The extent and chronology of Cenozoic Global Glaciation

The Quaternary is synonymous with extensive glaciation of Earth's mid- and high-latitudes. Although there were local precursors, significant glaciation began in the latest Eocene (ca 35 Ma) in eastern Antarctica. It was followed by glaciation in mountain areas through the Miocene (in Alaska, Greenland, Iceland and Patagonia), later in the Pliocene (e.g. in the Bolivian Andes and possibly in Tasmania) and in the earliest Pleistocene (e.g. in the Alps, New Zealand, Iceland and Greenland). Today, evidence from both the land and the ocean floors demonstrates that the major continental glaciations, outside the polar regions, rather than occurring throughout the 2.6 Ma of the Quaternary, were markedly restricted to the last 1 Ma—800 ka or less. Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 22 (ca 870–880 ka) included the first of the ‘major’ worldwide events with substantial ice volumes that typify the Later Pleistocene glaciations (i.e. MIS 16, 12, 10, 6, 4-2).