MIS 19, the closest analogue to now
An interglacial with almost exactly today's orbital geometry — and it lasted about 12,000 years.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 13 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 5 thousand years
- Era
- Middle Pleistocene, Quaternary
Marine Isotope Stage 19, beginning around 787,000 years ago, has an orbital configuration very close to the present one: similar eccentricity, similar precession. That makes it the best natural test of how long the current interglacial should last without human interference. Its warm phase ran roughly 12,000 years — about the length the Holocene has already reached. The comparison is a central piece of evidence in the argument over whether the next glaciation has been postponed, and by how much.