Version 1
: Received: 5 October 2018 / Approved: 5 October 2018 / Online: 5 October 2018 (14:59:27 CEST)
Version 2
: Received: 8 October 2018 / Approved: 8 October 2018 / Online: 8 October 2018 (12:24:41 CEST)
Version 3
: Received: 12 October 2018 / Approved: 15 October 2018 / Online: 15 October 2018 (13:56:46 CEST)
How to cite:
Rull, V. What if the ‘Anthropocene’ is not Formalised as a New Geological Series/Epoch?. Preprints2018, 2018100102. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201810.0102.v3
Rull, V. What if the ‘Anthropocene’ is not Formalised as a New Geological Series/Epoch?. Preprints 2018, 2018100102. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201810.0102.v3
Rull, V. What if the ‘Anthropocene’ is not Formalised as a New Geological Series/Epoch?. Preprints2018, 2018100102. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201810.0102.v3
APA Style
Rull, V. (2018). What if the ‘Anthropocene’ is not Formalised as a New Geological Series/Epoch?. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201810.0102.v3
Chicago/Turabian Style
Rull, V. 2018 "What if the ‘Anthropocene’ is not Formalised as a New Geological Series/Epoch?" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201810.0102.v3
Abstract
In the coming years, the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) will submit its proposal on the ‘Anthropocene’ as a new geological epoch to the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) for approval. If approved, the proposal will be send to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) for ratification. If the proposal is approved and ratified, the ‘Anthropocene’ will be formalised and the Holocene Series/Epoch will be officially terminated. Currently, the ‘Anthropocene’ is a broadly used term and concept in a wide range of scientific and non-scientific situations and, for many, the official acceptance of this term is only a matter of time. However, the AWG proposal, in its present state, seems to not fully meet the ICS requirements for a new geological epoch. This paper asks what could happen if the current ‘Anthropocene’ proposal is not formalised by the ICS/IUGS. The possible stratigraphic alternatives are evaluated on the basis of the more recent literature and the personal opinions of distinguished AWG and ICS members. The eventual impact on environmental sciences and on non-scientific sectors, where the ‘Anthropocene’ seems already firmly rooted and de facto accepted as a new geological epoch, are also discussed.
Keywords
Anthropocene, series/epoch, chronostratigraphic units, formalization, Anthropocene Working Group
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Other
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Commenter: Valentí Rull
The commenter has declared there is no conflict of interests.
Rull, V. 2018. What if the ‘Anthropocene’ is not formalized as a new geological series/epoch? Quaternary, 1: 24, doi 10.3390/quat1030024.