Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy

The Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) is a constituent body of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), the largest scientific organisation within the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS). It is also the only body concerned with stratigraphy on a global scale for the whole geological column. Its most important major objective is the establishment of a standard, globally-applicable stratigraphical scale, which it seeks to achieve through the co-ordinated contributions of a network of Subcommissions and Working Groups with a specific, limited mandate. The SQS exists to promote and co-ordinate international co-operation and integration by applying the statutary scientific goals of the ICS to the Quaternary - the most recent geological system, the last 2.6 Ma: * the establishment and publication of a standard and global geological time-scale for the Quaternary and the preparation and publication of global correlation charts, * the unification of regional chronostratigraphical nomenclature by organising and documenting stratigraphical units on a global scale, * the promotion of education in stratigraphical methods, and the dissemination of stratigraphical knowledge, * the evaluation of new stratigraphical methods and their integration into a multidisciplinary stratigraphy, and * the definition of principles of stratigraphical classification, terminology and procedure and their publication in guides and glossaries. The scientific activities are carried out through projects, websites, publications and meetings, particularly through close co-operation with our sister organisation the International Union of Quaternary Research (INQUA), as well as through collaboration with other organisations.

Information and features Subcommission Contact details Voting members Working Groups Anthropocene working group Holocene basal boundary working group Middle / Late Pleistocene boundary working group Early / Middle Pleistocene boundary working group Annual Reports Science Plan to 2010 Minutes of Subcommission meetings

Other information

• 'Quaternary geologists win timescale vote - redefinition rescues once-threatened terminology from extinction' - read report in NATURE 4.6.09 and Science 5.6.09.

• 

• Full results of the vote on the definition of Quaternary - Pleistocene 2009. Full details of voting and documents.

• A new division of Quaternary time? - 'science for the Mediacene age'. New York Times 18.5.09.

• The new 2009 GSA Geologic Time Scale chart is published in GSA Today - note Quaternary and Tertiary are in their correct places.

• 

• Establishment of a working group on the Anthropocene- the new epoch of geological time caused by humans. The working group will be chaired by Jan Zalasiewicz (University of Leicester).

• ICS vote on the base Quaternary/redefintion of Pleistocene and movement of base to 2.6 Ma.

• Holocene GSSP - full proposal now published in the Journal of Quaternary Science - Walker et al. (2009) abstract.

• Now Published - Ogg, J.G., Ogg, G. & Gradstein, F.M. (eds) 2008 A concise geologic time scale. University Press: Cambridge. - Quaternary chapter 15 by P. Gibbard, K. Cohen & J. Ogg.

  

• A 'Fresh Start' - new negotiations began between INQUA + ICS on the classification of the Quaternary and its relation to Tertiary, Neogene, etc. at the International Geological Congess in Oslo, August 2008. click to enlarge

• Now published - Episodes special issue 31, No. 2 , June 2008 - The Quaternary.

  

• Stratigraphy Terminology and Practice Editors : Jacques REY & Simone GALEOTTI Editions Technip.

• Chronostratigraphical Chart for the last 3 million years for the Iberian Quaternary (Tabla Cronoestratigráfica del Cuaternario de la Península Ibérica) produced by AEQUA.

• The Argentinian Stratigraphic Committee has decided to maintain the use of Tertiary and Quaternary Systems/Periods within the Cenozoic Erathem/Era. Tertiary includes the Paleogene and Neogene Subsystems/Subperiods. The base of the Quaternary is at Vrica, Italy, as accepted by IUGS. The decision of the Argentinian Stratigraphic Committee and its fundamentals are given in the following publication: Riccardi, A.C., 2007. Terciario y Cuaternario: definición y posición. Revista de la Asociación Geológica Argentina 62: 485-487.

• The geologic time scale: USGS holds firm. "The gross Cenozoic stratigraphy of the continental USA lends itself to a division into Tertiary and Quaternary rocks." (Andrew Alden 2007).

• Division of the Holocene: the Anthropocene? Click on cover for article: Are we now living in the Anthropocene? Read report in the Independent newspaper 26.1.08.

• Sequence map of HOLOCENE coastal deposits of Belgium - Belgian Geological Survey. Details in ENGLISH, NEDERLANDS.

• A Geologic Time Scale 2004 Felix Gradstein, Jim Ogg & Alan Smith. ***The Quaternary chapter by P.Gibbard & Th. van Kolfschoten, which includes a corrected version of the correlation chart, including the term QUATERNARYavailable here.

• Correlation tables

• Towards an integrated land-sea stratigraphy of the Netherlands an initiative of the Dutch National Geological Survey (NITG - TNO) now available on the web. This site presents a new lithostratigraphical classification scheme of Tertiary and Quaternary deposits in The Netherlands.

• International Stratigraphic Guide - abridged version developed to promote international agreement on principles of stratigraphic classification and to develop an internationally acceptable stratigraphic terminology and rules of procedure

• Definition and status of the Quaternary - full details .

  Results of the ICS vote on the STATUS AND DEFINITION OF QUATERNARY and the base of the PLEISTOCENE published 14.5.07

  The letter, dated 8.2.07, from the IUGS President Zhang Hongren to ICS Subcommission chairs.

• ICS VOTE on QUATERNARY and move of Pleistocene boundary to 2.6 Ma - 14.4.07.

• The formal position of INQUA regarding the status and definition of the Quaternary - 24 March 2006. Repackaging time - The omission of the Ice Age from the latest reclassification of geological time periods is causing divisions between scientists. Education Guardian Thursday 30 June 2005.

• Retention of the term 'Quaternary' - the continued use of the term in a 'formal' chronostratigraphical sense.

• Details of ICS-INQUA joint 'task force' on the Quaternary working group defining the term Quaternary

• Geologists call time on dating dispute - report in NATURE (16 June 2005) on dispute over definition and use of Quaternary.

• Events/meetings

• Group photo of March 2004 meeting here.

• Noticeboard

• Early / Middle Pleistocene transitions: the land-ocean evidence. Meeting April 2003 REPORT

• History of the stratigraphical nomenclature of the glacial period

• The Delphi Project - Marine sediment core data, in particular oxygen and carbon isotope data, from a variety of different locations. Includes a complete composite marine isotope stratigraphy for the last 6 million years.
  

Earth Sciences for Society - an International Year of Planet Earth. Organised under the auspices of The International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) which represents about 250,000 Earth scientists in 117 countries.

• International Union for Quaternary Research INQUA

• INQUA XIX Congress, Bern, Switzerland 2011

• INQUA Commission on Stratigraphy and Chronology

• INQUA Subcommission on European Quaternary Stratigraphy (INQUA-SEQS) website .

• INQUA Subcommission on Asian Quaternary Stratigraphy (INQUA-SAQS) website .

This site is supported by Wiley / Blackwell Quaternary Journals. Read more.

Anse du brick, Normandy, France - raised beach (Eemian), and slope deposits (Weichselian).

Other photographs:
top of page: Laminated interglacial - early glacial lacustrine sediments at Pianico, Northern Italy (late Middle Pleistocene, ?Marine Isotope Stage 11).
below: Blomstrandbreen (glacier) - Svalbard.