Leicester researchers involved in hunt for 'golden spike' that signalled new epoch
Geologists search for the moment humanity changed the planet forever and triggered the Anthropocene era
Geologists - including Professor Jan Zalasiewicz and Dr Colin Waters from the Department of Geology - are on the hunt for the 'golden spike' that would signify the moment humanity changed the planet forever and triggered the Anthropocene era.
The worldwide hunt for a 'line in the rock' that shows the beginning of a proposed new geological epoch - the Anthropocene, which is defined by humanity’s extraordinary impact on planet Earth - is expected to get underway in the next few weeks.
Later this month, an expert working group convened by Professor Zalasiewicz and set up to investigate whether these changes are so significant that the 11,500-year-old Holocene epoch is now at an end will present its latest findings to the 35th International Geological Congress (IGC) in South Africa./.../
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Provisional recommendations
This international scientific body (that includes the University of Leicester geologists Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams and honorary chair, the British Geological Survey geologist Colin Waters, and archaeologist Matt Edgeworth), has been active since 2009, analysing the case for formalization of the Anthropocene, a potential new epoch of geological time dominated by human impact on the Earth. The AWG is about to present its preliminary findings and recommendations at the International Geological Congress in Cape Town, at the same time indicating the range of voting opinion within the group on the major questions surrounding the Anthropocene. It will also map out a route towards a formal proposal on formalization, and indicate work that still needs be done to effect this.
Majority current opinion on the group indicates the following:
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