Talk:Interglacial optimum

Incorrect definition of 'climatic optimum'

This is definitely incorrect. A 'climatic optimum' is the period within an interglacial that experienced the most favourable climate that occurred during that interglacial. So, the climatic optimum of an interglacial follows, and is followed by, phases that are within the same interglacial and experienced a less favourable climate (but nevertheless a 'better' climate than present during the preceding/succeeding glacials).

As it is described here, a climatic optimum is more or less synonymous with an entire interglacial, which is not the case. In our present interglacial, the Holocene, the climatic optimum occurred during the Subboreal and Atlanticum. So, we are now in the Holocene period that followed its climatic optimum, but we are still within the interglacial (the Holocene). Also: the last interglacial optimum occurred during 'our' interglacial and not during the Eemian (that did NOT last from 130-85 Ka, but ended at least 25 Ka earlier!) --Tom Meijer 20:16, 13 September 2007 (UTC)