The Anthropocene was proposed as a term (Crutzen and Stoermer 2000) before consideration was given to the nature of the key signatures, contrasting with standard procedures for defining such units. The term is being widely used in both popular and scientific publications before a decision is made as to whether it warrants formalisation and definition of a Global Stratigraphic Section and Point (GSSP). The deliberate human modification of the landscape and its subsurface, and the creation of human-generated novel sedimentary deposits, minerals, and landforms, are characteristic features of the development of Earth's surface and near surface, which has accelerated in the past two centuries. The large-scale intentional excavation, transportation, and deposition of mixtures of rock and soil to form anthropogenic deposits and landforms represent a new geological process that could be used as a diagnostic signature of the Anthropocene.Keywords Anthropocene Á Stratigraphy Á Anthropogenic deposits
Stratigraphic Issues Related to Anthropogenic DepositsThe ground surface and deposits immediately beneath are an open system prone to modification through urban redevelopment, agricultural ploughing, and soil formation. This system may be the product of several phases of ongoing evolution and therefore dating this interval is problematic. The history of excavation in archaeology helps to determine the timing of events, analogous to the use of geological unconformities through allostratigraphy (Ford et al. 2014). The complex unconformities, of value at a local scale for dating the relative age of deposits, do not permit regional-scale correlation of these surfaces to be made. The only unconformity that can be certainly correlated is the contact between basal artificial deposits and the underlying natural deposits that pre-date human modification of that landscape; this bounding surface is highly diachronous. Ford et al. (2014) recognise that human artefacts, used as indicators of age in archaeological investigations, are equivalent to geological ''type-fossils'' and that modification of the landscape (anthroturbation) may be considered as humanproduced trace fossils. Both are functions of technological evolution, with certain technologies replacing older ones because they are better adapted, comparable to natural selection controlling biostratigraphic signatures. Artefacts evolve from invention (equivalent to First Appearance Datum) to global distribution (or biostratigraphic acme) and then to obsolescence (or biostratigraphic rarity) within years or decades as a function of the globalisation of trade. These artefacts and compositional variations in human waste can provide a very high-resolution tool for dating deposits. Their long-term preservation potential is controlled by the material composition, moisture content, temperature, redox potential, and pH of the deposits, and in the distant future relatively few distinctive artefacts may be recognisable (Ford et al. 2014).
Potential Ages for the Start of the Anthrop...