Holocene

Holocene

Definition:

The Holocene describes that part of Earth's history that started around 12,000 years ago and continues to this day. As the second series of the Quaternary, the Holocene is significantly influenced by a warming or re-warming of the earth, which followed the icing of the previous Pleistocene. However, scientists still do not agree on the exact timing of the onset of the Holocene. This series within the Quaternary is divided into Altholozän, Middle Holocene and Late Holocene. The name of the era, which is also outdated as an alluvium, post-glacial or post-glacial period, derives from two ancient Greek terms, which translate as "completely new" meaning and refer to the importance of this section on the present. The name was originally introduced as "Holocene" by the French scientist Paul Gervais in the late 1960s, but only recognized internationally twenty years later. In English, at the same time, the term "Present" prevailed, which is still used today.

Climate:

The Holocene is climatically defined today by scientists as a very calm and consistent period compared to previous eras of Earth's history, characterized by a prolonged warming period within the Quaternary Ice Age. In the course of the Holocene, global temperature fluctuations averaged only about 1 ° C. It was not until the beginning of the 20th century that a gradual shift towards global warming started, which continues to this day and is at least partially anthropogenic, that is, caused by humans becomes. Only through the so stable climatic conditions of the Holocene could the man of the hunter-gatherer with nomadic way of life finally develop into a sedentary creature, who cultivated agriculture and later livestock, and founded strong social societies in permanent colonies.

Flora and Fauna (plants and animals):

The Holocene describes in terms of the history of humanity the period that includes the development from the Neolithic to the present. Within the Holocene, since the turn of the millennium modern scientists have been defining the concept of the Anthropocene, which is to describe the period from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution around 1800 and is shaped by the climatic change of the environment caused by industrialization.

Also a significant part of the today existing animal and plant world developed in the Holocene. After the glaciation of the Pleistocene and renewed warming, vast forests of beech and pine trees gradually displaced the glacial tundra. It formed until about 5000 years ago, the so-called boreal vegetation zone, which is characterized by oak mixed forests with a high population of oak, ash, elm, linden and maple. In the so-called Subatlanticum, the last climate stage of the Holocene that began about 2,500 years ago, the development of flora and fauna as we know it today was finally completed.

Summary

The Holocene (synonym: Alluvium) is a section of the Earth's history, which began about 12,000 years ago and continues to this day. This earth age is next to the Pleistocene one of the two series of the Quaternary.

The term Holocene is borrowed from the Greek and means "completely new".

The Holocene is the latest section of Earth's history and began with the gradual warming of the earth at the end of the Pleistocene. The last ice age thus represents the end of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene.