung / Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1990

External links

Synoptisches Profil durch das Quartär von Sachsen Anhalt
(Litt und Wansa 1996) {{North German glaciations Cenozoic Quaternary geochronology Ice ages Pleistocene Geology of the Netherlands

Discovery

Climate & vegetation

See also

References

Literature

External links