The evidence for a new geological epoch which marks the impact of human activity on Earth is now overwhelming, according to a new study.
The Anthropocene, which is argued to start in the mid-20th Century, is marked by the spread of materials such as aluminium, concrete, plastic, fly ash and fallout from nuclear testing across the planet, coincident with elevated greenhouse gas emissions and unprecedented trans-global species invasions.
An international group of scientists is studying whether human activity has driven Earth into a new geological epoch — the Anthropocene.
They analysed to what extent are human actions recorded as measurable signals in geological strata, and whether the Anthropocene world is markedly different from the stable Holocene Epoch of the last 11,700 years that allowed human civilisation to develop. The Holocene Epoch has been a time during which human societies advanced by gradually domesticating the land to increase food production, built urban settlements and became proficient at developing the water, mineral and energy resources of the planet.