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This quiet lake could mark the start of a new Anthropocene epoch

The dawn of a new geological epoch is recorded in the contaminated sediment at the bottom of Crawford Lake in Canada.
  1. Alexandra Witze
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The official marker for the start of a new Anthropocene epoch should be a small Canadian lake whose sediments capture chemical traces of the fallout from nuclear bombs and other forms of environmental degradation. That’s a proposal out today from researchers who have spent 14 years debating when and how humanity began altering the planet.

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Nature 619, 441-442 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02234-z

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 12 July 2023: An earlier version of this article misstated the location of a coral reef considered as a potential site marker for the Anthropocene.

References

  1. McCarthy, F. M. G. et al. Anthropocene Rev. 10, 146–176 (2023).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Davis, H. & Todd, Z. ACME 16, 761–780 (2017).

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  3. Steffen, W. et al. Anthropocene Rev. 2, 81–98 (2015).

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