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In thegeologic time scale, theGreenlandian is the earliestage or loweststage of theHoloceneEpoch orSeries, part of theQuaternary. Beginning in 11,650BP (9701 BCE or 300 HE) and ending with the8.2-kiloyear event (c. 8200–8300 BP, 6200–6300 BCE, 3600–3700 HE), it is the earliest of three sub-divisions of the Holocene. It was officially ratified by theInternational Commission on Stratigraphy in June 2018 with the laterNorthgrippian andMeghalayan Ages/Stages. The lower boundary of the Greenlandian Age is theGSSP sample from theNorth Greenland Ice Core Project in central Greenland (75.1000°N 42.3200°W). The Greenlandian GSSP has been correlated with the end ofYounger Dryas (from near-glacial to interglacial) and a "shift in lower deuterium excess values".^[1][3]

After the sudden rise in temperatures marking the end of the Late Pleistocene, global warming continued at a slightly more moderate pace during the Greenlandian. It was interrupted at the end of the period by the8.2 kiloyear event, where the world experienced a relative drop in temperature. This isolated climate fluctuation was used to define the boundary between the Greenlandian and Northgrippian ages.

Global warming led to a rapid rise in sea levels, which engulfed vast regions that were once landforms and transformed portions of continents into islands. Affected areas include the British Isles, the Indonesian islands, and New Guinea and Tasmania, cut off from Europe, Southeast Asia, and Australia respectively. Additionally, the Beringian land bridge was submerged by these rising levels, forming the Bering Strait and separating Asia from the Americas.^{[citation needed]}

Many species of megafauna became extinct during the Greenlandian, continuing the rate of extinctions from the end of the Late Pleistocene. These extinctions collectively constituted theLate Pleistocene extinction event.^{[citation needed]}

In the Eurasian continent, the beginning of the Greenlandian paved the way for theMesolithic period, which generally continued until the beginning of the Northgrippian age. In theNear East, agriculture and livestock farming emerged during the Greenlandian age, marking the beginning of theNeolithic period.^{[citation needed]}

• Geologic time scale
• 8th millennium BC
• 9th millennium BC

• 10th millennium BC
• 2018 neologisms
• Cenozoic
• Geological epochs
• Holocene
• Quaternary geochronology
• Quaternary
• Younger Dryas

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