A New Epoch - 274

 A once-in-the-history-of-man event is looming. Man has carefully identified and cataloged geologic time events for 200 years. The last time you may have been interested in this was to pass a high school science class. In 200 years, man has never defined any ending or starting geologic point while living it. 

Many scientists devote their careers to understanding what has happened to the Earth over the eons. Understanding the past helps us know what will occur on Earth now and in the future. The science discipline that identifies geologic changes and documents these changes in the Earth's history is called stratigraphy. For geologists, archaeologists, and paleontologists, the work of stratigraphers is essential.

 

Except for high school or college geology classes, one rarely runs into stratigraphers' work unless you go to a state or national park where it is common to find descriptive signs. Once, while driving up a steep interstate highway in Wyoming, I saw signs next to rock outcroppings identifying the beginning and end of geologic periods. Currently, a friend is floating the Grand Canyon as I write. While he descends in altitude, he is descending in time. I hope the narrative by his science teammates is as colorful as the strata of geologic red rock surrounding him.

 

Geologic time is divided into a couple of EONs and then subdivided into five Eras. These Eras are further divided into Periods, and within Periods are Epochs. The Epoch we exist in now is the 11,700-year-old Holocene. Scientists have fine-tuned these divisions for two hundred years as they improve time-measuring techniques.

 

The Holocene is the tiny sliver of time we exist in. It includes all of human civilizations, our improvements in agriculture, and our technological advancements. The analysis of the Holocene not only consists of the analysis of rock and fossil strata but much more. For instance, the mineral layers of stalactites and stalagmites, ocean bottom sediment layers, annual pollen layers in ponds, growth and decay layers in peat beds, tree ring analysis, and the examination of ice cores add data expanding our understanding of our Earth's history and our role in it. 

 

The Holocene Epoch chronicles the rise of humankind. But many scientists say we reached a point called the "Great Acceleration" when human populations have mushroomed, along with our insatiable consumption of resources. Another mushroom was the cloud of radioactive particles from nuclear weapon tests, which eventually fell out as a thin, detectable radiation emitting layer over the entire globe. Plastic waste particles now rise aloft and fall. Microplastics are found everywhere on land and in the ocean. In ponds, there are now layers of fertilizer and pesticides. The thickening layer of human strata also includes the byproducts of burning fossil fuel, such as soot, fly ash, and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

 

The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) convened the Anthropocene Working Group to evaluate the evidence and recommend whether this new stratum created by man deserves a new Epoch classification, "Anthropocene." Anthropocene combines "anthro," the ancient Greek word for human, and the "cene," meaning new.

 

Here is, directly from the Anthropocene Working Group's website, a description of the changes we have wrought: 

 

Phenomena associated with the Anthropocene include an order-of-magnitude increase in erosion and sediment transport associated with urbanization and agriculture; marked and abrupt anthropogenic perturbations of the cycles of elements such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and various metals together with new chemical compounds; environmental changes generated by these perturbations, including global warming, sea-level rise, ocean acidification and spreading oceanic 'dead zones'; rapid changes in the biosphere both on land and in the sea, as a result of habitat loss, predation, an explosion of domestic animal populations and species invasions; and the proliferation and global dispersion of many new 'minerals' and 'rocks' including concrete, fly ash and plastics, and the myriad 'technofossils' produced from these and other materials."

 

Few scientists dispute humanity is engaging in activities altering the Earth and that we are accelerating massive change. (Some say destruction.) The question within and outside the International Union of Geological Sciences, the official organization that will vote on adopting the new Epoch, is whether the mountain of evidence meets geologic standards to define a new Epoch. It is a hotly debated issue within scientific circles. 

 

Surviving climate change and other environmental challenges is a long-running battle. Adopting the Anthropocene as a new Epoch may swing the public debate and pursue more earth-saving action. As such, I hope the well-studied issue leads to the adoption of the Anthropocene as a new epoch since any delay from a lack of understanding means the actions required to ensure survival will be more difficult and expensive.

 

For more information, read "Anthropocene's new emblem may be Canadian Pond." Science magazine 14 July 2023.

 

FYI, A Canadian Pond in Ontario, Crawford Lake, is one of a dozen locations proving humanity is steering planet Earth into uncharted and dangerous waters. These locations are vying to be the "Golden Spike." Scientists, historians, and future generations will use this reference point to identify when we knew and then what we did.