Stadial and interstadial

<h2 id="distinction-between-stadials-and-glacials">Distinction between stadials and glacials</h2>
<p>Generally, stadials endure for a thousand years or less and interstadials for less than ten thousand years, and <a href="/facts/Interglacial/gKf9Br27">interglacials</a> last for more than ten thousand and <a href="/facts/Glacial_period/alIAm38r">glacials</a> for about one hundred thousand. For a period to be considered an interglacial, it changes from Arctic through sub-Arctic to boreal to temperate conditions and back again. An interstadial reaches only the stage of boreal vegetation.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:1" href="#fn:1"><sup>1</sup></a>
</p><p>The MIS 1 interstadial encompasses the entirety of the present Holocene interglacial, but the <a href="/facts/Wisconsin_glaciation/PJMWjkBh">Wisconsin glaciation</a> encompasses MIS 2, 3, and 4.
</p><p>Glacials and interglacials refer to the 100,000-year cycles associated with <a href="/facts/Milankovitch_cycles/SxLbHrWX">Milankovitch cycles</a>, and stadials and interstadials are defined by the actual oxygen-isotope temperature record.
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<h2 id="list-of-stadials-and-interstadials">List of stadials and interstadials</h2>
<h3>Bølling/Allerød interstadial</h3>
<p>The <a href="/facts/B%C3%B8lling_oscillation/uBnwDgCt">Bølling oscillation</a> and the <a href="/facts/Aller%C3%B8d_oscillation/De3ysETL">Allerød oscillation</a>, where they are not clearly distinguished in the <a href="/facts/Stratigraphy/o3J6Ij3R">stratigraphy</a>, are taken together to form the <a href="/facts/B%C3%B8lling%E2%80%93Aller%C3%B8d_Interstadial/kkhAXj0W">Bølling–Allerød Interstadial</a>, and dated from about 14,700 to 12,700 years before the present.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:2" href="#fn:2"><sup>2</sup></a>
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<h3>Dryas periods</h3>
<p>The <a href="/facts/Oldest_Dryas/GexbL9Qu">Oldest</a>, <a href="/facts/Older_Dryas/wxyMl8JW">Older</a>, and <a href="/facts/Younger_Dryas/q9PFsJ4H">Younger Dryas</a> are three stadials that occurred during the warming since the <a href="/facts/Last_Glacial_Maximum/BXQyc9IP">Last Glacial Maximum</a>. The Older Dryas occurred between the Bølling and Allerød interstadials. All three periods are named for the arctic plant species, <i><a href="/facts/Dryas_octopetala/9QQrdEkh">Dryas octopetala</a></i>, which proliferated during these cold periods.
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<h3>Dansgaard-Oeschger events</h3>
<p><a href="/facts/Greenland_ice_core_project/Ss1STUST">Greenland</a> <a href="/facts/Ice_core/QnzraAoN">ice cores</a> show 24 interstadials during the 100,000 years of the <a href="/facts/Wisconsin_glaciation/PJMWjkBh">Wisconsin glaciation</a>.<a class="footnote-ref" id="fnref:3" href="#fn:3"><sup>3</sup></a> Referred to as the <a href="/facts/Dansgaard%E2%80%93Oeschger_event/KvjhQaX7">Dansgaard–Oeschger event</a>, they have been extensively studied, and in their northern European contexts are sometimes named after towns, such as the <a href="/facts/Br%C3%B8rup/yKdNCsHL">Brorup</a>, the <a href="/facts/Odderade/1kGGHgJd">Odderade</a>, the <a href="/facts/Oerel/xw2kJQsL">Oerel</a>, the <a href="/facts/Glinde,_Schleswig-Holstein/eWLduUVL">Glinde</a>, the Hengelo, or the <a href="/facts/Denekamp/95xWqYh5">Denekamp</a>.
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<h2 id="see-also">See also</h2>
<ul><li><a href="/facts/Greenhouse_and_icehouse_Earth/ENS3leWV">Greenhouse and icehouse Earth</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Snowball_Earth/A9yP3khz">Snowball Earth</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Milankovitch_cycles/SxLbHrWX">Milankovitch cycles</a></li>
<li><a href="/facts/Interglacial/gKf9Br27">Interglacial</a></li></ul>

<h2 id="references">References</h2>

<ol>
<li id="fn:1"><p>Cox, Barry C.; Moore, Peter D.; Ladle, Richard (31 May 2016). "Ice and Change". Biogeography: an Ecological and Evolutionary Approach (9 ed.). John Wiley & Sons Ltd. p. 356. ISBN 9781118968581. The sequence of events demonstrated in the fossil material of such an interglacial shows a progressive change from high arctic conditions (virtually no life) through subarctic (tundra vegetation) to boreal (birch and pine forest) to temperate (deciduous forest) and then back through boreal to arctic conditions once more. If the warm event is only of a short duration, or the temperatures are not sufficiently high, then the vegetation changes may only reach a boreal stage of development. In this case, it's termed an interstadial. <a href="9781118968581" target="_blank">9781118968581</a> <a href="#fnref:1" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:2"><p>Cronin, Thomas M. (1999). Principles of Climatology. New York: Columbia University Press. p. 204. <a href="#fnref:2" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
<li id="fn:3"><p>Wilson, R. C. L.; Drury, S. A.; Chapman, J. L. (2000). The Great Ice Age: Climate Change and Life. London: Routledge. p. 125. ISBN 0-415-19841-0. <a href="0-415-19841-0" target="_blank">0-415-19841-0</a> <a href="#fnref:3" class="footnote-back-ref">↩</a></p></li>
</ol>

Stadial and interstadial open-in-new

Stadial and interstadial