- According to the Jounal Nature, a panel of scientists voted on May 21, 2019 to designate a new geological epoch — the Anthropocene — to mark the profound ways in which humans have altered the planet.
- The vote signals the end of the Holocene Epoch, which began 11,700 years ago.
- The term ‘Anthropocene’ was coined by Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000 to denote the present geological time interval in which human activity has profoundly altered many conditions and processes on Earth.
- The decision by the 34-member Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) who voted 29-4, marks an important step towards formally defining a new slice of the geological record.
- The panel plans to submit a formal proposal for the epoch by 2021 to the International Commission on Stratigraphy, which oversees the official geological time chart.
- Most of the AWG voted in favour of starting the Anthropocene in the mid-twentieth century, when a rapidly rising human population accelerated the pace of industrial production, the use of agricultural chemicals and other human activities.
- The group will now focus on identifying a definitive geological marker — or ‘golden spike’ — and defining the physical evidence in the sedimentary record that represents the epoch’s start. One option under consideration is the radionuclides produced by atomic-bomb detonations in the mid-twentieth century. (Nature)
About International Commission on Stratigraphy
- The International Commission on Stratigraphy is the largest and oldest constituent scientific body in the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS).
- Its primary objective is to precisely define global units (systems, series, and stages) of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart that, in turn, are the basis for the units (periods, epochs, and age) of the International Geologic Time Scale; thus setting global standards for the fundamental scale for expressing the history of the Earth.
