ABSTRACT: Consistency in stratigraphic nomenclature enables communication among scientists both regionally and globally, thus requiring the North American Stratigraphic Code, as presented by the North American Commission on Stratigraphic Nomenclature, to follow international convention. The ratification of three subseries of the Holocene by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) in June 2018 warrants the integration of subseries among formal chronostratigraphic ranks in the Code. The purpose of making subseries a formal rank is that it aligns the Code with the International Stratigraphic Guide, and establishes the option of using the prefixes super- and sub- for other chronostratigraphic and geochronologic ranks. This is in accordance with the guiding principle of the Code to make it as consistent as possible with international usage and to foster innovations to meet the expanding and changing needs of earth scientists.

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