Geological evidence for the Anthropocene as a potential new geological epoch

Speaker: Jan Zalasiewicz, Emeritus Professor of Paleobiology, University of Leicester, UK

In 2000, the atmospheric chemist and Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen proposed the relatively stable conditions of the Holocene had ended, and that we now live in the Anthropocene Epoch, marked by overwhelming human impact on natural systems. Since, 2009, the Anthropocene Working Group of the International Commission on Stratigraphy has been gathering evidence on potential formalization of the Anthropocene in the Geological Time Scale. A wide, distinctive and long-lasting array of lithostratigraphic, chemostratigraphic and biostratigraphic signals has been recognized, and Anthropocene strata may be characterized by such lithostratigraphic signals as widespread to near-ubiquitous plastics and fuel ash particulates, chemostratigraphic signals such as sharp changes to carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios and a globally distributed ‘bomb spike’ of artificial radionuclides, and biostratigraphic signals such as a rise in fossilizeable invasive species. The most pronounced change (and hence optimal position for the base of the Anthropocene) aligns with the ‘Great Acceleration’ of population, industrialization and globalization in the mid-20th century. Candidate stratotypes are currently being studied, and one will be selected as basis for a forthcoming proposal for formalizing the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene concept has generated controversy, though, and the success of this proposal is not guaranteed.

[johnvoelker]

the ICS rejected the Anthropocene
anyway, it’s a bad idea
and shouldn’t be an epoch
instead, it should be an age
but, the Holocene is the Anthropocene
the Anthropocene is a great name
but too short to be an epoch
the Holocene shouldn’t be an epoch either
it would be best to rename the Holocene epoch as the Anthropocene age