International Journal of Ecology and Environmental Sciences
Cave ‘Krem Mawmluh’ of Meghalaya plateau – The base of the ‘Meghalayan Age’ and ‘4.2 ka BP Event’ in Holocene (Anthropocene)
Abstract
Our land, the Meghalaya plateau, has been attracting enormous attention of worldwide academia since the ratification of subdivisions of the Holocene Epoch into three Ages, viz., the Greenlandian, the Northgrippian and the Meghalayan, which correspond to the Early, Middle and Late Holocene, respectively, by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in July, 2018. The evidences for determining the stratigraphic boundary of the Meghalayan Age were fetched from the cave ‘Krem Mawmluh’ near Cherrapunji in the State of Meghalaya, India. Thus, we are now living in the Phanerozoic Eon, Cenozoic Era, Quaternary Period, Holocene Epoch, and ‘Meghalayan Age’ in ‘icehouse climate state’ of the Earth. The Meghalayan Age began 4,200 years before present (i.e., before 1st January 1950) or 4,250 years before 2000 AD (i.e., b2k). It is concisely popular as ‘4.2 ka BP Event’. This event of abrupt and large scale climate change is attributed with the fall of four major ancient civilizations. The Meghalayan Age marks a period of intense human-environment interactions and their impact on the Earth’s ecosystems, ecology, biodiversity, climate and weather patterns, and constitutes an important stage in informally termed epoch, the ‘Anthropocene’.
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