The Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) is a constituent body of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), the largest scientific organisation within the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS).
It is also the only body concerned with stratigraphy on a global scale for the whole geological column. Its most important major objective is the establishment of a standard, globally-applicable stratigraphical scale, which it seeks to achieve through the co-ordinated contributions of a network of Subcommissions and Working Groups with a specific, limited mandate.
The SQS exists to promote and co-ordinate international co-operation and integration by applying the statutary scientific goals of the ICS to the Quaternary - the most recent geological system, the last 2.6 Ma:
Photographs (top to bottom):
1: Laminated lacustrine sequence - Pianico, Northern Italy (late Middle Pleistocene interglacial, Holsteinian, c. Marine Isotope Stage 11).
2: Raised beach sequence - Anse du brick, Normandy, France - raised beach (Eemian, c. Marine Isotope Substage 5e), and slope deposits (Weichselian, c. Marine Isotope Stage 4-2) - Late Pleistocene.
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