Chronology of the pleistocene oxygen isotope record: 0–1.88 m.y. B.P
Abstract Detailed oxygen isotope records from various ocean basins and representing the last 1.88 m.y. are correlated using nannofossil biostratigraphy and paleomagnetic stratigraphy. These correlations establish the global nature of oxygen isotope stages 23 through 63 in the early Pleistocene to latest Pliocene. A composite isotope record for the last 1.88 m.y. reveals that the mid-Pleistocene change in climate regime was a complicated response that lasted from approximately 0.9 to 0.6 Ma and not a simple shift from one climate mode to another. The proposed chronology for the extended isotope stages provides a chronostratigraphic framework for detailed studies of paleoceanographic processes in the early Pleistocene and paves the way for application of oxygen isotope stratigraphy to early Pleistocene deep-sea and continental margin drilled sections.