HOW LONG AND HOW STABLE WAS THE LAST INTERGLACIAL

Surface ocean indicators in the North Atlantic during marine isotope s tage (MIS) 5 correlate closely with the vegetational succession in nor theastern France. The Melisey I silty layer, which marks the end of th e Last Interglacial biozone in La Grande Pile pollen record, appears c oeval with the polar front advance C24 registered in the core V29-191 by a sharply increased presence of ice-rafted detritus and the cold wa ter foraminifer Neogloboquadrina pachyderma sinistral. Since this even t is younger than the peak of MIS 5d, the Last Interglacial, as recogn ized in northern France, correlates not only with the MIS 5e, but also with a substantial part of MIS 5d. The last interglacial in La Grande Pile was twice as long as the Holocene and the climate in its first h alf was apparently not less stable than during the current interglacia l. If the future natural climates were to develop as analogs of the pa st, then the onset of the next glacial environments on land would be s till many millennia ahead. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.