The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene
@article{Waters2016TheAI, title={The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene}, author={Colin N. Waters and Jan A. Zalasiewicz and Colin Summerhayes and Anthony D Barnosky and Cl{\'e}ment Poirier and Agnieszka Gałuszka and Alejandro Cearreta and Matt Edgeworth and Erle C. Ellis and Michael A. Ellis and Catherine Jeandel and Reinhold Leinfelder and John R. McNeill and Daniel D. Richter and Will Steffen and James P. M. Syvitski and Davor Vidas and Michael Wagreich and Mark Williams and An Zhisheng and Jacques Grinevald and Eric Odada and Naomi Oreskes and Alexander P. Wolfe}, journal={Science}, year={2016}, volume={351} }
Evidence of an Anthropocene epoch Humans are undoubtedly altering many geological processes on Earth—and have been for some time. But what is the stratigraphic evidence for officially distinguishing this new human-dominated time period, termed the “Anthropocene,” from the preceding Holocene epoch? Waters et al. review climatic, biological, and geochemical signatures of human activity in sediments and ice cores. Combined with deposits of new materials and radionuclides, as well as human-caused…
1,380 Citations
The geomorphology of the Anthropocene: emergence, status and implications
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2015
The Anthropocene is proposed as a new interval of geological time in which human influence on Earth and its geological record dominates over natural processes. A major challenge in demarcating the…
The Anthropocene: Comparing Its Meaning in Geology (Chronostratigraphy) with Conceptual Approaches Arising in Other Disciplines
- Environmental ScienceEarth's Future
- 2021
The term Anthropocene initially emerged from the Earth System science community in the early 2000s, denoting a concept that the Holocene Epoch has terminated as a consequence of human activities.…
On the mineralogy of the “Anthropocene Epoch”
- Geology
- 2017
Abstract The “Anthropocene Epoch” has been proposed as a new post-Holocene geological time interval—a period characterized by the pervasive impact of human activities on the geological record. Prior…
Stratigraphic and Earth System approaches to defining the Anthropocene
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2016
Stratigraphy provides insights into the evolution and dynamics of the Earth System over its long history. With recent developments in Earth System science, changes in Earth System dynamics can now be…
Making the case for a formal Anthropocene Epoch: an analysis of ongoing critiques
- GeologyNewsletters on Stratigraphy
- 2017
A range of published arguments against formalizing the Anthropocene as a geological time unit have variously suggested that it is a misleading term of non-stratigraphic origin and usage, is based on…
The Anthropocene as Process: Why We Should View the State of the World through a Deep Historical Lens
- GeologyRevista de Estudos e Pesquisas Avançadas do Terceiro Setor
- 2018
The geological community and the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) are moving ever closer to formalizing a new geologic epoch, the Anthropocene. First proposed to raise awareness for planetary…
Humans and the Earth's surface
- Geology
- 2016
In the last few years, the suggestion of a new geological epoch has been subject of a progressively intense discussion within the Earth science community: the question as to whether or not we are…
The role of analytical chemistry in the study of the Anthropocene
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2017
Waiting for the Anthropocene
- Environmental ScienceThe British Journal for the Philosophy of Science
- 2019
The idea that we are living in the Anthropocene, a new geological epoch defined by human activity, has gained substantial currency across the academy and with the broader public. Within the earth…
Global Peak in Atmospheric Radiocarbon Provides a Potential Definition for the Onset of the Anthropocene Epoch in 1965
- Environmental ScienceScientific Reports
- 2018
A series of precisely-dated tree-ring records from Campbell Island that capture peak atmospheric radiocarbon (14C) resulting from Northern Hemisphere-dominated thermonuclear bomb tests during the 1950s and 1960s are reported, providing a precisely-resolved potential Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) or ‘golden spike’, marking the onset of the Anthropocene Epoch.
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 129 REFERENCES
Are we now living in the Anthropocene
- Geology, Environmental Science
- 2008
The term Anthropocene, proposed and increasingly employed to denote the current interval of anthropogenic global environmental change, may be discussed on stratigraphic grounds. A case can be made…
A stratigraphical basis for the Anthropocene?
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2014
Abstract Recognition of intimate feedback mechanisms linking changes across the atmosphere, biosphere, geosphere and hydrosphere demonstrates the pervasive nature of humankind's influence, perhaps to…
Can an Anthropocene Series be defined and recognized?
- Environmental Science
- 2014
Abstract We consider the Anthropocene as a physical, chronostratigraphic unit across terrestrial and marine sedimentary facies, from both a present and a far future perspective, provisionally using…
Stratigraphic expressions of the Holocene-Anthropocene transition revealed in sediments from remote lakes
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2013
Palaeontological evidence for defining the Anthropocene
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2013
Abstract Palaeontology formed the basis for defining most of the geological eras, periods, epochs and ages that are commonly recognized. By the same token, the Anthropocene can be defined by diverse…
Spheroidal carbonaceous particles are a defining stratigraphic marker for the Anthropocene
- Environmental ScienceScientific reports
- 2015
It is shown that spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs), a distinct form of black carbon produced from burning fossil fuels in energy production and heavy industry, provide unambiguous stratigraphic markers of the human activities that have rapidly changed planet Earth over the last century.
Defining the Anthropocene
- GeologyNature
- 2015
The evidence suggests that of the various proposed dates two do appear to conform to the criteria to mark the beginning of the Anthropocene: 1610 and 1964.
Geomorphology of the Anthropocene: time-transgressive discontinuities of human-induced alluviation
- Geography, Environmental Science
- 2013
Ice Sheets and the Anthropocene
- Environmental Science
- 2013
Abstract Ice could play a role in identifying and defining the Anthropocene. The recurrence of northern hemisphere glaciation and the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet are both potentially…
Prelude to the Anthropocene: Two new North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMAs)
- Geology
- 2014
Human impacts have left and are leaving distinctive imprints in the geological record. Here we show that in North America, the human-caused changes evident in the mammalian fossil record since c.…