MEXICO: A dark new chapter in the Earth’s geological history began on July 16 1945 – the day the first atomic bomb was detonated. An international team of scientists suggested humans have had such an impact on our planet that it is moving to a new geological era.
For the last 11,700 years since the end of the most recent ice age, the Earth has been in the Holocene era meaning the geology of our planet has been fairly constant since then.
But human activity — especially in recent years — has had such an impact that we could be entering a new era, known as an epoch, which scientists have labelled the Anthropocene.
The premise behind the new epoch was first established by Nobel prize winning atmospheric Chemist Paul Crutzen 15 years ago.
He suggests human behaviour, including farming, driving cars, and using aerosols has had such an enormous impact that our planet has changed its geology and created new and distinctive strata (layer of the Earth).
The idea has since been widely embraced by academics, but there has been no agreement about when the epoch began.
After being assembled in Berlin last year, the Anthropocene Working Group, have been working to decide whether the epoch should be officially adopted by the International Commission on Stratigraphy
They have concluded the birthdate of the new epoch should be when the first atomic bomb was detonated in the New Mexico desert on 16 July, 1945.
The working group argue the beginning of the nuclear age was a defining moment in history and the fallout from atomic bombs is detectable in the geological record.
Chair of the Anthropocene Working Group Dr Jan Zalasiewicz said similar to all geological boundaries, the date was not a perfect marker.
