Experts name lake as key to start of Anthropocene epoch

Scientists have selected a site to represent the start of the Anthropocene epoch-marking the end of 11,700 years of a stable global environment on Earth in which human civilisation developed, and the start of a new age dominated by human activities.

- Damian Carrington

The site is a sinkhole lake in Canada. Its annual sediments show clear spikes due to the colossal impact of humanity on the planet from 1950 onwards, from plutonium from hydrogen bomb tests to the particles from fossil fuel burning that have showered the globe.

If the site is approved by the bodies that oversee the geological timescale, the Anthropocene will be officially declared a new geological epoch in August 2024.

Experts said the decision has social and political importance, as it would testify to the "scale and severity of the planetary transformation processes unleashed by industrialised humanity". The climate crisis is the most prominent impact of the Anthropocene, but huge losses of wildlife, the spread of invasive species, and the widespread pollution of the planet with plastics and nitrates are also key features.

The Anthropocene Working Group was set up in 2009 and in 2016 concluded that human-caused changes to Earth were so great that a new geological time unit was justified. The AWG then assessed in detail a dozen sites across the world as candidates for what geologists call a "golden spike", the place where the abrupt and global changes marking the start of the new age are best recorded in geological strata.