The Flandrian interglacial or stage is the regional name given by geologists and archaeologists in the British Isles to 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 present geological epoch).
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 in a series that has been occurring throughout the Quaternary geological period.
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, 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. Less orbital eccentricity might have the effect of moderating this temperature downturn. 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.
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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 interglacial began at the end of the Pleistocene, about 11,700 years ago. During the 2.5 million years of the Pleistocene, numerous glacials, or significant advances of continental ice sheets, in North America and Europe, occurred at intervals of approximately 40,000 to 100,000 years.
The Last Glacial Period (LGP), also known colloquially as the Last Ice Age or simply Ice Age, occurred from the end of the Eemian to the end of the Younger Dryas, encompassing the period 115,000-11,700 years ago. The LGP is part of a larger sequence of glacial and interglacial periods known as the Quaternary glaciation which started around 2,588,000 years ago and is ongoing. The definition of the Quaternary as beginning 2.58 million years ago (Mya) is based on the formation of the Arctic ice cap.
The Holocene (ˈhɒl.əsiːn,_-oʊ-,ˈhoʊ.lə-,-loʊ-) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,700 years before 2000 CE (11,650 cal years BP, 9700 BCE or 300 HE). It follows the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene together form the Quaternary period. The Holocene has been identified with the current warm period, known as MIS 1. It is considered by some to be an interglacial period within the Pleistocene Epoch, called the Flandrian interglacial.
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