The Flandrian interglacial or stage is the name given by
geologists and
archaeologist
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...
s in the
British Isles to the first, and so far only, stage of the
Holocene epoch (the present geological period), covering the period from around 12,000 years ago, at the end of the
last glacial period to the present day. As such, it is in practice identical in span to the Holocene.
The Flandrian began as the relatively short-lived
Younger Dryas climate downturn came to an end. This formed the last gasp of the
Devensian glaciation, the final stage of the
Pleistocene epoch. The Flandrian is traditionally seen as the latest warm
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 in ...
in
a series that has been occurring throughout the
Quaternary
The Quaternary ( ) is the current and most recent of the three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ...
geological period
The geologic time scale, or geological time scale, (GTS) is a representation of time based on the rock record of Earth. It is a system of chronological dating that uses chronostratigraphy (the process of relating strata to time) and geochronol ...
.
The first part of the Flandrian, known as the Younger Atlantic, was a period of fairly rapid
sea level rise, known as the Flandrian transgression. It is associated with the melting of the
Fenno-Scandian,
Scottish
Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including:
*Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland
*Scottish English
*Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
,
Laurentide and
Cordilleran glaciers.
Fjords were formed during the Flandrian transgression when U-shaped glaciated valleys were inundated.
Milankovitch theory alone would forecast that the present Flandrian climate, like that of other interstadials, should eventually decline in temperature, towards a global climate similar to that of the
Last Glacial Maximum
The Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), also referred to as the Late Glacial Maximum, was the most recent time during the Last Glacial Period that ice sheets were at their greatest extent.
Ice sheets covered much of Northern North America, Northern Eur ...
. Less orbital eccentricity might have the effect of moderating this temperature downturn.
sciencemag.org An Exceptionally Long Interglacial Ahead?
/ref> However, orbital cycles are not the only influence on global temperature; atmospheric greenhouse gases also affect the radiative forcing. While there is agreement that post- industrial-revolution greenhouse gas emissions are substantially warming the planet, there is debate over whether early agriculture, beginning thousands of years earlier, has had a much smaller warming effect (due to methane emissions from rice paddies, or deforestation, for instance). If this is the case, the climate of at least the later Holocene has long deviated from what would be expected with only orbital forcings, and the Flandrian has long been an atypical interglacial.
References
Glaciology
Holocene
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