Greenlandian
First Holocene age (11.7–8.2 ka before present approximately), named for the Greenland ice-core archive anchoring the Holocene boundary.
Language and route: English Greenland place-name adapted by an international working group. English Greenland place-name adapted by an international working group. English geographical name; modern scientific adjective rather than Greek compound.
Literal gloss: of Greenland
The name and its history
Holocene subdivision working group (Walker et al.) · 14 June 2018 IUGS ratification
- What does the word literally mean?
- of Greenland
- What did the original author mean?
- Greenlandian honours the Greenland NGRIP2 ice core that already defined the base of the Holocene; the 2018 proposal made it the first of three formal Holocene stages.
- Why was the name needed?
- Long-used informal early, middle and late divisions of the Holocene had inconsistent boundaries, complicating comparison of climate, archaeological and sea-level records.
- What evidence supported the original concept?
- Annual layer counting, abrupt deglacial isotope changes and companion regional records in the NGRIP archive provide a reference for the 11.7 ka beginning of the Holocene.
- How has geology changed the concept?
- A pre-existing Holocene GSSP was adopted as the base of the newly named Greenlandian in 2018; it was not an ancient first use of the word Greenland.
Further historical context
Greenlandian honours the Greenland NGRIP2 ice core that already defined the base of the Holocene; the 2018 proposal made it the first of three formal Holocene stages.
Long-used informal early, middle and late divisions of the Holocene had inconsistent boundaries, complicating comparison of climate, archaeological and sea-level records.
Annual layer counting, abrupt deglacial isotope changes and companion regional records in the NGRIP archive provide a reference for the 11.7 ka beginning of the Holocene.
A pre-existing Holocene GSSP was adopted as the base of the newly named Greenlandian in 2018; it was not an ancient first use of the word Greenland.
Editorial qualification
Do not conflate a locality used as a stratotype with a claim that the Holocene climate shift was globally synchronous in every proxy.
Related names
Sources
- ICS, International Chronostratigraphic Chart v2026/06 — Governing classification, chronological sequence and numerical reference ages; not naming priority
- Walker et al. (2012), Formal subdivision of the Holocene: discussion paper — Contemporaneous proposal to replace variable informal tripartition by worldwide divisions
- Walker et al. (2018), Formal ratification of the subdivision of the Holocene, Episodes — Official naming, locations, proxy markers and ratification on 14 June 2018
- Walker et al. (2019), Subdividing the Holocene: GSSPs and auxiliary stratotypes — Detailed explanation of the Holocene stage names and definitions
- ICS Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Major divisions — Institutional history of Quaternary stages, GSSPs, and reassignment of the Gelasian
- ICS, International Stratigraphic Guide: Chronostratigraphic Units — Stage/age, series/epoch and subseries/subepoch distinctions