Chosen by scientists as a symbol of the Anthropocene, the place holds everything from traces of the atomic bomb to microplastics.
Extinct species, devastated ecosystems, global warming – the list of events that have entered the narrative of mankind is extensive.
Scientists now say they have found some kind of archive that records them changes in the geological layer of the earth: Lake Crawford, located approximately 65 kilometers from Toronto, Canada.
Crawford Lake in the Toronto region of Canada is a “geological archive” of human action on Earth.
(Photo: Cole Burston-The Canadian Press-empics-picture alliance)
Below its 24 meters of depth, say the researchers behind the study presented this Tuesday (11/07), it is proof that the planet has entered a new and challenging geological era: the Anthropocene, characterized by the massive and destabilizing impact of human action on the planet.
Sediments that have been deposited on the lake bed since the second half of the 20th century contain traces of nuclear explosions, ash from fossil fuel combustion and microplastics – evidence that the Holocene, after 11,700 years, would have come to an end, according to Andy Cundy, a professor at the University of Southampton and one of the researchers involved in the study.
Group leader and University College London professor Simon Turner says the lake is a “remarkable” geological archive because it has accurately recorded and recorded environmental changes over the last millennium – changes that have taken on ever more dramatic contours, with extinction of species, deforestation, pollution and climatic events of unprecedented proportions.
For years the scientific community has debated the existence of the Anthropocene.
Presented in 2002 by the Nobel Prize in Chemistry Paul Crutzen, the idea of an “age of humans” is widely accepted, but lacks formal validation, as there is no consensus on when this period would have started and what geological evidence would show This.
The study, conducted over the last decade, still needs to be approved by two committees before being validated by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the international scientific body that decides on the naming of geological chapters in the history of the Earth.
In the coming months, the team of scientists is expected to select other sites that could help geologists locate the Anthropocene in other environments such as corals and swamps.
The Anthropocene would have started in the 1950s
Chosen by scientists out of 11 other evaluated locations around the world, Lake Crawford would be sort of ground zero of the Anthropocene.
According to the rules of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), the evidence of a geological era must be evaluated on the basis of a synchronic “primary marker”, a sort of imprint detectable in the soil practically anywhere on the planet.
In the case of the Anthropocene, this element would be the plutonium released in the tests of atomic bombs and found both in the sediments of Lake Crawford and in other locations examined by the group.
According to Cundy, this means that 1952 – when the United States first tested a large hydrogen bomb in the Marshall Islands – could become the year that marks the Anthropoceneas previous small explosions would have mostly left regional marks.
Although some experts claim that the The Anthropocene would have started at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, between the 18th and 19th centuries, researchers say they didn’t find profound changes before the 1950s, when rapid population and economic growth increased carbon dioxide emissions and traces of nuclear weapons seeped into nature.
This content is a work originally published by the German DW agency. The opinion expressed by the publication does not reflect or represent the opinion of this portal or its collaborators.
Source: Terra
Rose James is a Gossipify movie and series reviewer known for her in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the latest releases. With a background in film studies, she provides engaging and informative reviews, and keeps readers up to date with industry trends and emerging talents.
