postglacialadj.n.
/ˌpəʊs(t)ˈɡleɪʃl/, /ˌpəʊs(t)ˈɡleɪsɪəl/, U.S. /ˌpoʊs(t)ˈɡleɪʃ(ə)l/ Geology.
A. adj.
Designating or relating to the period following the most recent (Weichsel or Devensian) glaciation, from the sudden rise in temperature that marks the beginning of the Flandrian about 10,000 years ago (corresponding to the Holocene epoch); occurring or formed in this period.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > age or period > [adjective] > quaternary > late or post-glacial
postglacial1851
late glacial1873
Finiglacial1910
Laufen1927
Flandrian1934
1851 C. Lyell Man. Elem. Geol. (ed. 3) xii. 138 Other extinct animals accompany the Mastodon giganteus in the post-glacial deposits of the United States.
1863 Q. Rev. 114 408 The remarkable conformity of the preglacial and postglacial fauna.
1877 J. W. Dawson Origin of World xiv. 295 Man comes in at the close of this cold period, in what is called the Post-glacial age.
1918 Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer. 29 187 (title) Postglacial uplift of northeastern America.
1935 Discovery July 198/1 The following climatic phase of the Postglacial period, the ‘Atlantic Period’, was considerably damper than the Boreal.
1991 R. S. K. Barnes & K. H. Mann Fund. Aquatic Ecol. (ed. 2) ix. 183/2 The short postglacial period, when there was a land bridge to Europe.
B. n.
A postglacial deposit; (with the and capital initial) the postglacial period.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > structural features > deposited by water, ice, or wind > [noun] > glacial
trail1866
valley train1892
sandr1893
ice contact1896
postglacial1928
boulder-train1967
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > age or period > [noun] > ice-age or glaciation > late or post-glacial
postglacial1928
sub-boreal1929
late glacial1947
1928 Funk & Wagnalls New Standard Dict. Eng. Lang. Post-glacial n., a sedimentary deposit resulting from the retreat of a continental glacier.
1937 A. L. Du Toit Our Wandering Continents iv. 77 Over extensive areas the ice-front discharged into the ocean or else the sea lay not far away, as indicated by the marine post-glacials.
1975 J. G. Evans Environment Early Man Brit. Isles i. 8 We at present are in a period optimistically termed the Post-glacial, but which may be an interglacial.
1992 M. Atherden Upland Brit. vi. 103 Mixed deciduous woodland was established by the middle Post-glacial, with oak and hazel as the most important trees but with elm, alder and a little ash and small-leaved lime.
Derivatives
postˈglacially adv. in the postglacial period; (in quot. 1957) in the period immediately following the last glaciation.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > age or period > [adverb] > post-glacial
postglacially1879
1879 Jrnl. Royal Geogr. Soc. 49 330 The intervention of the glacial period will easily account for the wiping out of the spruce from the list of post-glacially indigenous British trees.
1926 Ecology 7 360 The Saint Croix River, glacially and postglacially, has always flowed into the Mississippi River below the Falls of Saint Anthony.
1957 J. K. Charlesworth Quaternary Era II. xliv. 1231 The Dogger Bank..was post-glacially dry land or a vast freshwater fen.
1996 Molecular Ecol. 6 73 North-eastern North America has been postglacially recolonized by two races of rainbow smelt.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2006; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1851