"Anthropocene" is Too Modest to Describe Human Earth Impact
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Transcript of "Anthropocene" is Too Modest to Describe Human Earth Impact
Fossils-physical remains of an organism
Defining the Cenozoic-Anthropozoic or “C-A Boundary
Event”
Trace fossils-behavioral remains of an organism
Treptichnus pedum
0.2 x 40 kg x 5 billion = 1 x 109 kg
300 kg/yr/person x 0.28 x 50 yr x 5 billion
= 2 x 1013 kg
Mass of trash
Mass of bone
1013/109 = 10,000:1
Brief History of Trash
first stone tools
first agriculture high civilizations
industrialization
The Very Base of the C-A Boundary Event—the first trash
Awash gravel
alluvial sand bank
OGS-7
tuff: 2.53±0.15 Ma
Middle Pleistocene gravel
Awash gravel
OGS-7
tuff: 2.53±0.15 Ma
Middle Pleistocene gravel
Gauss Chron
Matuyama Chron
2.58 Ma
In situ artifacts at OGS-7: the oldest stone artifacts
2.58 Ma
Stone Tool Making TraditionsOldowan
•cores with multiple flake scars•modified and unmodified flakes, usually small•2.6 to 1.8 Ma•up for grabs: perhaps made by early Homo (like H. habilis)
Acheulian
cores with multiple flake scars•modified and unmodified flakes; big!•picks and hand-axes•1.6 (?) to <1.0 Ma •made by Homo ergaster (erectus)
Asikli Hoyuk: Neolithic Tell in Turkey
Quade, Abell, J., J., Stiner, M., Mentzer, S., and Ozbasaran, M.
Aşıklı Höyük
structures
garbage
~10,200 BP
~9400 BP
8mm/yr
800 yrs10 m
refuserefuse
refusebricks/mortar
plaster
Industrial-Age Trash
Nagasaki: ground-zero Atacama Desert
Rio Grande floodplain Municipal landfill
Cambodian beach
Future section through a North American city
Future Marine Section
temperature productivity acidity
• We are creating the mother of all stratigraphic marker horizons—more conspicuous than even the K-T and P-T Boundary Events
• Truly a global trash layer, but most conspicuous in continental fluvial environments
• There will be no debate about Overkill!
• Key unknown: Will the C-A be an event or epoch? –Time will tell
• How will the C-A Boundary be interpreted?
Wrap up