Pleistocene

The Pleistocene is the geological epoch spanning roughly 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago — popularly the Ice Age, for its repeated cycles of glacial advance and retreat. Sea level fell and rose dramatically, repeatedly exposing and drowning the South Carolina coastal plain.

It is the age of the megafauna: the Columbian mammoth, mastodon, giant ground sloth and more, whose teeth and bones still surface in Lowcountry rivers. See our formations guide for where it sits in the column.