Marine Isotope Stage - Stages

Stages

The following are the start dates of the most recent MIS, in kya (thousands of years ago). The first figures are derived by Aitken & Stokes from Bassinot et al. (1994), with the figures in parentheses alternative estimates from Martinson et al. for stage 4 and for the others the SPECMAP figures in Imbrie et al. (1984). For stages 1–16 the SPECMAP figures are within 5 kya of the figures given here. All figures up to MIS 21 are taken from Aitken & Stokes, Table 1.4, except for the sub-stages of MIS 5, which are from Wright's Table 1.1.

• MIS 1 - 11 kya, end of the Younger Dryas marks the start of the Holocene, continuing to the present
• MIS 2 - 24 near Last Glacial Maximum
• MIS 3 - 60
• MIS 4 - 71 (74)
• MIS 5 - 130, includes the Eemian; usually sub-divided into a to e:
  • MIS 5a - 84.74
  • MIS 5b - 92.84
  • MIS 5c - 105.92
  • MIS 5d - 115.105
  • MIS 5e - 130.115
• MIS 6 - 190
• MIS 7 - 244
• MIS 8 - 301
• MIS 9 - 334
• MIS 10 - 364
• MIS 11 427, the most similar to MIS 1.
• MIS 12 - 474
• MIS 13 - 528
• MIS 14 - 568
• MIS 15 - 621
• MIS 16 - 659
• MIS 17 - 712 (689)
• MIS 18 - 760 (726)
• MIS 19 - 787 (736)
• MIS 20 - 810 (763)
• MIS 21 - 865 (790)

Some older stages, in mya (millions of years ago):

• MIS 22 - 1.03 mya, marking the end of the Bavelian period in Europe
• MIS 62 - 1.75, end of the Tiglian
• MIS 103 - 2.588, end of the Pliocene and start of the Pleistocene, on the INQUA time scale (older definitions put this change at 1.806 mya - the MIS date is unaffected)