The Beestonian Stage is an early Pleistocene stage in the geological history of the British Isles. It is named after Beeston Cliffs near West Runton in Norfolk where deposits from this stage are preserved.
The Beestonian precedes the Cromerian Stage and follows the Pastonian Stage. This stage consists of alternating glacial and interglacial phases instead of being a continuous glacial epoch. It is equivalent to Marine isotope stages 22 to (60?).Walker, M., 2005, Quaternary Dating Methods, John Wiley & Son, Chichester, United Kingdom. Gibbard, P.L., S. Boreham, K.M. Cohen and A. Moscariello, 2007, Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years v. 2007b , jpg version 844 KB. Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England The Beestonian Stage and Marine Isotope Stage 22 ended about 866,000 years ago.Lisiecki, L.E., 2005, Ages of MIS boundaries. LR04 Benthic Stack Boston University, Boston, MA
The Beestonian corresponds temporally to the Danube Stage in the glacial history of the Alpine region. Based on findings in the Low Countries, the corresponding timespan in northern continental Europe is divided into four stages, the Bavelian, Menapian, Waalian, and Eburonian.Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Global chronostratigraphical correlation table for the last 2.7 million years, v. 2011
The Beestonian had also been equated to the Nebraskan glaciation in North America. However, the Nebraskan Stage, along with the Kansan and Aftonian Stages, have been abandoned by North American Quaternary geologists and merged into the Pre-Illinoian Stage. , the Beestonian stage is correlated with the period of time that includes the Pre-Illinoian F, Pre-Illinoian G, and Pre-Illinoian H glaciations of North America.
+ Historical names of the "four major" glacials in four regions. Region Glacial 1 Glacial 2 Glacial 3 Glacial 4 Alps Günz Mindel Riss Würm North Europe Eburonian Elsterian Saalian Weichselian British Isles Beestonian Anglian Wolstonian Devensian Midwest U.S. Nebraskan Kansan Illinoian Wisconsinan
+ Historical names of interglacials. Region Interglacial 1 Interglacial 2 Interglacial 3 Alps Günz-Mindel Mindel-Riss Riss-Würm North Europe Waalian Holsteinian Eemian British Isles Cromerian Hoxnian Ipswichian Midwest U.S. Aftonian Yarmouthian Sangamonian
See also Ice age Glacial period Timeline of glaciation
References
Further reading Bowen, D.Q., 1978, Quaternary geology: a stratigraphic framework for multidisciplinary work. Pergamon Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. 221 pp. Ehlers, J., P. L. Gibbard, and J. Rose, eds., 1991, Glacial deposits in Great Britain and Ireland. Balkema, Rotterdam. 580 pp Mangerud, J., J. Ehlers, and P. Gibbard, 2004, Quaternary Glaciations: Extent and Chronology 1: Part I Europe, Elsevier, Amsterdam. Sibrava, V., Bowen, D.Q, and Richmond, G.M., 1986, Quaternary Glaciations in the Northern Hemisphere, Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 5, pp. 1-514.
External links Aber, J.S., 2006, Regional Glaciation of Kansas and Nebraska , Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas. anonymous, 2000, Pre-Wisconsin Glaciation of Central North America, Work Group on Geospatial Analysis of Glaciated Environments (GAGE), INQUA Commission on Glaciation, Emporia State University, Emporia, Kansas. anonymous, 2007, Global correlation tables for the Quaternary, Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England.