Calabrian Stage

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Calabrian Stage

stratigraphy

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Related Topics:: Pleistocene Series

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Calabrian Stage, the second of four stages of the Pleistocene Series, encompassing all rocks deposited during the Calabrian Age (1,800,000 to 781,000 years ago) of the Quaternary Period. The name of this interval is derived from the region of the same name in southern Italy.

As defined in 1985, the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for its lower boundary is the base of claystones in a sequence of marine strata about 4 km (2.5 miles) south of Crotone on the Marchesato Peninsula of Calabria, Italy. The upper boundary of the Calabrian Stage has not been agreed upon universally. Some geologists have considered the Calabrian to encompass all rocks laid down during the entire Pleistocene, which was succeeded by the Holocene Epoch approximately 11,700 years ago. Other geologists consider the Calabrian to be an alternate name for the Lower Pleistocene Stage, which is overlain by the Ionian, or Middle Pleistocene, Stage at a boundary laid down some 780,000 years ago. In neither case has a GSSP been agreed upon for the upper boundary of the Calabrian Stage.

Until 2009 the base of the Calabrian defined the beginning of the Pleistocene Epoch. The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) has since ratified the decision to make the base of the Pleistocene Epoch coincident with the base of the Gelasian Stage. The Calabrian Stage follows the Gelasian Stage and precedes the Ionian, or Middle Pleistocene, Stage.

This article was most recently revised and updated by John P. Rafferty.