Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Windermere Interstadial 13,000-11,000
Loch Lomond Stadial
11,000-10,000
Flandrian (Holocene)
10,000-present
Mesolithic
11,000-7,000
Neolithic
7,000-4,150
Bronze Age
4,150-2,750
Iron Age
2,750-1,950
Roman
1,950-1,600
The last 30,000 years have been warm, on average, relative to the previous 2 mil-
lion years of the Ice Age. However, the higher level of detail available in this times-
cale makes it clear that climate change has not been one of uniform warming during
this period. Short periods of colder climate, temporarily involving ice-sheet growth in
the north of Britain (sometimes called
stadials
) have alternated with short periods of
warmer climate (referred to as
interstadials
).
SEA-LEVEL CHANGE
The coastline is the most recently created part of the landscape, and the most
changeable. This is due, in large part, to the rise in sea level over the last 20,000 years,
since the last main cold episode of the Ice Age (the Devensian). Twenty thousand years
ago sea level was 120 m lower than it is today because of the great volumes of water
that were locked away on land in the world's ice sheets (Fig. 20). Land extended tens
or hundreds of kilometres beyond the present-day coastline, and Southern England was
linked to northern France by a large area of land (Fig. 21). Global climate started to
warm about 18,000 years ago (Fig. 13) and the world's ice started to melt, raising glob-
al sea level. The North Sea and the Channel gradually flooded, and Britain became an
island between 10,500 and 10,000 years ago. This flooding by the sea is known as the
Flandrian transgression
and was a worldwide episode.
