Pliocene
Green infrastructure and open environments: London’s foundations: protecting the geodiversity of the capital, Supplementary Planning Guidance, published by the Mayor of London in March 2012, defines Pliocene as: ‘A geological epoch [5.3 – 1.8Ma] preceded by the Miocene and followed by the Pleistocene. Part of the Cenozoic Era.’
Climate Change 2021, The Physical Science Basis, published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2021, states: ‘The Pliocene Epoch is the more recent of two epochs of the Neogene Period within the Cenozoic Era. It extends from 5.33 Ma to the beginning of the Pleistocene Epoch at 2.59 Ma. The Neogene Period precedes the current geological period, the Quaternary Period, which is one of several ice ages that have occurred during Earth’s geological history. It encompasses the mid-Pliocene warm period (MPWP), also known as the Piacenzian warm period, which occurred approximately 3.3 to 3.0 Ma. The MPWP, in turn, encompasses the interglacial episode, marine isotope stage (MIS) KM5c, which peaked at 3.205 Ma, when orbital forcing was similar to modern (Haywood et al., 2016).’
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