Light impact from space
For several years it has been debated whether human beings are important enough by ourselves to deserve our own geological age. The great influence that humanity has had on the planet and its environment causing extinctions and even altering natural and climatic cycles makes it study to add the call Anthropocene on the global geological scale.
Since 2009 an international group of scientists has been studying introducing this new concept and where to locate the beginning of this era. A report is currently being prepared and will be presented to the International Union of Geological Sciences in 2016. This body is the only competent body in charge of deciding on the ages of the Earth.
Until it is decided whether to introduce this modification, we will continue to live in the Holocene, an era that began some 12000 years ago after the last epoch of glaciations. The temperate climate of this inter-glaciation time is what has allowed humanity to advance as quickly as it has, and that advance and the impact that it is having on the world where we live is what caused us to start thinking in the inclusion of a new era directly related to human beings.
One of the key points and about which there is more discussion is determining when this new geological epoch began. The two points proposed have been the start of the nuclear age in the mid-twentieth century with the bombings of Hioshima and Nagasaki and later with accidents such as Chernobyl or the Fukushima power plant that left radiation markers both on humans and in the oceans and sediments. On the other hand, the start of the industry revolutionl in the seventeenth century or even the emergence of agriculture about 10000 years ago.
The reasons provided by the different theories to locate the beginning of this new geological epoch are related to its appearance in the sedimentary record. Let's imagine a geologist in 10000-20000 years, he should find certain differentiating characteristics in the strata associated with the time to be able to identify it as a geological time of his own.
Taking these premises into account, relating the beginning of this period with the appearance of agriculture is due to the fact that it is when the human being begins to adapt the land to it and not to adapt it to the terrain. The movement of sediments that man has made since this moment could overcome that caused by any type of natural phenomenon, preparing the soil for cultivation, with the use of quarries, and later the industrial and construction use of the materials of the floor.
On the other hand, the consideration of the beginning of the industrial revolution as the starting point of this new period has been proposed as the beginning of this geological epoch, arguing that the beginning of the use of fossil fuels (coal, oil, etc.) and the elements that their combustion poured into the atmosphere would appear as part of a characteristic stratum. At the same time, a more extensive use of the land and a more intense exploitation of quarries and mines, would also be another factor to take into account.
In any case, these two propositions are almost ruled out, since although the impact on the sediments would be very wide, it would not affect the entire surface of the earth, even so, it is in the hands of the International Union of Geological Sciences to determine whether they are relevant or not. these dates.
The best option, and possibly the one with the best chance of being chosen, always in the event that the introduction of this new epoch in geological history is accepted, is that of the beginning of the nuclear or atomic age. Both nuclear tests and accidents at nuclear power plants have meant that radioactive particles are present over the entire earth's surface and they are going to be kept on land, water and air for many years, make the extension of this type of particles sufficient to be considered as a global extension.
The promoter of this last hypothesis, Jan Zalasiewicz, scientist from the University of Leicester maintains that in addition to the nuclear impact there are other factors such as the impact of man and his technology as well as the appearance of materials such as plastic or aluminum or the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere and the acidification of the seas lead us to speak of a "Great Acceleration" that would be worthy of this "honor."
Everything is at the expense of the organism that will be in charge in 2016 to evaluate all these points and determine if the human being deserves a geological epoch alone and what will be its beginning, or if on the contrary, as they think another great part of the scientific community "we just want to give ourselves more importance than we really have."
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