Stadial

A Stadial refers to a cold phase (usually at the same time Eisvorstoß phase) within a glacial or interglacial and is in the literature often abbreviated with the symbol GS.

The approximately 100,000 -year glacial and interglacial never occur as a continuous, uninterrupted Eisvorstoß or retreat during a always the same hot or cold climatic period, but as periods while long term ( 100,000 years ) average of the same climate, but climate and also due to be further differentiated their geomorphic legacies in colder ( stadial ) and warm periods ( interstadials ).

Demarcation

There is usually a very to ambiguous juxtaposition of the terms Ice Age / Ice Age, interglacial / interglacial, glacial / glacial, stadial and interstadial. All these pairs of terms have different meanings and are not synonyms for each other.

Stadial and glacial

Each glacial and interglacial was ( in principle, of course, cold or warm climate ) characterized by small temperature fluctuations with a little warmer and then colder periods, which extended to thousands of years each over several centuries. But this ( compared to the duration of the entire considered glaciation ) relatively short-term climate fluctuations were not without effects on the relationship between snow accumulation and ablation of the inland ice sheets and glaciers. Therefore, in response to the climatic fluctuations occurred within a glacial to Eisvorstoßphasen ( stadials ) and then live again with increased ice melt, the back moved the ice edge ( interstadials ). A Eisvorstoßphase with lower temperatures corresponds to a stadial, while a slightly warmer period, which leads to increased ablation, a corresponding interstadial.

Of course, according to the by the exchange between stadials ( Eisvorstoßphasen ) and interstadials ( Eisrückzugsphasen ) caused dynamics of ice as landscape -shaping element changed the glacial geomorphological forming processes with changing between stadials and interstadials (eg landfill staggered Endmoränenwälle due to sedimentation of a new terminal moraine after consultation displacement of the ice edge in an interstadial ).

Stadials of the last glacial

The best way to reconstruct the stadials and interstadials of the last glacial recent ( Würm or Weichselglazial ) as their geological traces have emerged as the last in the series of cold periods and of course better preserved than the previous glaciations. Within the Würm-/Weichsel-Glazialkomplexes numerous stadials and interstadials are distinguished, among other things, for example, the older Dryas stadial, then the Allerød interstadial and finally the Younger Dryas stadial. After the Younger Dryas as the last stadial of Würm-/Weichsel-Glazialkomplexes finally began the Holocene interglacial in which we live today.

Subdivision

The spatial phenomena within the stadial during a stationary or advancing Gletschereisrandlagen ( moraines, kames and other forms of deposition, glacial valleys and other meltwater channels ) are collectively referred to as stage, which are in turn divided into phases and seasons. the corresponding phenomena of the last ice age, for example, form the North German lowland distinctive landforms ( Pomeranian, Frankfurt and Brandenburg Stadium ). In southern Germany, in turn, for example, there Singen stage.