The Holocene is a geological epoch which began approximately 11 700 years ago (10 000 ¹⁴C years ago). According to traditional geological thinking, the Holocene continues to the present. The Holocene is part of the Neogene and Quaternary periods. Its name comes from the Greek words (holos, whole or entire) and (kainos, new), meaning "entirely recent". It has been identified with MIS 1 and can be considered an interglacial in the current ice age.

Overview

It is generally accepted that the Holocene started approximately 10 ka (thousand years) Before Present. The period follows the Wisconsin glaciation (also known as the Baltic-Scandinavian Ice Age or the Weichsel glacial). The Holocene can be subdivided into five chronozones based on climatic fluctuations:

• Preboreal (10 ka – 9 ka),
• Boreal (9 ka – 8 ka),
• Atlantic (8 ka – 5 ka),
• Subboreal (5 ka – 2.5 ka) and
• Subatlantic (2.5 ka – present).

Human civilization dates entirely within the Holocene. The Blytt-Sernander classification of climatic periods defined, initially, by plant remains in peat mosses, is now of purely historical interest. The scheme was defined for north Europe, but the climate changes have been claimed to occur more widely. The periods of the scheme include a few of the final, pre-Holocene, oscillations of the last glacial period and then classify climates of more recent prehistory.

Paleontologists have defined no faunal stages for Holocene. If subdivision is necessary, periods of human technological development such as the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age are usually used. However, the time periods referenced by these terms vary with the emergence of those technologies in different parts of the world.

Climatically, the Holocene may be divided evenly into the Hypsithermal and Neoglacial periods; the boundary coincides with the start of the Bronze Age in western civilization. According to some scholars, a third division, the Anthropocene, began in the 18th Century . It is debatable whether this is an age within, or follows, the Holocene epoch. Fact: date=May 2007

Geology

The sea level rise and temporary land depression allowed temporary marine incursions into areas that are now far from the sea. Holocene marine fossils are known from Vermont, Quebec, Ontario, and Michigan. Other than higher latitude temporary marine incursions associated with glacial depression, Holocene fossils are found primarily in lakebed, floodplain, and cave deposits. Holocene marine deposits along low-latitude coastlines are rare because the rise in sea levels during the period exceeds any likely upthrusting of non-glacial origin.

Post-glacial rebound in the Scandinavia region resulted in the formation of the Baltic Sea. The region continues to rise, still causing weak earthquakes across Northern Europe. The equivalent event in North America was the rebound of Hudson Bay, as it shrank from its larger, immediate post-glacial Tyrrell Sea phase, to near its present boundaries.