Tarantian Stage

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Tarantian Stage

stratigraphy

Also known as: Upper Pleistocene Stage

Written by John P. Rafferty

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Article History

Also called:: Upper Pleistocene

Related Topics:: Pleistocene Series

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Tarantian Stage, last of four stages of the Pleistocene Series, encompassing all rocks deposited during the Tarantian Age (126,000 to 11,700 years ago) of the Pleistocene Epoch in the Quaternary Period. The name of this interval is derived from the European regional stage of the same name.

No Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) defining the base of this unit has been formally established. A point located in a terminal borehole in the city of Amsterdam was accepted by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) in 2008; however, it has not been ratified by the International Union of Geologic Sciences (IUGS). The point sits at the base of a rock layer that indicates the beginning of the Eemian Interglacial Stage (or the base of marine isotope stage 5e). No other indicators, biological or otherwise, currently mark the beginning of this interval. The Tarantian Stage overlies the Ionian Stage and underlies the Holocene Series.

John P. Rafferty