Anthropocene-The Golden Spike?
Max Plank Institute to Announce Today
German explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was one of the first to see how everything in an ecosystem is connected. Von Humboldt introduced the idea of the Earth as a living organism in Western thinking, which eventually became the basis for the later environmental movement.1
Anthropocene Defined
The ‘Anthropocene’ is a term widely used since its coining by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer in 2000 to denote the present geological time interval, in which many conditions and processes on Earth are profoundly altered by human impact. This impact has intensified significantly since the onset of industrialization, taking us out of the Earth System state typical of the Holocene Epoch that post-dates the last glaciation.2
Threshold for the "epoch of humans"
In 2009, a secluded group of scientists embarked on a monumental task.3 This task, ordered by Earth’s geological chronology authorities, was to answer questions concerning the Anthropocene – a proposed geological epoch characterized by humanity’s enormous impact on Earth.
The threshold for the "epoch of humans" first proposed in 2002 by chemistry Nobel Paul Crutzen, they said, should be the mid-20th century.
Great Acceleration.
This is when a sharp surge in greenhouse gas concentration, microplastic pollution, invasive species, radioactive traces from atom bomb testing, and a dozen other markers of our species' growing influence added up to what scientists now call the Great Acceleration.
Golden Spike
On Tuesday (7/11/2023) the working group will deliver the last of their findings—the location of ground-zero for the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch borne of humanity's outsized impact on the planet.
That leaves the question of the "golden spike"—the single lake deposit, coral reef, ice core or other geological repository of evidence that best embodies the Anthropocene. 4
There are 9 possibilities. At first glance, these nine sites scattered across the globe seem unremarkable. A peat bog in Poland’s Sudeten Mountains. Searsville Lake, in California, and Crawford Lake, in Ontario. A stretch of seafloor in the Baltic Sea, a bay in Japan, a water-filled volcanic crater in China, an ice core drilled from the Antarctic Peninsula, and two coral reefs, in Australia and the Gulf of Mexico.5
These sites share a significant characteristic: they are all finalists in a remarkable scientific competition. Before the Anthropocene can be officially proclaimed, the Anthropocene Working Group must name a single site that permanently captures the epoch’s novelty.
The scientific markers include the presence of fly ash and carbon isotopes typical of fossil fuel combustion, increased levels of nitrogen and phosphorus — two elements used in fertilizers — or radioactive elements and isotopes previously absent from the geological record. The site will be declared a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP),6 and it will play a similar role for geology as type specimens, housed in museums, do for describing species of plants and animals.7
The "winner" will be announced Tuesday in joint press conferences at the Max Planck Society in Berlin8 and a meeting of working group scientists in Lille, France.9
Resources on the Anthropocene
The Anthropocene Review, a trans-disciplinary journal issued 3 times per year, brings together peer-reviewed articles on all aspects of research pertaining to the Anthropocene, from earth and environmental sciences, social sciences, material sciences, and humanities. High impact research articles, authoritative and stimulating reviews, and brief ‘perspective’ articles are especially welcome. Its overall aim is to communicate clearly and across a wide range of disciplines and interests, the causes, history, nature and implications of a world in which human activities are integral to the functioning of the Earth System.10
Davies, Jeremy (24 May 2016). The Birth of the Anthropocene (1st, hardcover ed.). Oakland: University of California Press.
Kress, W. John; Krupnick, Gary A. (2022). "Lords of the biosphere: Plant winners and losers in the Anthropocene". Plants, People, Planet. 4 (4): 350–366.
Williams, Mark; Zalasiewicz, Jan; Haff, P. K.; Schwägerl, Christian; Barnosky, Anthony D.; Ellis, Erle C. (2015). "The Anthropocene Biosphere". The Anthropocene Review. 2 (3): 196–219.
Meinhardt, Maren: A longing for wide and unknown things : the life of Alexander von Humboldt, London : Hurst & Company, [2018].
Crutzen, P. Geology of mankind. Nature 415, 23 (2002).
Welcome to the Anthropocene. Earth.com
Ground Zero of Anthropocene's 'Golden Spike' Barrons, July 9, 2023.
A Golden Spike Would Mark the Earth’s Next Epoch: But Where? Before the Anthropocene can be officially proclaimed, a scientific working group must select a single site that permanently captures the new human-influenced epoch. Nine candidate sites — from California to China to Antarctica — are under consideration. Yale environment 360.
International Commission on Stratigraphy. Global Boundary Stratotype Sections and Points (GSSPs) are reference points on stratigraphic sections of rock which define the lower boundaries of stages on the International Chronostratigraphic Chart. Since 1977, the ICS has maintained the international GSSP register.
The Max Planck Society is Germany's most successful research organization. With 30 Nobel Laureates among the ranks of its scientists, it is on equal footing with the best and most prestigious research institutions worldwide. The more than 15,000 publications each year in internationally renowned scientific journals are proof of the outstanding research work conducted at Max Planck Institutes – and many of those articles are among the most-cited publications in the relevant field.
It's truly hard to give this work any credibility in consideration of the incredibly short timeline it covers. Kind of like telling the life story of a three year old. . . . relevance lost.
Maybe, at long last, the Pleistocene is finally over.