Could humans have brought about on Earth changes so dramatic that they catalysed a whole new geological epoch?

Yes, indeed, suggests a paper in Science, which lists out a range of anthropogenic (human-induced) “signatures” — on land, at sea and in the air — to indicate that the Earth has transitioned from the Holocene to a new epoch: the Anthropocene.

The Anthropocene is a term used informally to describe the age of human-induced change. But the authors say that it may be time for a “formalisation” of the Anthropocene as an entity “equivalent to other formally defined geological epochs.” While opinion is divided on whether or not the Anthropocene is a new geologic time unit, the authors say this era is significantly distinct from the 12,000-year-old Holocene that preceded it......................Read more

Source: The Hindu