earth science

Meghalayan

Meghalayan is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Meghalayan rather than just read about it. In short: The Meghalayan age is the current age or latest geologic age – or uppermost stage of the Quaternary. It was given the name in 2018, by the International Commission on Stratigraphy.

Key takeaways

Meghalayan belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Meghalayan to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Meghalayan from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Meghalayan age is the current age or latest geologic age – or uppermost stage of the Quaternary. It was given the name in 2018, by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. It is also the upper, or latest, of three subdivisions of the Holocene epoch or series. This way of breaking down time is based only on geology; for example, it is unrelated to the three-age system of historical periods into which human development is sometimes divided.

Timeline The Meghalayan begins 4,200 years BP (c. 2251 BCE or 7750 HE). Helama & Oinonen (2019) dated the start of the Meghalayan to 2190–1990 BCE. The age began with a 200-year drought that impacted human civilizations in the Eastern Mediterranean, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and the Yangtze River Valley.

Origins This age is named after the Northeast Indian state of Meghalaya, where the stalagmite was found that is used to mark out its years. The International Commission on Stratigraphy officially ratified this age in June 2018, along with the earlier Greenlandian and Northgrippian ages/stages. Its Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) is a Krem Mawmluh Cave formation in Meghalaya. Mawmluh cave is one of the longest and deepest caves in India, and conditions there were suitable for preserving chemical signs of the transition in ages. The global auxiliary stratotype is an ice core from Mount Logan in Canada.

IUGS geological heritage site In respect of the Mawmluh Cave site being the "GSSP of the youngest unit of the geologic time scale associated with dramatic climate changes with implications on human civilisation," the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) included the GSSP of the Meghalayan Stage in the Mawmluh Cave in its assemblage of 100 "geological heritage sites" around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organisation defines an IUGS Geological Heritage Site as "a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history."

See also Geologic time scale 4.2-kiloyear event

References

Citations

Sources

External links Chronostratigraphy benchmarks Meghalayan Age in details

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Meghalayan

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Meghalayan claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Meghalayan before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Meghalayan ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Meghalayan

In research: Meghalayan appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Meghalayan in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Meghalayan is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 3rd millennium BC, Cenozoic, First 100 IUGS Geological Heritage Sites, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Meghalayan outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Meghalayan in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Meghalayan means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Meghalayan out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Meghalayan in simple terms?

The Meghalayan age is the current age or latest geologic age – or uppermost stage of the Quaternary. It was given the name in 2018, by the International Commission on Stratigraphy.

Why does Meghalayan matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Meghalayan?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Meghalayan.