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Are we in the Anthropocene? Geologists could define new epoch for Earth

Researchers have zeroed in on nine sites that could describe a new geological time, marked by pollution and other signs of human activity.
  1. McKenzie Prillaman
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Modern industrial landscape showing emissions from a coal fired power station, oil refinery and coal mine, illuminated at night

According to some geologists, the Anthropocene epoch is defined by markers of human activity — including fossil-fuel emissions — that have altered Earth. Credit: Jochen Tack/Alamy

Geologists could soon decide which spot on Earth marks the first clear evidence of the Anthropocene — which many of them think is a new geological epoch that began when humans started altering the planet with various forms of industrial and radioactive materials in the 1950s. They have so far whittled their choices down to nine candidate sites worldwide (see ‘Defining the Anthropocene’), each being considered for how reliably its layers of mud, ice or other matter tell the story of people’s influence on a timeline that extends billions of years into the past.

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Nature 613, 14-15 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-04428-3

References

  1. Waters, C. N. & Turner, S. D. Science 378, 706–708 (2022).

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