The Pre-Illinoian Stage is used by Quaternary geologists for the early and middle Pleistocene glacial and interglacial periods of geologic time in North America from ~2.5–0.2 Ma (million years ago).
54-861: As the oldest stage in the North American regional subdivision of the Quaternary , the Pre-Illinoian precedes the Illinoian Stage . Researchers have identified 11 distinct glacial stages during the Pre-Illinoian Stage. The Pleistocene prior to the Illinoian stage had previously been subdivided into the Nebraskan, Aftonian, Kansan , and Yarmouthian stages (ages). However, detailed studies of these stages revealed that
108-594: A north-west / south-east direction. The closest large islands, Sicily , Sardinia , and Corsica , are not parts of it. The peninsula corresponds to about 45% of the Italian geographical region. The island part extends over an area of about 60,000 square kilometres (23,000 sq mi) (about 18.5% of the whole Italian region), of which 58,000 square kilometres (22,000 sq mi) for Sicily , Sardinia , and Corsica . Outside these large islands, numerous smaller islands, often grouped in archipelagos, are found along
162-590: A portion of Carniola and Istria, and would unite the Adriatic to Rijeka; but at the Isonzo the mountains of the Alps are lowered and their consideration becomes less After the fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the absolutist monarchical regimes , Italy remains according to Metternich 's expression " a simple geographical expression " without political unity. However, a process has been set in motion that will lead to
216-486: Is an opposite thesis, supported by Charles de Gaulle at the end of World War II , which, assigning the nature of a transalpine pass to Colle di Tenda , excludes the entire Roia Valley with Ventimiglia from the Italian physical region. In a narrow sense, the continental part, delimited to the north by the Alpine watershed , to about 40% of the Italian region and is located in the north of an imaginary line that goes from
270-584: Is beyond the Alps, nor Dalmatia, nor Istria, and we have understood the part of the Italian-Swiss nurses that are below the Alps, and all the part of Tyrol that pours its waters in the Adige and under the Brenner; all this, moreover, forms few changes. On the eastern side the border mark was placed on the Isonzo, even if the natural division of the mountains would pass between Laybach and Isonzo, would include
324-602: Is divided between several other states, some of which (in order of geographical extension: Malta , San Marino , Monaco , and Vatican City ) are entirely included in the political borders. Some strips of western Niçard and the Alpine sector near the French border (Italian up to the 1947 Peace Treaty ), Corsica , Italian Switzerland , the Maltese Islands , and Julian March , Slovenian and Croatian, are also ascribed to
378-539: Is generally identified in Buccari. To the south-east of the Nauporto pass and to the north-west of Mount Pomario, the traceability of the natural border is rather difficult as in this area the hydrographic watershed does not coincide with the orographic chain, which is characterized by rather small peaks. As for the islands of Cherso and Lussino , their belonging to the Italian geographical region may vary according to
432-670: Is greater than the area of the entire Italian Republic (301,230 square kilometres (116,310 sq mi)). The region also includes territories that are sovereign parts of Croatia , France , Slovenia , and Switzerland , as well as the four small sovereign states of the Principality of Monaco , the Republic of Malta , the Republic of San Marino , and the Vatican City State (the Holy See ). In common language,
486-508: Is located between 36° and 46° degree of latitude, 4° and 16° of longitude of Paris; it consists of three parts: the mainland, the peninsula and the islands. The first is separated from the second by the Isthmus of Parma. If from Parma, as the center, a semicircle is traced on the north side with a radius equal to the distance from Parma to the mouth of the Var or the mouth of the Isonzo (60 leagues),
540-542: The Il Canzoniere (s. CXLVI, 13–14): that fair country , the Apennines divide, and Alps and sea surround. In his memoirs written during his captivity on the island of Saint Helena , but published only in 2010, Napoleon Bonaparte makes a description of Italy in the first chapter: Italy is surrounded by the Alps and the sea, its natural limits are determined with the same precision as if it were an island. It
594-478: The Società di Studi Geografici of Florence was strongly imbued with a nationalist spirit which, during the following decades, will become more and more colonialist and militarist. This would explain, as Lucio Gambi demonstrated, the enthusiastic and almost unanimous adhesion of Italian geographers to fascism a few decades later. After World War I , the notion of the Italian geographical region diminished, as
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#1732771968505648-922: The Adriatic Sea . Together with the Iberian Peninsula and the Balkan Peninsula , they are the three peninsulas that make up Southern Europe . The peninsula in a narrow sense begins from the Tuscan-Romagna Apennines, starting from an imaginary line that goes from the mouth of the Magra river to that of the Rubicone river, and extends to the extreme southern offshoot of Capo Spartivento in Calabria . The peninsula has an extension of about 1.000 kilometre (0.621 mi) in
702-1057: The Alps . This subregion is composed of a peninsular and continental part and an insular part . Located between the Balkan Peninsula and the Iberian Peninsula , it protrudes into the centre of the Mediterranean Sea and overlooks the Adriatic Sea , the Ionian Sea , the Ligurian Sea , the Sardinian Channel , the Sea of Corsica , the Sea of Sardinia , the Strait of Sicily , and the Tyrrhenian Sea . The Italian geographic region, in its traditional and most widely accepted extent, has an area of approximately 324,000 square kilometres (125,000 sq mi), which
756-716: The Gelasian Stage, which was formerly considered part of the Neogene Period and Pliocene Epoch. This was later revised to 2.58 mya. The Anthropocene was proposed as a third epoch as a mark of the anthropogenic impact on the global environment starting with the Industrial Revolution , or about 200 years ago. The Anthropocene was rejected as a geological epoch in 2024 by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS),
810-660: The Holocene (11.7 thousand years ago to today); a proposed third epoch, the Anthropocene , was rejected in 2024 by IUGS , the governing body of the ICS. The Quaternary is typically defined by the Quaternary glaciation , the cyclic growth and decay of continental ice sheets related to the Milankovitch cycles and the associated climate and environmental changes that they caused. In 1759 Giovanni Arduino proposed that
864-560: The Illinoian Glacial Lobe in North-central Illinois demonstrates that the start of the Illinoian stage and end of the Pre-Illinoian stage correlates with the beginning of Marine Isotope Stage 6 at 191,000 BP. Quaternary The Quaternary ( / k w ə ˈ t ɜːr n ə r i , ˈ k w ɒ t ər n ɛr i / kwə- TUR -nə-ree, KWOT -ər-nerr-ee ) is the current and most recent of
918-861: The Maritime Alps which, detaching itself from the Po-French drainage divide in correspondence with Monte Clapier , follows the Authion Massif , which culminates in Mont Bégo , and divides the Roia basin to the east from the Varo and Paglione basins to the west. The salient created by the side valley of the Bevera including the Mentone basin is orographically separated from everything, thus grafting
972-462: The Strait of Sicily and the gulf of Taranto and Poseidonia ; but, having taken on a sort of predominance over time, this name has ended up extending to the foot of the Alps, also embracing, on the one hand, all of Liguria up to the Varo and of course also the surroundings of Liguria from the border with the Etruria , and, on the other side, all of Istria up to Pula . For several centuries,
1026-566: The unification of Italy . After the proclamation of Vittorio Emanuele II King of Italy on 17 March 1861, the new united Italy experienced the birth of the Italian nationalism and the Italian irredentism , which claimed that the natural border of Italy had to pass on the crest of the Alps based on geographical concepts. Furthermore, the environment that gravitates around the Società Geografica Italiana of Rome and
1080-531: The 12th century, Northern Italy itself found itself divided into a myriad of small states often in conflict with each other or victims of foreign expansionist aims. However, in the 14th century, Dante Alighieri wrote in the Divine Comedy ( L'Inferno , Canto IX, 114): As in Pola , near del Carnaro , where Italy closes and its terms wet. Similarly, Francesco Petrarca wrote at the same time in his work
1134-520: The African continental shelf ) are parts of the Italian Republic even though they are not parts of the Italian geographical region. The idea of Italy as a geographic region is very old. It was described with the geographical notion of peninsula as early as the 1st century BC in the oldest treatise called Geographica (in ancient Greek: Γεωγραφικά - Gheographikà), a work in 17 volumes by
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#17327719685051188-477: The Greek geographer Strabo (65/64 – 25/21 BC). In the 15th century, Guarino da Verona translated the entire work into Latin, thus contributing to its rediscovery. In the introduction of his book, Strabo gives his definition of Italy: Present-day Italy begins at the foot of the Alps : [I mean present-day Italy], because this name initially indicated only the ancient Ouitoulía, that is the district located between
1242-472: The Italian coast, mostly in the Tyrrhenian Sea . The list below shows the largest islands belonging to the Italian geographical region: The extreme points of the Italian geographical region, measured with respect to the Greenwich meridian , are: The orthodromic distance N–S is 1,269 km. The Italian Republic occupies 93% of the Italian geographical region. The remaining portion (23 000 km )
1296-523: The Italian geographical region, including the city of Fiume . The following countries are entirely included in the limits of the Italian geographical region: The following areas also fall within the borders of the Italian geographical region: Three alpine valleys, tributaries of the Rhine and Danube , as well as Lampedusa and Lampione of the Pelagie Islands (small islands located on
1350-545: The Italian region generally refers to the Italian Peninsula. Similarly, the inhabitants of the islands use the term continent to designate the mainland that goes from the Alps to Reggio Calabria . Geographically, Italy running in north-west to south-east direction can be divided into the calcareous Alps , the alluvial plain , the Northern, Central and Southern Apennines and Sicily . The natural limits of
1404-602: The Italian region, marked by the Alpine drainage divide and the sea, are relatively clear, except at the western and eastern extremities of the Alps. On the eastern borders, the chain of the Julian Alps and the Kvarner Gulf are traditionally indicated, to which Dante Alighieri also refers. However, other proposed limits include a border along the Isonzo (formerly advocated by Austrian Empire ), which would exclude
1458-628: The Pleistocene includes a portion of what was, prior to 2009, defined as the Pliocene . Quaternary stratigraphers usually worked with regional subdivisions. From the 1970s, the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) tried to make a single geologic time scale based on GSSP 's, which could be used internationally. The Quaternary subdivisions were defined based on biostratigraphy instead of paleoclimate . This led to
1512-650: The Pre-Illinoian Stage. The Pre-Illinoian stage is contemporary with the Bramertonian , Pre-Pastonian , Pastonian , Beestonian , Cromerian , Anglian , Hoxnian , and lower most Wolstonian stages of the British Isles combined. The end of the Pre-Illinoian stage has been correlated to the end of Marine Isotope Stage 9 at 300,000 BP. More recent geologic mapping, coring, and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating of Illinoian glacial tills ( Glasford Formation ) and outwash ( Pearl Formation ) of
1566-925: The Sella di Dobbiaco and the Tarvisio basin to the north-east of the Camporosso saddle, tributaries of the Black Sea through rivers affluent of the Danube . The Italian Peninsula , or the Italic Peninsula or the Apennine Peninsula, is a peninsula on the European continent crossed by the Apennine chain and delimited by four seas: the Ligurian Sea , the Tyrrhenian Sea , the Ionian Sea and
1620-514: The Varo river with its tributaries, placing Nice within the Italian region, or that, albeit smaller, than from Monte Clapier divides the Roia and Paglione basins on one side from that of the Varo on the other, reaching the coast not far from the latter's mouth, south-west of Nice, thus leaving Nice still in the geographic region of Italy (as Francesco Petrarca already claimed in 1331). However, there
1674-472: The assumptions and criteria on which they were defined proved to be wrong to such a point that these stages became meaningless in terms of the actual glacial–interglacial record. For example, instead of two glaciations having occurred prior to the Illinoian Stage, researchers found that 11 distinct glaciations had occurred. In addition, what was presumed to have been a single volcanic ash bed, which
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1728-498: The border at Capo d'Aglio where the entire Principality of Monaco is included. Due to the characteristic of being orographically separated from everything, the Menton basin can be excluded. In the latter case, the geographical limit would rejoin the current international state border at the height of Mount Buletta, corresponding with it up to the sea (this is not a priori correspondence but a simple correspondence by convergence between
1782-548: The development of the chain of the upper part of the Alps that separates Italy from the mainland. This semicircle forms the territory of the so-called continental part, the surface of which is 5,000 square leagues. The peninsula is a trapezoid between the mainland to the north, the Mediterranean to the west, the Adriatic to the east, the Ionian Sea to the south, the two main sides of which are 200 to 210 leagues long, and
1836-588: The emergence of the straits of Bosphorus and Skagerrak during glacial epochs, which respectively turned the Black Sea and Baltic Sea into fresh water lakes, followed by their flooding (and return to salt water) by rising sea level; the periodic filling of the English Channel , forming a land bridge between Britain and the European mainland; the periodic closing of the Bering Strait , forming
1890-603: The establishment of the Glacial Theory. In time, thanks to the refinement of geology, it has been demonstrated that there were several periods of glacial advance and retreat and that past temperatures on Earth were very different from today. In particular, the Milankovitch cycles of Milutin Milankovitch are based on the premise that variations in incoming solar radiation are a fundamental factor controlling Earth's climate. During this time, substantial glaciers advanced and retreated over much of North America and Europe, parts of South America and Asia, and all of Antarctica. There
1944-402: The geographical and political border; the latter is cited for convenience). This solution makes it possible to bring the border of the Italian geographic region closer to the ethno-linguistic one between Ligurian , Intemelio and Occitan languages of the Niçard dialect . Another hypothesis would have it that the border, after touching the top of Mont Pelat , includes the entire basin of
1998-485: The geographical description of Strabo did not change until the publication of the first universal geography of Conrad Malte-Brun (1775–1826), Geography or description of all parts of the world . After the fall of the Western Roman Empire , and in particular with the arrival of the Lombards , Italy lost its political unity. In the Carolingian age , a new Kingdom of Italy was born (in Latin, Regnum Italicum ), it includes only Northern Italy . In addition, starting from
2052-418: The geological strata of northern Italy could be divided into four successive formations or "orders" ( Italian : quattro ordini ). The term "quaternary" was introduced by Jules Desnoyers in 1829 for sediments of France 's Seine Basin that clearly seemed to be younger than Tertiary Period rocks . The Quaternary Period follows the Neogene Period and extends to the present. The Quaternary covers
2106-406: The glacial period ended about 11,700 years ago. Modern humans evolved about 315,000 years ago. During the Quaternary Period, mammals, flowering plants, and insects dominated the land. Italy (geographical region) The Italian geographic region , Italian physical region or Italian region is a geographical region of Southern Europe delimited to the north by the mountain chains of
2160-450: The governing body of the ICS. The 2.58 million years of the Quaternary represents the time during which recognisable humans existed. Over this geologically short time period there has been relatively little change in the distribution of the continents due to plate tectonics . The Quaternary geological record is preserved in greater detail than that for earlier periods. The major geographical changes during this time period included
2214-404: The land bridge between Asia and North America ; and the periodic flash flooding of Scablands of the American Northwest by glacial water. The current extent of Hudson Bay , the Great Lakes and other major lakes of North America are a consequence of the Canadian Shield 's readjustment since the last ice age; different shorelines have existed over the course of Quaternary time. The climate
Pre-Illinoian - Misplaced Pages Continue
2268-419: The mouth of the Magra river to that of the Rubicone river. Most of them are made up of the water catchment areas of the Po , Adige , Brenta , Piave , Tagliamento and Isonzo rivers. From the continental part, however, some Alpine valleys are excluded which, although they are part of the Italian State, such as the Val di Lei tributary of the North Sea through the Rhine river, the Val di Livigno ,
2322-468: The natural borders, except for some marginal territory, were mostly reached with the annexation of Trentino-Alto Adige and Julian March , and it was on other scales that Italian nationalism and imperialism were expressed, well beyond the borders of the Italian geographical region. After World War II, Italy lost a large part of Julian March, and Italian geography eliminated all political and nationalistic aspects to focus only on geographic ones. Therefore,
2376-402: The orography and the scarcity of surface hydrography found in the region south of the Nauporto pass near Postumia , the continuity of the mountain bulwark is ensured by the reliefs placed between Mount Pomario and Mount Nevoso , its terminal pillar, where it reaches the Kvarner Gulf and the Bay of Buccari , immediately south-east of Fiume . To the east, therefore, the extreme limit of Italy
2430-444: The other two sides 60 to 30 alloys; its surface is 6000 square alloys. The third part, that is the islands, that is Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, which geographically belongs more to Italy than to France, forms an area of 4000 square leagues; which brings the surface of the whole of Italy to 15,000 square alloys. Here we have considered the natural limits without entering into any political division. Thus we have not understood Savoy , which
2484-430: The presence of traces of the passage of a glacier at a considerable distance from the Alps. This idea was initially disputed by another Swiss scientist, Louis Agassiz , but when he undertook to disprove it, he ended up affirming his colleague's hypothesis. A year later, Agassiz raised the hypothesis of a great glacial period that would have had long-reaching general effects. This idea gained him international fame and led to
2538-463: The problem that the proposed base of the Pleistocene was at 1.805 million years ago, long after the start of the major glaciations of the northern hemisphere. The ICS then proposed to abolish use of the name Quaternary altogether, which appeared unacceptable to the International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA). In 2009, it was decided to make the Quaternary the youngest period of the Cenozoic Era with its base at 2.588 mya and including
2592-430: The sources and interpretations. In particular, they are included in the Italian geographical region as these islands are the natural continuation of Istria, being closer to the Istrian coasts than to the Dalmatian ones. On the contrary, to the west, the boundary is unchallenged and easily definable between the canton of Valais , Savoy , Aosta Valley and Piedmont , near the coast can be represented by that buttress of
2646-438: The three periods of the Cenozoic Era in the geologic time scale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), as well as the current and most recent of the twelve periods of the Phanerozoic eon. It follows the Neogene Period and spans from 2.58 million years ago to the present. The Quaternary Period is divided into two epochs: the Pleistocene (2.58 million years ago to 11.7 thousand years ago) and
2700-399: The time span of glaciations classified as the Pleistocene , and includes the present interglacial time-period, the Holocene . This places the start of the Quaternary at the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation approximately 2.6 million years ago ( mya ). Prior to 2009, the Pleistocene was defined to be from 1.805 million years ago to the present, so the current definition of
2754-411: The upper Isonzo valley, Trieste and Istria entirely. Other borders were listed by the historian, and exile from Cherso , Luigi Tomaz in " The border of Italy in Istria and Dalmatia ", among which, in the Augustan regional structure of Roman Italy , the administrative limes along the Arsa River , marked the end of Venetia et Histria . Therefore, to the east, despite the more depressed character of
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#17327719685052808-444: Was a major extinction of large mammals globally during the Late Pleistocene Epoch. Many forms such as sabre-toothed cats , mammoths , mastodons , glyptodonts , etc., became extinct worldwide. Others, including horses , camels and American cheetahs became extinct in North America . The Great Lakes formed and giant mammals thrived in parts of North America and Eurasia not covered in ice. These mammals became extinct when
2862-400: Was one of periodic glaciations with continental glaciers moving as far from the poles as 40 degrees latitude . Glaciation took place repeatedly during the Quaternary Ice age – a term coined by Schimper in 1839 that began with the start of the Quaternary about 2.58 Mya and continues to the present day. In 1821, a Swiss engineer, Ignaz Venetz , presented an article in which he suggested
2916-563: Was used to correlate and differentiate between Kansan and Nebraskan glacial deposits, was found to be three volcanic ash beds of greatly differing ages. Similarly, paleosols used in the definition of the stages were found to have been greatly miscorrelated, as they consisted of paleosols of greatly differing ages. Because of these and other major problems, the concepts on which the Nebraskan, Aftonian, Kansan, and Yarmouthian (Yarmouth) stages are defined were discredited. North American geologists discarded these stages as unusable and merged them into
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