Nuclear blasts, other human activity signal new epoch, group argues
Controversial proposal would add Anthropocene to geologic time scale
END OF AN EPOCH Plastics, radioactive fallout and the prevalence of domestic animals such as chickens — signs of which show up in the sedimentary record — have made the last few decades distinct in the planet’s stratigraphic record, a group of researchers say.
From left: John Schneider/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0), National Archives image/Wikimedia Commons, Branden Wiegand/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0)
Humankind’s bombs, plastics, chickens and more have altered the planet enough to usher in a new chapter in Earth’s geologic history.