| A characteristic aspect of the Anthropocene is the suite of novel changes made to the surface and subsurface of the Earth by human action, both on land and, increasingly, on and below the sea floor. Geologically, these geomorphological phenomena include features that relate to both lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic classification, the latter resulting from considering human constructions and modifications as a form of trace fossil system, albeit one that is of unprecedentedly large scale. As regards the potential formalizing of the Anthropocene, one question to be pursued relates to the chronostratigraphic definition of the phenomena involved: that is, given that many of these transformations are diachronous on human timescales, can an Anthropocene Series, with a synchronous time boundary, be characterized and mapped across the Earth's surface? Efforts to answer this question should help in the understanding of the Anthropocene within its geological context, and also in exploring the stratigraphic relation between time and rock generally at very fine stratigraphic timescales.
Zalasiewicz, J., Williams M, Fortey, R.A., Smith, A.G., Barry, T.L. Coe, A.L., Bown, P.R., Gale, A., Gibbard, P.L., Gregory, F.J., Hounslow, M.W., Kerr, A.C., Pearson, P., Knox, R., Powell, J., Waters, C., Marshall, J., Oates, M., Rawson, P. & Stone, P. 2011. Stratigraphy of the Anthropocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A369, 1036-1055. |