Pleistocene epoch
Topic: Climate Change: Causes, Evidence and the Global Response · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 11 "World Climate and Climate Change"
Meaning
The Pleistocene epoch is the geological time from about 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago. During it, ice ages came and went many times. Cold glacial periods, when huge ice sheets covered much of North America and northern Europe, took turns with warmer interglacial periods. NCERT says the last peak glaciation was about 18,000 years ago. Today the Last Glacial Maximum is dated about 26,000–19,000 years ago, with its peak near 21,000. Slow changes in Earth's orbit and axis, called Milankovitch cycles, set the pace of these ice ages.
Example
At the peak of the last glaciation, ice sheets spread over northern Europe and North America. Glaciers also pushed further down high mountains such as the Himalaya. The glacial landforms they left behind are proxies (indirect clues) that scientists still study.
Don't confuse with
- Holocene: the warm epoch that followed the Pleistocene, from 11,700 years ago to the present.
- Little Ice Age: a short cool spell (1550 to about 1850) within the Holocene, not a Pleistocene glaciation.