The Last Interglacial was the interglacial period that 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 corresponds to Marine Isotope Stage 5e. It was the second-to-latest interglacial of the current Ice Age, the most recent being the Holocene which extends to the present day (having followed the Last Glacial Period). During the Last Interglacial, the proportion of CO2 in the atmosphere was about 280 parts per million. The Last Interglacial was one of the warmest periods of the last 800,000 years, with temperatures comparable to and at times warmer (by up to on average 2 degrees Celsius) than the contemporary Holocene interglacial, with the maximum sea level being up to 6 to 9 metres higher than at present, with global ice volume likely also being smaller than the Holocene interglacial. The Last Interglacial is known as the Eemian in northern Europe (sometimes used to describe the global interglacial), Ipswichian in Britain, the Mikulino (also spelled Milukin) interglacial in Russia, the Kaydaky in Ukraine, the Valdivia interglacial in Chile, and the Riss-Würm interglacial in the Alps. Depending on how a specific publication defines the Sangamonian of North America, the Last Interglacial is equivalent to either all or part of it. The period falls into the Middle Paleolithic and is of some interest for the evolution of early modern humans, who were present in West Asia (the Skhul and Qafzeh hominins) as well as in Southern Africa by this time, representing the earliest split of modern human populations that persists to the present time (associated with mitochondrial haplogroup L0). As the most recent point in time with a climate comparable to the Holocene, the Last Interglacial is also of relevance as a point of reference (baseline) for nature conservation.
Definition The Last Interglacial was first recognized from boreholes in the area of the city of Amersfoort, Netherlands, by Pieter Harting (1875). He named the beds "Système Eémien", after the river Eem on which Amersfoort is located. Harting noticed the marine molluscan assemblages to be very different from the modern fauna of the North Sea. Many species from the Last Interglacial layers nowadays show a much more southern distribution, ranging from South of the Strait of Dover to Portugal (Lusitanian faunal province) and even into the Mediterranean (Mediterranean faunal province). More information on the molluscan assemblages is given by Lorié (1887), and Spaink (1958). Since their discovery, Last Interglacial beds in the Netherlands have mainly been recognized by their marine molluscan content combined with their stratigraphical position and other palaeontology. The marine beds there are often underlain by tills that are considered to date from the Saale glaciation and overlain by local fresh water or wind-blown deposits from the Weichselian glaciation. In contrast to, for example, deposits in Denmark, the Last Interglacial deposits in the type area have never been found overlain by tills, nor in ice-pushed positions. Van Voorthuysen (1958) described the foraminifera from the type site, whereas Zagwijn (1961) published the palynology, providing a subdivision of this stage into pollen stages. At the end of the 20th century, the type site was re-investigated using old and new data in a multi-disciplinary approach (Cleveringa et al., 2000). At the same time, a parastratotype was selected in the Amsterdam glacial basin in the Amsterdam-Terminal borehole and was the subject of a multidisciplinary investigation (Van Leeuwen et al., 2000). These authors also published a U/Th age for late Last Interglacial deposits from this borehole of 118,200 ± 6,300 years ago. A historical review of Dutch Last Interglacial research is provided by Bosch, Cleveringa and Meijer, 2000.
Climate
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
