Jan Zalasiewicz

• University of Leicester

From the Abstract: The technosphere sensu Peter Haff [12] has auton- omous qualities, being not so much human-directed as incorporating dependent, strongly divided human soci- eties, while parasitizing its parent biosphere for energy and materials. By far the most recent and rapidly evolving of Earth’s ‘spheres’, it is also the most unsta- ble, rec...

From the Abstract: The Anthropocene is a particularly powerful con- ceptual tool, and encapsulates the complex intercon- nectivity of all the ‘-spheres’ on this planet. It quickly became a key framing concept for Earth System re- searchers. From this, and from its subsequent geologi- cal analysis, it grew to spark off considerable cross- disciplina...

From the Abstract: The biogeophysical and socio-political knowledge of the Anthropocene, while transforming our understanding of the Earth System, is also renewing our understanding of human existence and raising questions about education at a time when profound existential challenges are looming. These issues are now inextricably linked. Human exi...

We synthesize research from complementary scientific fields to address the likely future extent and duration of the proposed Anthropocene epoch. Intensification of human-forced climate change began from about 1970 onwards with steepening increases in greenhouse gases, ocean acidification, global temperature and sea level, along with ice loss. The r...

Increasing human interactions with the biosphere over tens of millennia have left a fossil record that shows the growing geographical spread and technological sophistication of humans evident in patterns of extinction and domestication of the landscape and its plants and animals. Here, we focus on the "Great Acceleration" of the mid-20th century (e...

Applying the basic principles of carbon chemistry and physics, along with a comprehensive understanding of past climate change, Steffen and colleagues confirmed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115, in 2018, that fossil fuel usage and resulting carbon emissions will cause substantial global warming into future millennia. The c...

A common sense: The Anthropocene was originally understood by Crutzen as not only representing humanity’s influence on Earth’s geological record (he was well aware of earlier anthropogenic impacts), but also reflecting a system with physical characteristics that had, since widespread industrialization, departed from the prolonged, relatively stable...

Introduction: Geology as an organized science is little more than two centuries old (Rudwick 2014), a newcomer compared with academic disciplines such as mathematics, philosophy - and indeed ethics. It has been a practical newcomer, too. Even among its 18th-century roots, references to resources, and their exploitation, are common. The Comte de Buf...

The "Great Acceleration" beginning in the mid-20th century provides the causal mechanism of the Anthro-pocene, which has been proposed as a new epoch of geological time beginning in 1952 CE. Here we identify key parameters and their diagnostic palaeontological signals of the Anthropocene, including the rapid breakdown of discrete biogeographical ra...

Abstract: The “Great Acceleration” of the mid-20th century provides the causal mechanism of the Anthropocene, which has been proposed as a new epoch of geological time beginning in 1952 CE. Here we identify key parameters and their diagnostic palaeontological signals of the Anthropocene, including the rapid breakdown of discrete biogeographical ran...

Abstract: We synthesize research from complementary scientific fields to address the likely extent and duration of the proposed Anthropocene epoch. Ongoing intensification of human-forced climate change began in the mid-20th century, with steepening increases in greenhouse gases, ocean acidification, global temperature and sea level, along with the...

The Anthropocene as a prospective new, ongoing series/epoch must be defensible against all relevant concerns. We address the seven, still-relevant challenges posed to the Anthropocene Working Group by the Chair, International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), in 2014. (1) Concept or reality? The Anthropocene possesses a substantial, sharply distinc...

Swindles et al. (2023) correctly point out that there are many conceptions of the ‘Anthropocene’ in use, and they argue that this flexibility in terminology is desirable. We agree that the multiple uses of this term have stimulated much scholarly debate, but we contend that precision in terminology is far more desirable than vagueness, and promotes...

Event stratigraphy is used to help characterise the Anthropocene as a chronostratigraphic concept, based on analogous deep-time events, for which we provide a novel categorization. Events in stratigraphy are distinct from extensive, time-transgressive ‘episodes’ – such as the global, highly diachronous record of anthropogenic change, termed here an...

Event stratigraphy is used to help characterise the Anthropocene as a chronostratigraphic concept, based on analogous deep-time events, for which we provide a novel categorization. Events in stratigraphy are distinct from extensive, time-transgressive ‘episodes’ – such as the global, highly diachronous record of anthropogenic change, termed here an...

We examine three distinctive biostratigraphic signatures of humans associated with hunting and gathering , landscape domestication and globalization. All three signatures have significant fossil records of regional importance that can be correlated interregionally and help describe the developing pattern of human expansion and appropriation of reso...

The extensive array of mid-20 th century stratigraphic event signals associated with the 'Great Acceleration' enables precise and unambiguous recognition of the Anthropocene as an epoch/series within the Geological Time Scale. A mid-20 th century inception is consistent with Earth System science analysis in which the Anthropocene term and concept a...

The Anthropocene defined as an epoch/series within the Geological Time Scale, and with an isochronous inception in the mid-20th century, would both utilize the rich array of stratigraphic signals associated with the Great Acceleration and align with Earth System science analysis from where the term Anthropocene originated. It would be stratigraphic...

Interdisciplinary project by artist Gabo Guzzo formed in collaboration with atmospheric chemist and Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen, artist Rasheed Araeen, art historian TJ Demos and geologist Jan Zalasiewicz. "From generation to generation the effect of human activities accumulates and accelerates. No other species has developed in this manner. Mankin...

The Pleistocene Series/Epoch of the Quaternary System/Period has been divided unofficially into three sub- series/subepochs since at least the 1870s. On 30th January, 2020, the Executive Committee of the International Union of Geological Sciences ratified two proposals approved by the International Commission on Stratigraphy formal- izing: 1) the L...

The Anthropocene was conceptualized in 2000 to reflect the extensive impact of human activities on our planet, and subsequent detailed analyses have revealed a sub- stantial Earth System response to these impacts begin- ning in the mid-20th century. Key to this understanding was the discovery of a sharp upturn in a multitude of global socio-economi...

The Mississippi River maintains commercial and societal networks of the USA along its >3700 km length. It has accumulated a fluvial sedimentary succession over 80 million years. Through the last 11,700 years of the Holocene Epoch, the wild river shaped the landscape, models of which have become classic in geological studies of ancient river strata....

The term Anthropocene initially emerged from the Earth System science community in the early 2000s, denoting a concept that the Holocene Epoch has terminated as a consequence of human activities. First associated with the onset of the Industrial Revolution, it was then more closely linked with the Great Acceleration in industrialization and globali...

The Earth's climate has stayed within a window allowing continuous habitability by living organisms for approaching 4 billion years, even though significant changes have occurred to major climate controls such solar energy flux and the geography of land and sea; key features allowing this likely include silicate weathering as a planetary thermostat...

Stratigraphy provides insights into the evolution and dynamics of the Earth System over its long history. With recent developments in Earth System science, changes in Earth System dynamics can now be observed directly and projected into the near future. An integration of the two approaches provides powerful insights into the nature and significance...

Over the past century, the total material wealth of humanity has been enhanced. However, in the twenty-first century, we face scarcity in critical resources, the degradation of ecosystem services, and the erosion of the planet’s capability to absorb our wastes. Equity issues remain stubbornly difficult to solve. This situation is novel in its speed...

Two new graptolite assemblages are identified from discrete intervals within the Phu Ngu Formation, Na Ri District, Bac Kan Province, north-east Vietnam. The graptolites occur in laminated mud/siltstones thought to be distal turbidite deposits. A low-diversity diplograptid sensu lato assemblage occurs in mud-rich layers that are interlaminated with...

This chapter relates the two overarching themes of the book – climate change and the ocean – through the lens of the Anthropocene and explores the impact on the development of the law of the sea within a broader framework of international law, including the climate change regime. We first explain the emergence and the content of the Anthropocene co...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Supplementary material to Syvitski et al. 2020, see https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344685697_Extraordinary_human_energy_consumption_and_resultant_geological_impacts_beginning_around_1950_CE_initiated_the_proposed_Anthropocene_Epoch

Growth in fundamental drivers—energy use, economic productivity and population—can provide quantitative indications of the proposed boundary between the Holocene Epoch and the Anthropocene. Human energy expenditure in the Anthropocene, ~22 zetajoules (ZJ), exceeds that across the prior 11,700 years of the Holocene (~14.6 ZJ), largely through combus...

We have entered the Anthropocene: a new geological epoch in which human activities, led by business interests, have inexorably compromised the Earth System. The current failure to provide a comprehensive and systematic response to this transition does not result from a lack of reason but is instead the manifestation of a generalized crisis in commu...

Newly collected graptolites from the Co To Formation, Co To archipelago, NE Vietnam, comprise assemblages indicative of two biostratigraphical levels within the lower Silurian, Llandovery Series, Telychian Stage: the co-occurrence of Spirograptus turriculatus and Torquigraptus proteus? suggests an interval most likely within the upper part of the S...

In this chapter, we focus on the occurrence, behavior, and interactions of environmental plastics within a geological framework, considering their transport pathways, behavior as “sedimentary” particles, and longevity and fate in a range of sedimentary settings. We consider the processes that act upon plastics, including chemical, physical, and bio...

The Anthropocene, currently an informal term, being investigated as a potential series/epoch within the Quaternary System/Period. It represents a time when intensified anthropogenic impacts have caused the Earth System to depart from the comparatively stable conditions that characterized the Holocene Epoch. A Holocene/Anthropocene boundary may be b...

The Mid-Brunhes Transition (MBT) saw an increase in the amplitude of glacial cycles expressed in ice core and deep ocean records from about 400 ka, but its influence on high-latitude climates is not fully understood. The Arctic Ocean is thought to have warmed and exhibited reduced sea ice, but little is known of sea ice marginal locations such as t...

Profound changes to the species configuration of ecosystems globally during the 19th to 21st centuries, resulting from the introduction of neobiota, have produced a distinctive palaeontological signature in sedimentary deposits, here exemplified by those of the River Thames. Coring near Teddington Lock (ca. 4.3 m above sea level, ca. 89 km upstream...

As part of an international effort to evaluate potential replacement sections for the current Aeronian GSSP, the stratigraphy of the Rheidol Gorge section (central Wales, UK) is being restudied. A total of 28 samples from the Rhuddanian–Aeronian boundary interval at Rheidol Gorge were studied for chitinozoans. This famous Welsh Basin section, its s...

We analyse the ‘three flaws’ to potentially defining a formal Anthropocene geological time unit as advanced by Ruddiman (2018). (1) We recognize a long record of pre-industrial human impacts, but note that these increased in relative magnitude slowly and were strongly time-transgressive by comparison with the extraordinarily rapid, novel and near-g...

We analyse the ‘three flaws’ to potentially defining a formal Anthropocene geological time unit as advanced by Ruddiman (2018). (1) We recognize a long record of pre-industrial human impacts, but note that these increased in relative magnitude slowly and were strongly time-transgressive by comparison with the extraordinarily rapid, novel and near-g...

Evolutionary significance of the retiolitine Gothograptus (Graptolithina) with four new species from the Silurian of the East European Platform (Baltica), Poland and Lithuania ANNA KOZŁOWSKA1, DENIS BATES2, JAN ZALASIEWICZ3 & SIGITAS RADZEVIČIUS4 1Instytut Paleobiologii PAN, ul. Twarda 51/55, PL-00-818 Warszawa, Poland. E-mail: akd@twarda.pan.pl...

Gothograptid retiolitines were distinctive in being one of the very few graptolite groups to thrive through the late Wenlock extinction event that killed off most graptoloid species, and their distinctive construction may have been a factor in this success amid environmental adversity. New and rich material from two localities in Poland and five lo...

The Anthropocene, a term launched into public debate by Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen, has been used informally to describe the time period during which human actions have had a drastic effect on the Earth and its ecosystems. This book presents evidence for defining the Anthropocene as a geological epoch, written by the high-profile international...

... This book is the outcome of the work of the Anthropocene Working Group since 2009 in developing and testing the general case for the Anthropocene as a formal geological time unit. This work was a necessary prelude to preparing any specific formalisation proposal to the SQS, ICS and IUGS (a task that is underway). It summarises the evidence gath...

... it seems clear from comparisons across long timescales that the boron isotope signature does generally tie in with past estimates of seawater pCO2 (Figure 5.3.1). With regard to using this signal in chronostratigraphic characterisation of the Anthropocene, at present the annual to decadal variability is obscuring the underlying signal attributa...

Most species on planet Earth have specific ecological ranges defined by factors such as latitudinal changes in surface temperature and rainfall, or geographical isolation. These patterns have evolved over millions, sometimes tens of millions of years. This natural pattern is being overprinted by the actions of Homo sapiens, which has made the whole...

Jan Zalasiewicz enjoys Brian Switek’s exploration of how the human scaffold — and our ideas about it — evolved. Jan Zalasiewicz enjoys Brian Switek’s exploration of how the human scaffold — and our ideas about it — evolved. X-ray sequence of a human skeleton running

Changing patterns of human resource use and food consumption have profoundly impacted the Earth’s biosphere. Until now, no individual taxa have been suggested as distinct and characteristic new morphospecies representing this change. Here we show that the domestic broiler chicken is one such potential marker. Human-directed changes in breeding, die...

Most species on planet Earth have specific ecological ranges. In the near surface of the oceans, planktonic foraminifera define water masses that are warm in the tropics, and cold in polar regions. Tropical rainforests have trees and animals that are distinct from those in warm temperate or cold temperate zones. The fauna and flora of Australia are...

By burning fossil fuels, humans have changed the carbon cycle, loading the atmosphere with extra carbon dioxide (CO2). Before the current Ice Age, high atmospheric CO2 levels generated warm climates. The Ice Age developed as the volcanic supply of CO2 lessened, and rock weathering increased. The CO2 lost from the atmosphere by chemical weathering w...

What is the reach of geology, today? The word evokes strata, minerals and fossils. But how about metro systems, farmyard animals, factory smoke, ballpoint pens, tree‐rings and the fluff that comes off our clothes? These kinds of objects are just part of the evidence that is now being assembled to build a picture of the Anthropocene—the idea that hu...

The Anthropocene Epoch, as currently being formulated, is a little under 70 years old. Geologists who are used to defining geological time intervals in rocks that are many millions of years old now need to make use of very high‐resolution time signals, such as annual growth layers and geochemical or artefact markers, to characterize this proposed n...

Humankind, in its technological development, is increasingly utilising both mineral resources from Earth's interior and developing the rock mass as a resource in itself. In this paper we review the types of anthropogenic intrusion, at different depth ranges, that can modify the physical structure and chemistry of the subsurface. Using examples from...

The Anthropocene as a potential new unit of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart (which serves as the basis of the Geological Time Scale) is assessed in terms of the stratigraphic markers and approximate boundary levels available to define the base of the unit. The task of assessing and selecting potential Global Boundary Stratotype Section...

The Anthropocene, as a potential new unit of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart, is assessed in terms of stratigraphic markers and approximate boundary levels available to define the unit base. The task of assessing and selecting potential GSSP candidate sections, a requirement in seeking formalisation of the term, is being actively pursue...

Concrete is the most abundant anthropogenic sedimentary rock on the planet, the production process requiring the transport of component cement and aggregates on scales far greater than natural geological processes. A building material for over two millennia, the scale of production and mineralogical and geochemical distinctiveness of concrete since...

We consider means by which the Anthropocene might be defined as a potential formal unit of the Geological Time Scale, whether by a physical reference point, that is, a Global Boundary Stratigraphic Section and Point (GSSP, or “golden spike”), as is typical for chronostratigraphic boundaries in the Phanerozoic, or by a numerical age, a Global Standa...

This exciting volume presents the work and research of the Rivers of the Anthropocene Network, an international collaborative group of scientists, social scientists, humanists, artists, policymakers, and community organizers working to produce innovative transdisciplinary research on global freshwater systems. In an attempt to bridge disciplinary d...

New stable isotope data from organic carbon (δ¹³Corg) and inorganic elemental geochemistry data have been generated from Upper Ordovician to Silurian strata in two boreholes in the Lublin Basin of Poland: Grabowiec-6 and Zwierzyniec-1. They have been integrated here with biostratigraphical data from graptolites, acritarchs, and chitinozoans. Faunal...

The Anthropocene deposits of England, here regarded as those formed after ∼1950 CE, are now extensive, take various forms, and may be characterized and recognized by a number of stratigraphic signals, such as artificial radionuclides, pesticide residues, microplastics, enhanced fly ash levels, concrete fragments and a novel variety of ‘technofossil...

Résumé Le tissu d'une ville correspond à une transformation de matériaux géologiques bruts en un assemblage complexe de nouveaux minéraux, fabriqués par des humains, et de roches, telles que l'acier, le verre, le plastique, le béton, la brique et la céramique. Cette activité est considérée en termes de « métabolisme urbain », avec des afflux et des...

The fabric of a city represents a transformation of raw geological materials into a complex assemblage of new, human-made minerals and rocks such as steel, glass, plastics, concrete, brick, and ceramics. This activity has been considered in terms of an “urban metabolism,” with day-to-day inflows and outflows of people, food, water, and waste materi...

The lower Palaeozoic marine succession of NE Vietnam accumulated on the South China plate. Despite historical works dating to French colonial times, the stratigraphy and palaeontology of the succession is poorly constrained. Chief amongst the lower Palaeozoic lithostratigraphical divisions is the Than Sa Formation, a c. 1200 m thick succession of c...

This is the link to the press release from University of Leicester for the new AWG paper authored by the above members of the working group: https://www2.le.ac.uk/offices/press/press-releases/2017/march/the-anthropocene-scientists-respond-to-criticisms-of-a-new-geological-epoch

A range of published arguments against formalizing the Anthropocene as a geological time unit have variously suggested that it is a misleading term of non-stratigraphic origin and usage, is based on insignificant temporal and material stratigraphic content unlike that used to define older geological time units, is focused on observation of human hi...

Graptolites are biological enigmas of the first order. The planktic graptolites in particular provide splendid examples of evolution. Their evolutionary changes can be followed, often stratum by stratum, through the geological column. In a practical sense, the mechanisms that drove and shaped graptoloid evolution might be thought immaterial. Grapto...

The Anthropocene concept arose within the Earth System science (ESS) community, albeit explicitly as a geological (stratigraphical) time term. Its current analysis by the stratigraphical community, as a potential formal addition to the Geological Time Scale, necessitates comparison of the methodologies and patterns of enquiry of these two communiti...

As officers of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG; J.Z. and C.W.) and chair of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS; M.J.H.) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), we note that the AWG has less power than Erle Ellis and colleagues imply (Nature 540, 192–193; 2016). Its role is merely advisory — to evaluate the Anthropo...

For at least 3.8 billion years, the Earth has possessed a climate system that continuously maintained a surface environment conducive to life, with liquid water at the surface, interchanging with various amounts of polar ice. The early Earth was warm, perhaps with higher concentrations of greenhouse gases compensating for a solar output smaller tha...

We assess the scale and extent of the physical technosphere, defined here as the summed material output of the contemporary human enterprise. It includes active urban, agricultural and marine components, used to sustain energy and material flow for current human life, and a growing residue layer, currently only in small part recycled back into the...

What mark will we leave on the planet?

Stratigraphy provides insights into the evolution and dynamics of the Earth System over its long history. With recent developments in Earth System science, changes in Earth System dynamics can now be observed directly and projected into the near future. An integration of the two approaches provides powerful insights into the nature and significance...

The tectonized and metamorphosed mudrocks within the Variscan accretionary prism of the Kaczawa Mountains in SW Poland comprise sedimentary mélanges together with more coherent stratigraphic units; some represent large olistoliths deposited in a submarine trench. We infer a trend of progressive near-surface stratal disruption in mud-dominated depos...

It is useful to have Todd Braje's perspective on the Anthropocene. As he states, it is a concept that has spread widely and that has had various interpretations (within not just the sciences, but the arts and humanities too) in the 15 years since Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer proposed the term (Crutzen & Stoermer 2000). Various suggestions are m...

Analysis of Silurian graptolite assemblages from 1017 sample horizons in 132 cores (from 65 boreholes) through the Qusaiba Member, Qalibah Formation of Saudi Arabia, provides a refined graptolite biostratigraphy for the Arabian Peninsula comparable in its resolution to that from the British Isles and the Czech Republic. Over 150 graptolite species...

A numerically small graptolite assemblage from the Long Dai Formation at Lam Thuy village, southwestern Le Thuy district, Quang Binh Province, central Vietnam, includes Oktavites spiralis (Geinitz). The relative abundance of this species in the assemblage, coupled to its occurrence with Oktavites bodentoerlensis Loydell, identifies the lower Siluri...

Biospheric relationships between production and consumption of biomass have been resilient to changes in the Earth system over billions of years. This relationship has increased in its complexity, from localised ecosystems predicated on anaerobic microbial production and consumption, to a global biosphere founded on primary production from oxygenic...

The early Silurian (Llandovery) Gondwanan South Polar ice sheet experienced episodes of ice retreat and re-advance. Marine base level curves constructed for the interval are widely assumed to provide a record of the associated glacioeustasy. In revealing a series of progradational sequences (progrades) bounded by flooding surfaces, recent work on t...

Edgeworth, M., Waters, C., Zalasiewicz, J. and Stoddart, S. 2016. Second Anthropocene Working Group Meeting (Conference Report). The European Archaeologist 47, Winter 2015/2016. Available online at: http://e-a-a.org/TEA/cr2_47.pdf

The rise of plastics since the mid-20th century, both as a material element of modern life and as a growing environmental pollutant, has been widely described. Their distribution in both the terrestrial and marine realms suggests that they are a key geological indicator of the Anthropocene, as a distinctive stratal component. Most immediately evide...