polyglacial
English
Etymology
poly- + glacial
Adjective
polyglacial (comparative more polyglacial, superlative most polyglacial)
- Pertaining to multiple periods of glacial formation separated by warmer interglacial periods.
- 2009, Vaclav Cilek, Earth System: History and Natural Variability, page 462:
- The polyglacial concept (that is, the existence of many glacial periods and climate cyclicity) became accepted.
- 2012, H.-E. Reineck, I. B. Singh, Depositional Sedimentary Environments:
- Our knowledge of Pleistocene glaciation has clearly shown that an ice age is not monoglacial, but polyglacial; i.e., during a single ice age several colder glacial [times] episodes alternate with warmer interglacial [times] episodes.
- 2014, Jamie Woodward, The Ice Age: A Very Short Introduction, page 89:
- In the period leading up to World War One, there was much debate about whether the ice age involved a single phase of ice sheet growth and freezing climate (the monoglacial theory) or several phases of ice sheet build up and decay separated by warm interglacials (the polyglacial theory).