An international team of researchers has chosen the location which best represents the beginnings of what could be a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene.
The Anthropocene Working Group have put forward Crawford Lake, in Canada, as a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Anthropocene. A GSSP is an internationally agreed-upon reference point to show the start of a new geological period or epoch in layers of rock that have built up through the ages.
It’s been proposed by some geologists that we are now living in the Anthropocene – a new geological epoch in which human activity has become the dominant influence on the world’s climate and environment.
The concept has significant implications for how we consider our impact on the planet. But there is disagreement in the scientific community about when the Anthropocene began, how it is evidenced and whether human influence has been substantial enough to constitute a new geological age, which usually span millions of years.
Read more at University of Southampton
Photo Credit: Whpq via Wikimedia Commons
