Older Peron

The Older Peron transgression was a period of unusually warm climate during the Holocene Epoch. It began in the 5000 BCE to 4900 BCE era, and lasted to about 4100 BCE (different climate indices at different locations over the globe yield slightly varying chronologies). The Older Peron was a period of generally clement and balmy weather conditions that favored plant growth; in the dendrochronology of the bristlecone pine, which extends back from the modern era to 6700 BCE, the single best year for the growth of the pine was 4850 BCE, early in the Older Peron era.

The Older Peron was a "transgression" in the sense of marine transgression, a period of advancing global sea level. Warm temperatures forced a retreat in the glaciers and ice sheets of the global cryosphere; throughout the period, global sea levels were 2.5 to 4 meters (8 to 13 feet) higher than the twentieth-century average. The higher sea level lasted for several centuries and eroded coastlines. Several locations around the world have "Older Peron terraces" along their coasts as a result. (The period derives its name from Cape Peron in Western Australia, where a terrace from the relevant era is prominent and was a focus of climatological study.)

The Older Peron transgression was one of a series of gradually diminishing marine transgressions during the middle Holocene. It was followed by the Younger Peron, Abrolhos, and Rottnest transgressions. During the Younger Peron transgression (c. 4000–3400 BCE), sea level peaked at 3 meters above the twentieth-century level; during the Abrolhos (c. 2600–2100 BCE), 1.5 meters; and during the Rottnest (c. 1600–1000 BCE), 1 meter.

At least a few commentators — anthropologists, folklorists, and others — have linked era of the Older Peron transgression and the Neolithic Subpluvial with tales of a "time of plenty" (Golden Age; Garden of Eden) that occur in the legendary backgrounds of many cultures.

See also

• 4.2 kiloyear event
• 5.9 kiloyear event
• 8.2 kiloyear event
• Marine regression
• Neolithic Subpluvial
• Piora Oscillation
• Sea level
• Sea-level rise

References

• Baker, Robert G. V.; Haworth, Robert J.; Flood, Peter G. (2004). "An Oscillating Holocene Sea-level? Revisiting Rottnest Island, Western Australia and the Fairbridge Eustatic Hypothesis". Journal of Coastal Research 42: 3–14. 
• Heusser, Calvin J.. "Some Comparisons Between Climate Changes in Northwestern North America and Patagonia". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 95 (1): 1961. Bibcode 1961NYASA..95..642H. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.1961.tb50064.x.