late-glacial, a. Geol.
(leɪt ˈgleɪʃɪəl, leɪt ˈgleɪʃəl)
Also late glacial, lateglacial, and with capital initial(s).
[f. late a.1 + glacial a.]
Designating or pertaining to the latter part of a Quaternary ice age, spec. the time at the end of the Devensian immediately preceding the current post-glacial (Flandrian) period. Also absol. Cf. *late a.1 4 b.
| 1880 J. Geikie Prehistoric Europe xvi. 390 The red and parti-coloured brick-clays of the late glacial series. 1890 ― in Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 1889 560 The löss..is not of postglacial age—even much of what one may call the ‘remodified löss’ being of Late Glacial or Pleistocene age. 1927 Peake & Fleure Hunters & Artists i. 11 (caption) Chart showing the correlation of the late glacial stages. 1957 Encycl. Brit. V. 826/2 Much information as to late-glacial and post-glacial climates is provided by the vegetation, especially of peat-bogs. 1968 R. G. West Pleistocene Geol. & Biol. xiii. 305 Compared with the succeeding interglacials the Cromerian vegetational history is distinct in the absence or scarcity of Hippophaë in the late-glacial zone. 1975 J. G. Evans Environment Early Man Brit. Isles ii. 46 A characteristic plant of the Late-glacial. Ibid. 48 The Late-glacial sequence on the Chalk can be tied in to the record of vegetational and other environmental changes. 1984 Lowe & Walker Reconstructing Quaternary Environments i. 9 Opinions differ over the extent to which the ‘Lateglacial’ period can be subdivided. |