Colonization of the Americas, ‘Little Ice Age’ climate, and bomb-produced carbon: Their role in defining the Anthropocene

Jan Zalasiewicz (1) , Colin N Waters , Anthony D Barnosky , Alejandro Cearreta (2) , Matt Edgeworth , Erle C Ellis , Agnieszka Gałuszka (3) , Philip L Gibbard , Jacques Grinevald (4) , Irka Hajdas (5) , Juliana Ivar Do Sul , Catherine Jeandel (6) , Reinhold Leinfelder (7) , John R Mcneill , Clément Poirier (8) , Andrew Revkin , Daniel Deb Richter , Will Steffen (9) , Colin Summerhayes (10) , James P M Syvitski , Davor Vidas (11) , Michael Wagreich (12) , Mark Williams (13) , Alexander P Wolfe

1 Department of Geology [Leicester]
2 Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnologia, Bilbao
3 Silesian University of Technology
4 IHEID - Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement
5 ETH Zürich - Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule - Swiss Federal Institute of Technology [Zürich]
6 LEGOS - Laboratoire d'études en Géophysique et océanographie spatiales
7 Freie Universität Berlin
8 M2C - Morphodynamique Continentale et Côtière
9 ANU - Australian National University
10 Scott Polar Research Institute
11 Fridtjof Nansen Institute of oceanology
12 University of Vienna [Vienna]
13 Swansea University

A recently published analysis by Lewis and Maslin (Lewis SL and Maslin MA (2015) Defining the Anthropocene. Nature 519: 171–180) has identified two new potential horizons for the Holocene−Anthropocene boundary: 1610 (associated with European colonization of the Americas), or 1964 (the peak of the excess radiocarbon signal arising from atom bomb tests). We discuss both of these novel suggestions, and consider that there is insufficient stratigraphic basis for the former, whereas placing the latter at the peak of the signal rather than at its inception does not follow normal stratigraphical practice. Wherever the boundary is eventually placed, it should be optimized to reflect stratigraphical evidence with the least possible ambiguity.

Domaines: Stratigraphie

Jan Zalasiewicz, Colin N Waters, Anthony D Barnosky, Alejandro Cearreta, Matt Edgeworth, et al.. Colonization of the Americas, ‘Little Ice Age’ climate, and bomb-produced carbon: Their role in defining the Anthropocene. Anthropocene Review, 2015, 2 (2), pp.117-127. ⟨10.1177/2053019615587056⟩. ⟨hal-01453030⟩