Welcome to the The Anthropocene

Say what?
This is dead interesting. With a debate point at the end.

These are the ages we've had (the age of Aquarius doesn't seem to be officially amongst them):

https://stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2023-06.pdf

Things, like the Jurassic Age, etc.

So, how are these ages decided? Well, there's an International Commission on Stratigraphy (that probably means something):

https://stratigraphy.org/gssps/

And they debate on all sorts of Stratigraphic subjects. I presume.

Anyhoo... There's a lake in Canada called Crawford lake. Which means that I presume it to be a lake, but it could just be the name of a town... I dunno...
From the Beeb:

Crawford Lake, a small body of water in Ontario, Canada, is being put forward as the location that best records humanity's impacts on Earth.

Its sediments have captured fallout from intense fossil fuel burning, and even the plutonium from bomb tests.

The muds would be symbolic of the onset of a proposed Anthropocene Epoch.

Researchers want to acknowledge their significance by making them a "golden spike", or more properly a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point.
Other great transitions in geological time are associated with a GSSP. Often, it's literally a brass nail hammered into some cliff face deemed to be of major scientific importance.
But for Crawford, it would be a brass plaque next to a frozen section of the sediments, kept in a museum in the Canadian capital, Ottawa.

"Crawford is just brilliant for this. A core from its bottom muds looks like a massive dirty lollipop, but it contains these beautiful, annually laminated sediments.

@shavixmir said
Say what?
This is dead interesting. With a debate point at the end.

These are the ages we've had (the age of Aquarius doesn't seem to be officially amongst them):

https://stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2023-06.pdf

Things, like the Jurassic Age, etc.

So, how are these ages decided? Well, there's an International Commission on Stratigraphy (that pr ...[text shortened]... ng, is a new age, based on humanity's footprint on the planet, a good basis for a new epoch and age?

@mott-the-hoople said
😂 you want so bad to be relevant

@shavixmir said
Say what?
This is dead interesting. With a debate point at the end.

These are the ages we've had (the age of Aquarius doesn't seem to be officially amongst them):

https://stratigraphy.org/ICSchart/ChronostratChart2023-06.pdf

Things, like the Jurassic Age, etc.

So, how are these ages decided? Well, there's an International Commission on Stratigraphy (that pr ...[text shortened]... ng, is a new age, based on humanity's footprint on the planet, a good basis for a new epoch and age?

@wajoma said
shag doody for brains

The OP was brilliant, so I read on. What a disappointment. Why can't an online debates forum have discussions about real topics? Is it just because the species dumbus americanus just can't shut up?

@shavixmir said
looks like a massive dirty lollipop

And so, after you've read all that... and I bet you did, because it's absolutely fascinating, is a new age, based on humanity's footprint on the planet, a good basis for a new epoch and age?

@kewpie said
The OP was brilliant, so I read on. What a disappointment. Why can't an online debates forum have discussions about real topics? Is it just because the species dumbus americanus just can't shut up?

@shavixmir

The delimiting point when the anthropocene started is somewhat arbitrary. Certainly the evidence in the mud at the bottom of Lake Crawford is evidence of massive interference in nature by mankind, but I would contend that that started a long time ago. Roughly, when mankind stopped being primarily a hunter-gather and became a settled farmer. This markedly changed the soil chemistry (as radioactivity also does), and began the long process of domestication of various animals, foul, cattle, sheep, swine, and goats. This changed both the flora and fauna, since the excrement of domesticated animals changes the soil, and the traces of it will remain in the soil long after we have become extinct. Hunter-gatherers leave very little trace of themselves, other than bones, and change the environment very little, compared to settled farmers.

Certainly, the advent of the nuclear or atomic age is worth mentioning as a potentially cataclysmic delimiter, geologically, but it wasn't the first. That's my point.

Good topic, shav.

@shavixmir said
I suggest sticking to the OP.

Because it is an incredible topic.
Something I had heard absolutely nothing at all about until... well... until today.

Obviously I'd heard of Jurassic, something to do with T-rex's and frogs and Aquarius (hippies), but how, what and why? Never in my life.

So, I suggest the OP stands. and we discard the little tift between Wayoma and myself.

@vivify said
Aww, that's what Mott used to call his mom's cooch.

And so, after you've read all that... and I bet you did, because it's absolutely fascinating, is a new age, based on humanity's footprint on the planet, a good basis for a new epoch and age?

Honestly, I'm not smart enough to discuss this. It is interesting though. Maybe Sonhouse can chime in.

@mott-the-hoople said
why so vulgar? seems pretty common with liberals 😳 sad

@wajoma said
shag doody calls me a cancerous ho and makes one of his usual koala jokes then next thing he's telling everyone to stick to the OP like he's the thread police.

He encourages vulgarity, but when someone else does it he get's bytchey.

@shavixmir said
I suggest a separate thread for us.
That way we can keep the rest of the threads clean and on topic.

@moonbus said
@shavixmir

The delimiting point when the anthropocene started is somewhat arbitrary. Certainly the evidence in the mud at the bottom of Lake Crawford is evidence of massive interference in nature by mankind, but I would contend that that started a long time ago. Roughly, when mankind stopped being primarily a hunter-gather and became a settled farmer. This markedly changed ...[text shortened]... cataclysmic delimiter, geologically, but it wasn't the first. That's my point.

Good topic, shav.