The Pleistocene Boundary and the Beginning of the Quaternary

by Edited by John A. Van Couvering

• ISBN13: 9780521617024
• ISBN10: 0521617022
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-12-16
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The Pleistocene Boundary and the Beginning of the Quaternary presents the results of a forty-year international program to establish a precise definition for the most important boundary in geologic time - the beginning of the modern age of glacial climates. This book, the final report of International Geological Correlation Project 41, describes the selection of a fixed reference point in the sequence of deep-water marine strata exposed at Vrica, Italy. This point, dated to 1.81 million years before the present, coincides with the onset of the first of four major glacial phases. The opening chapters of the book document the geology and palaeontology of the agreed physical reference point, and the successful proposal of this point as the boundary-stratotype of the Pleistocene Epoch. The book then describes the correlation of the boundary throughout the ocean basins and continents of the world in terms of detailed stratigraphic criteria such as planktonic biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy and radiometric age determinations.

Table of Contents

List of contributors

Preface: the new Pleistocene

Foreword

Part I. Definition of the Base of the Quaternary: 1. International Geological Correlation Program, Project 41: “

Neogene/Quaternary Boundary”

Ksenia V. Nikiforova and Mikhail N. Alekseev

Part II. Characterization of the Pleistocene Boundary-Stratotype: 2. The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary-stratotype at Vrica, Italy Giancarlo Pasini and Maria Luisa Colalongo

3. The magnetostratigraphy of the Vrica section, Italy, and its correlation with the Plio-Pleistocene of the Boso Peninsula, Japan Hisao Nakagawa, Nobuaki Niitsuma, Toshiaki Takayama, Yasumochi Matoba, Motoyoshi Oda, Shigemoto Tokunaga, Hiroshi Kitazato, Toyosaburo Sakai and Itaru Koizumi

4. Comparison of the laminated units at Vrica and deep-sea sapropels from the Eastern Mediterranean Isabella Raffi and Robert Thunell

5. Calcareous nannofossil biochronology and the Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary Domenico Rio, Isabella Raffi and Jan Backman

6. Diatom microfossils from the Vrica section Andrew J. M. Palmer

Part III. The Paleontological Context of the Pleistocene Boundary: 7. The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in deep sea sediments William A. Berggren and Lloyd H. Burckle, Jr.

8. Late Cenozoic changes of flora in extra-tropical Eurasia in the light of paleomagnetic stratigraphy Vladimir P. Grichuk

9. Pliocene-Pleistocene mammal faunas: an overview Emiliano Aguirre, Eleanora A. Vangengeim, Jorge Morales, Marina V. Sotnikova and Vladimir S. Zazhigin

10. Human evolution in the Plio-Pleistocene interval Emiliano Aguirre

Part IV. The Pleistocene Boundary in Regional Sequences: 11. The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in Italy Augusto Azzaroli, Maria Luisa Colalongo, Hisao Nakagawa, Giancarlo Pasini, Domenico Rio, Giuliano Ruggieri, Samuele Sartoni and Rodolfo Sprovieri

12. Stratigraphy of the Plio-Pleistocene sequence of the Mediterranean coastal belt of Israel and its implications for the evolution of the Nile Cone Gedaliahu Gvirtzman, Guido M. Martinotti and Shimon Moshkovitz

13. Pliocene-Pleistocene transition in the Iberian peninsula Emiliano Aguirre

14. Biostratigraphy and calibrated climatic chronology of the upper Pliocene and lower Pleistocene of France Jean Chaline

15. Pliocene-Pleistocene of England Richard W. Hey

16. Quaternary boundary in the Netherlands Waldo H. Zagwijn

17. Quaternary boundary in western Germany Gü

nther Von Der Brelie, Karl Brunnacker, Winfried Hinsch and Heinz Tobien

18. The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in eastern Germany Hans-Dietrich Kahlke, Lothar Eissmann and Friedrich Wiegank

19. The Pliocene-Pleistocene of Hungary Andrew A. Ró

nai

20. The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in Romania Constantin Ghenea

21. The Pliocene and Pleistocene of the European part of the Commonwealth of Independent States Ksenia V. Nikiforova

22. The N/Q boundary in Asian Russia and Tadjikistan Mikhail N. Alekseev

23. The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in the Indian subcontinent M. V. A. Sastry

24. The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in Japan: the Osaka Group, Kinki district Minoru Itihara, Shusaku Yoshikawa and Tadao Kamei

25. The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in Japan: stratigraphy in the Boso Peninsula, central Japan Hisao Nakagawa, Nobuaki Niitsuma, Takashi Mitsunashi, Motoyoshi Oda, Toshiaki Takayama and Toyosaburo Sakai

26. The base of the Quaternary in China Zhang Shouxin

27. Pliocene-Pleistocene deposits and the Quaternary boundary in sub-Saharan Africa H. Basil S. Cooke

28. Pliocene-Pleistocene reference sections in Indonesia Franç

ois Sé

mah

29. The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in New Zealand Anthony R. Edwards

30. The Pliocene-Pleistocene boundary in continental sequences of North America Everett H. Lindsay

Index.