"Anthropocene" is Too Modest to Describe Human Earth Impact
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Jay Quade, a veteran geologist at the University of Arizona, gave a remarkable talk at the American Quaternary Association meeting in Santa Fe this year proposing that an Anthropocene Epoch is way too small a designation for what we're doing to the Earth Ssytem #AMQUA2016 This is posted with Dr. Quade's permission for Dot Earth. His views are faetured in my article making sense of the #Anthropocene, in the new magazine of that name: http://j.mp/revkinanthropocene Links: Quade home page http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Quade AMQUA 2016 meeting http://amqua2016santafe.com Anthropocene posts on the Dot Earth blog of Andrew Revkin: http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/?s=anthropocene+epoch
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"Anthropocene" is Too Modest to Describe Human Earth Impact
- 1. Fossils-physical remains of an organism Defining the Cenozoic-Anthropozoic or “C-A Boundary Event” Trace fossils-behavioral remains of an organism Treptichnus pedum
- 2. Figure 3. Overview of Tucson's Overall Waste Composition, 2012 ure 4, organic waste is estimated to make up over half of Tucson’s residential sector mposed, predominantly, of yard debris (24.5%) and food (17.6%). Paper is the next class at almost 19%. Mixed paper and textiles, both recyclable material categories, each 6% of residential waste. Based on data derived from waste characterization studies her communities, Cascadia estimates that the municipal average for textiles disposed is weight. Figure 4. Overview of Tucson's Residential Waste Composition, 2012 0.2 x 40 kg x 5 billion = 1 x 109 kg 300 kg/yr/person x 0.28 x 50 yr x 5 billion = 2 x 1013 kg Mass of trash Mass of bone 1013/109 = 10,000:1
- 3. Brief History of Trash first stone tools first agriculture high civilizations industrialization
- 5. The Very Base of the C-A Boundary Event—the first trash
- 6. Awash gravel alluvial sand bank OGS-7 tuff: 2.53±0.15 Ma Middle Pleistocene gravel
- 7. Awash gravel OGS-7 tuff: 2.53±0.15 Ma Middle Pleistocene gravel Gauss Chron Matuyama Chron 2.58 Ma
- 8. In situ artifacts at OGS-7: the oldest stone artifacts 2.58 Ma
- 9. Stone Tool Making Traditions Oldowan •cores with multiple flake scars •modified and unmodified flakes, usually small •2.6 to 1.8 Ma •up for grabs: perhaps made by early Homo (like H. habilis) Acheulian cores with multiple flake scars •modified and unmodified flakes; big! •picks and hand-axes •1.6 (?) to <1.0 Ma •made by Homo ergaster (erectus)
- 10. Asikli Hoyuk: Neolithic Tell in Turkey Quade, Abell, J., J., Stiner, M., Mentzer, S., and Ozbasaran, M. Ankara Istanbul Study Site Aşıklı Höyük
- 11. structures garbage ~10,200 BP ~9400 BP 8mm/yr 800 yrs 10 m
- 13. Industrial-Age Trash Nagasaki: ground-zero Atacama Desert Rio Grande floodplain Municipal landfill Cambodian beach
- 14. Future section through a North American city
- 15. Future Marine Section temperature productivity acidity
- 16. • We are creating the mother of all stratigraphic marker horizons—more conspicuous than even the K-T and P- T Boundary Events • Truly a global trash layer, but most conspicuous in continental fluvial environments • There will be no debate about Overkill! • Key unknown: Will the C-A be an event or epoch? – Time will tell • How will the C-A Boundary be interpreted? Wrap up
Editor's Notes
- Today we are going to talk about the composition of garbage from 10,000 years ago, and what this can tell us about how the people lived during the Neolithic, especially in relation to primitive animal domestication. The fertile crescent is dotted with mounds of trash, otherwise known as “tells” An example of one such tell, this picture shows our site called “Asikli” in Turkey It is about 10-12m tall, and ~200m long, and lucky for us a nearby creek has scoured away some material, exposing an the entire stratigraphic section of the tell on the South Wall.