The impact of humanity on the planet has become so great that it led to the advent of a new geological epoch, and it’s time to admit it. Such a verdict is rendered a group of scientists of the International Union of Geological Sciences, which on Monday, August 29 submitted a report at the International Ecological Congress in Cape Town. Instead of the Holocene, which lasted the last 12 thousand years, we live in antropotsene, or “age of man”, which began in the mid-twentieth century. Its main features – nuclear tests, mountains of plastic and domestic chickens, said the Guardian.
Humanity, the report says, has accelerated the extinction of animals and the disappearance of plants, increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, breaking up her warming, covered with earth and the oceans with plastic to such an extent that almost the world few places where it can not be found. Thanks to us over the last hundred years has doubled the content of chemicals remaining after the fertilizer, soil and sediments and glaciers will long keep a black carbon particles – traces of burning fossil fuels. All these traces of human activity so common and so long-term that their geological imprint can be considered a sign of another era. Official recognition of the Anthropocene will record the fact that now it is man who is the defining element of the mechanism of the planet.
According to the recommendations of geologists, the new time should be calculated from about 1950 in the Earth’s geological history. Determining in this dating has become a splash of radiation caused by nuclear bomb tests. According to lead author Colin Waters’ report from the British Geological Survey, more than thirty scientists engaged in research Anthropocene, agreed on the need to formalize a new era. “Most of us believe that it [the Anthropocene] is real, that is clearly something going on. What is certain recognizable signals that make the Anthropocene separate unit “- was quoted as BBC News.
Now, scientists argue about what should be considered the “gold nail” Anthropocene – the geological marker that will be noticeable after a long time (perhaps millions of years) and can be considered as an indication of the beginning of a new era . So the golden nail to the end of the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs became extinct, for example, steel iridium deposits in soils, which showed a meteorite collision with the Earth. Most of the authors of the report suggest for antropotsenu considered a marker of plutonium deposits appeared after the nuclear tests of the 1950s. Others believe that there is more demonstrative signs – for example, pollution by plastic, aluminum and particles of concrete, carbon footprints associated with a sharp increase in CO 2 emissions in the atmosphere, as well as a high level of nitrogen and phosphate in the soil <. / p>
Finally, the sign by which future generations of geologists will determine the beginning of the Anthropocene, the home can be … chicken. According to Jan Zalashevichu, a geologist from the University of Leicester (UK), with the middle of the XX century, the chicken was the most common bird in the world, and her remains will become a fossil, which can be detected in large quantities all over the world. In addition, after the Second World War, the skeleton of chicken has changed significantly – the bird became higher and more powerful.
The researchers discuss the need for changes in the geologic time scale of about 15 years. Although geologists recommendations, the issue of updating the scale has not yet been resolved. The participants of the working group on antropotsenu (Anthropocene Work Group) in the next two or three years should determine which signals a new era – the radioactive nuclides, plastic or other – should be considered its “golden nail”. Also, they have to determine the place where the geological boundary between the ages can be seen (the boundary between the Holocene and Pleistocene preceded him, such as seen in the ice core from Greenland, which is now stored in Denmark). In the middle of these places geologists exploring mud deposits off the coast of Santa Barbara (California, USA), stalactites and stalagmites in a cave in northern Italy Ernesto, corals, cores and other substances. When the necessary data is collected, the decision on adjustment of the scale of geological time will accept the International Stratigraphic Commission and the Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences
Also we advise to read:.
1. World history chairs in Atlantic.
2. New York Times Magazine about how Edward Snowden has found its way to Hollywood.
3. Ficher Wired how the most hated company in the world is trying to save the honey bees.
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