A Canadian lake holds the key to the beginning of the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch
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Tuesday, July 11, 2023
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Leer en español Are we really living in the Anthropocene, the geological time marked by the global impact of human activity?
Key Points:
- Leer en español Are we really living in the Anthropocene, the geological time marked by the global impact of human activity?
- What makes this site so special that it holds the dividing line between different geological epochs?
The footprint of the Great Acceleration
- These studies have concluded that the Anthropocene is significant on a geologic scale because of the rapidity and magnitude of recent human impacts on processes operating on the Earth’s surface.
- Many of these impacts have generated irreversible changes that exceed the small range of natural variability of the Holocene, which began 11,700 years ago.
Finding the ‘golden spike’
- Over the years, the Anthropocene Working Group has mostly agreed that the Anthropocene is geologically real and should be formalized as an independent unit within the international scale of geologic time.
- Its onset would be in the mid-20th century, in the 1950s, according to the global signals recorded in sediments since then.
Selection criteria
- Twelve detailed proposals were initially submitted for different geological sections that could host this GSSP, located on five continents and situated in eight different geological environments.
- All of them were published in 2023 in the scientific journal Anthropocene Review.
- These papers were the main source of information for the voting members of the Anthropocene Working Group during the selection process.
And the winner is …
- According to the results, the most relevant geological sections were located in Beppu Bay, Japan; Sihailongwan Lake, China; and Crawford Lake.
- After a detailed analysis of the nature of their plutonium signal and a new vote, the Chinese and Canadian lake sites were finalists.
- In the end, Crawford Lake received 61% of the votes and was chosen as the site of the GSSP for the Anthropocene epoch.
Farewell to the Holocene
- Formalizing it precisely will help determine its meaning and use in all sciences and other academic disciplines.
- The end of a relatively stable epoch in Earth’s history, the Holocene, will thus be recognized.