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| Behind
the Myth of Atlantis |
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| Chapter
6: Pleistocen |
Pleistocene is the geo-chronological time which extends at the beginning of the Quaternary, from about 1,6 million years to about 10.000 years ago. This era is characterized by a succession of abrupt climatic changes and enormous amplitude which engendered an alternation of glacial and interglacial periods. It was estimated that the ice covered at times up to 30 % of the surface of continents.
The last glaciations of Pleistocene lasted around 100 000 years which ended about 10 000 years ago, and reached its maximum extension about 18 000 years ago, at that time vast regions on high and average latitudes were covered with ice.
 The entrapment of the sea water under shaped the ice, which involved a phase of sea region regression, meaning a reduction in the maritime level. On the opposite side, interglacial eras were the occasion of episodes of transgression, meaning invasion of continents by the sea water. The current coasts owe their current shape to the last transgression about 10.000 years ago. The melting of ices involved a rise of the sea level of hundred metres or more and in turn came the flooding of vast continental zones.
One of the major results of French research is dating between
13 800 and 14 200 years BP of a period of glacial collapse
(noted MWP-1a = melt water pulse 1a on the figure 1a). This
climatic event of first importance corresponds to a fast
increase of the maritime level at an average rate of the
order of 4 in 5 metres by century during 400 years (equivalent
of an annual melt of about 16 000 km3 of continental ice).
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Author: L.B
Date: March 2005 |
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