Holocene
The Holocene is a geological epoch which began at the end of the Pleistocene (at 11,700 calendar years BP) [2] and continues to the present. It has been identified with the current warm period, known as MIS 1 and based on that past evidence, can be considered an interglacial in the current ice age. (wiki)
Connected Sites
| Site | Rationale | Link |
| Ahwar of Southern Iraq | The natural components ... as we know them today were formed 3000 years ago. (Nom file) | |
| Banc d'Arguin | Formed first by a "marine transgresion" from sea rise following the last ice age which "invaded" the shore line and was then followed by an ongoing process of tidal and wind sand deposition. See | |
| Belize Barrier Reef | the reef was created as recently as 3000 years ago | |
| Białowieża Forest | The area was glaciated by the German-Polish Ice sheet during the Pleistocene. The forest only grew after the last ice age. The forest area dates back to 8000 BC | |
| Cerrado Protected Areas | Much Cerrado vegetation developed in prototype during the Cretaceous. Subsequently the area it covered extended and retracted particularly in exchange with Amazonian biota without significant underlying geological change. A peak of biodiversity was reached by the Pleistocene. Climatic changes and human activity (particularly hunting and fire) altered this considerably particularly via the loss of much of the megafauna. As a result today's preserved areas are significantly Holocene. | |
| Chitwan National Park | The Himalayan subtropical broadleaf forest was made possible only after the end of the ice age in the Himalayas. | |
| Coiba National Park | Coiba Island and the smaller islands in the Gulf of Chiriquí are known as landbridge islands, meaning that they were last connected to the Mainland during the end of the Pleistocene, approximately 12,000 years ago. With a direct connection to tierra firme, they shared a common flora and fauna with the continent, but since their separation, new ecological and biological processes have resulted in the readjustment of the flora and fauna (nom file) | |
| Danube Delta | "The modern Danube Delta began forming after 4,000 BC in a gulf of the Black Sea, when the sea rose to its present level. A sandy barrier blocked the Danube gulf where the river initially built its delta. Upon filling the gulf with sediments, the delta advanced outside the barrier-blocked estuary after 3,500 BC building several successive lobes." (Wiki) | |
| Desembarco del Granma National Park | Desembarco del Granma National Park, with its uplifted marine terraces and associated ongoing development of karst topography and features, represents a globally significant example of geomorphologic and physiographic features and ongoing geological processes. (Unesco) | |
| Dja Faunal Reserve | "There is strong evidence that forest cover was reduced during the last Ice Age, lasting from 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago. While forested areas in the Congo River Basin are known to have persisted in some areas called refugia..........About 10,000 years ago, as the last Ice Age ended, glaciers receded and rainfall increased. The changing climate allowed savannas to be reclaimed by trees, and the forest grew to reach its current size." | |
| Djoudj | A wetland area of lakes, ponds and bayous situated within the Senegal River Delta, which has developed across the Holocene period following a "Marine Transgression" around 5500BP which created a large bay, subsequently filled by sediment brought down by the river. See Section 2.1 and map of changing shoreline here - | |
| Dong Phayayen | The post-glacial, Holocene climate has created both the flora/fauna mix and the landscape. | |
| Ennedi Massif | originated in what is called the Neolithic Subpluvial or Holocene Wet Phase (wiki nl) | |
| Everglades | "Only about 5000 years ago did South Florida's climate take on its current sub-tropical and monsoonal character of dry winters followed by hot moist summers with large amounts of rain (on average 50-60 inches per year" | |
| Getbol, Korean Tidal Flat | For the migratory birds | |
| Glacier parks | Geologists believe that Glacier Bay existed during a minimum of four Glacial periods ending with the Little Ice Age, which has a 4,000 years old record, as the latest period. All glaciers in the park today are said to be remnants of this glacial period. (wiki) | |
| Ha Long Bay – Cat Ba Archipelago | early Holocene: Rainwater flowed into crevices in the limestone that had formed from tectonic activity. This steady erosion constantly widened the cracks, eventually creating today's formations. (wiki) | |
| High Coast / Kvarken Archipelago | 9,600 years ago the landscape has risen close to 500 m The highest parts break the surface of the water | |
| Huanglong | The travertine in Huanglong has lasted for thousands of decades on account of the karst geologic effect. | |
| Ilulissat Icefjord | Here the seabed has been pushed up into a submarine hill several hundred meters high, which marks the position of the glacier front approx. 9000 years ago | |
| Ivindo National Park | "There is strong evidence that forest cover was reduced during the last Ice Age, lasting from 1.6 million to 10,000 years ago. While forested areas in the Congo River Basin are known to have persisted in some areas called refugia..........About 10,000 years ago, as the last Ice Age ended, glaciers receded and rainfall increased. The changing climate allowed savannas to be reclaimed by trees, and the forest grew to reach its current size." | |
| Kaeng Krachan Forest | The post-glacial, Holocene climate has created both the flora/fauna mix and the landscape. | |
| Kaziranga National Park | What Kaziranga is today was perhaps once the main channel of the red river which habitually changed its course over the century due to earthquakes at various points of time....This volatile movement of the river is surely responsible for the heavy deposition of silt and the simultaneous formation of beels of various lengths and depths in this area. The landmasses formed by the heavy deposition of silt in this riverine area thus gradually stabilised with the natural growth of saccharum and other grass species. The swift and unpredictable river still erodes a large portion of the land mass, particularly in those areas where bigger trees have not yet sprung up...this on-going process of erosion and deposition of silt on the northern boundary of the park, which is the Brahmaputra river itself. | |
| Keoladeo National Park | The unique habitat is the result of the Ajan Bund built in the 18th Century. | |
| Lagoons of New Caledonia | Process of reef formation started in the Pleistocene, lagoons of today became water-filled during the Holocene. | |
| Lopé-Okanda | ||
| Los Glaciares | Lago Argentino... ist der grösste See in Argentinien und über 15.000 Jahre alt. (Wiki) | |
| Manas Wildlife Sanctuary | The course of the Manas river formed in the Holocene and continued to change as late as the 20th century. | |
| Migratory Bird Sanctuaries | The Yellow Sea itself is shallow and relatively recently formed & bird migration is relatively recent too | |
| Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve | It is thought that monarchs were originally tropical butterflies that underwent range expansion. Scientists are not sure how long the monarch's spectacular annual migration to Mexico has been occurring; it may be as old as 10,000 years (when the glaciers last retreated from North America) or as young as a few centuries | |
| Nanda Devi and Valley of Flowers | The Valley of Flowers has its own microclimate that was made posible only after the end of the ice age in the Himalayas | |
| Noel Kempff Mercado National Park | Pollen and charcoal records from two large, shallow lakes reveal that throughout most of the past 50,000 yr Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, in northeastern lowland Bolivia (southwestern Amazon Basin), was predominantly covered by savannas and seasonally dry semideciduous forests. | |
| Okavango Delta | During the Holocene both lakes dried up gradually | |
| Olympic National Park | The NP is almost entirely a "post glacial" creation " During the last Ice Age, continental glaciers surrounded the Park on all but its west side, with layers of ice up to 3,500 feet thick. This scouring by the continental glaciers created a noticeably sharp rise from sea level on the flanks of the mountains on the east and north edges of the Park. At the same time, today's river valleys were choked with floes of ice from alpine glaciers, the remnants of which dot the Park's mountains today" | |
| Pimachiowin Aki | The Canadian Shield of which this is a part was totally glaciated in the last period. Everything "natural" now present in the inscribed Ecosystem must have "arrived" since then | |
| Pitons of Reunion | Le piton de la Fournaise, comme on le connaït aujourd'hui, date d'environ 4 700 ans. Cet âge correspond à l'effondrement majeur qui a donné naissance à l'enclos Fouqué en s'accompagnant d'explosions cataclysmiques. (Wiki) | |
| Primeval Beech Forests | "Beech reached Western and Eastern Carpathian territory in an Epiatlantic period 5.000 years ago." (Nomination file, 2007, page 33) "Consecutively initiated from south to north, old forest habitats have been undergoing a development into extremely differentiated beech forest landscapes for some 6,000 years." (Nomination file, extension 2011, page 11) | |
| Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve | The Mesoamerican tropical rainforest evolved after the last glaciation in the Late Pleistocene. | |
| Sanganeb | the coral reefs we see along the Red Sea today are primarily Holocene | |
| Shark Bay | Later, a rise in sea levels during the Holocene epoch (the most recent 10,000 years) flooded the region and created Shark Bay's unique double-basin form. | |
| Shirakami-Sanchi | Having escaped glaciation and established itself over 8,000 years ago... | |
| Srebarna Nature Reserve | "At the beginning of the Holocene about 11000 BC right after the so called Flandrian Transgression the riverbed underwent significnat changes .......according to palinological research Lake Srebarna has been formed about 8000 years ago" | |
| Sundarbans National Park | The tract of the Sundarbans is of recent origin, raised by the deposition of sediments formed due to soil erosion in the Himalayas. The substratum consists mainly of Quaternary Era sediments, sand and silt mixed with marine salt deposits and clay. Geologists have detected a southeastern slope and tilting of the Bengal basin during the Tertiary. Because of neo-tectonic movements during the 10th-12th century AD, the Bengal Basin titled eastward. Evidence from borehole studies indicate that while the westernside of the Sundarbans is relatively stable, the southeastern corner is an active sedimentary area and is subsiding. (link) | |
| Surtsey | 14 November 1963 | |
| The Sundarbans | The tract of the Sundarbans is of recent origin, raised by the deposition of sediments formed due to soil erosion in the Himalayas. The substratum consists mainly of Quaternary Era sediments, sand and silt mixed with marine salt deposits and clay. Geologists have detected a southeastern slope and tilting of the Bengal basin during the Tertiary. Because of neo-tectonic movements during the 10th-12th century AD, the Bengal Basin titled eastward. Evidence from borehole studies indicate that while the westernside of the Sundarbans is relatively stable, the southeastern corner is an active sedimentary area and is subsiding. (link) | |
| Thungyai-Huai Kha Khaeng | The post-glacial, Holocene climate has created both the flora/fauna mix and the landscape. | |
| Tikal National Park | The Mesoamerican tropical rainforest evolved after the last glaciation in the Late Pleistocene. | |
| Tubbataha Reefs | it is believed that the atolls of Tubbataha began to form thousands of years ago as fringing reefs around volcanic islands. | |
| Ujung Kulon National Park | The explosion of nearby Krakatau in 1883 produced a tsunami (giant wave) that eliminated the villages and crops of the coastal areas on the western peninsula, and covered the entire area in a layer of ash averaging 30 cm thick. This caused the total evacuation of the peninsula by humans, thereby allowing it to become a repository for much of Java's flora and fauna, and most of the remaining lowland forest on the island. (Wiki) | |
| Uvs Nuur Basin | During the Holocene, the current ecological "mix" was created. | |
| Vatnajökull National Park | Vatnajökull glacier was formed ca. 2500 years ago | |
| Wadden Sea | The Wadden Sea has evolved over the last 8,000 years being a very young ecosystem in geomorphological and evolutionary terms (nom file) | |
| Western Tien-Shan | The Tienshan mountains were uplifted, folded, metamorposed etc in the Paleozoic Era (540-250mybp). But, from 25mybp, faulting and sedimentation changed the landscape. Then finally the entire area was glaciated during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. So what we see today is a largely (but of course not completely) "post glacial" Holocene landscape | |
| Yosemite National Park | Yosemite as seen today is primarily a "post glacial" creation. "When the last glacier finally melted approximately 10,000 years ago, rock debris dammed the valley and created Lake Yosemite. Tributary creeks plummeted off sheer cliffs and gave birth to the Park's famed waterfalls. Sediment continued to fill the lake through natural processes until it eventually formed the Yosemite Valley floor." | |
| iSimangaliso Wetland Park | See "Formation of Lake St Lucia" on page 3 of the linked pdf. |
Suggestions?
Do you know of another WHS we could connect to Holocene?
A connection should:
- Not be "self evident"
- Link at least 3 different sites
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- Be explained, with reference to a source