THE ANTHROPOCENE: HAVE WE CREATED A NEW GEOLOGICAL TIME INTERVAL?

The
term
“Anthropocene”
was
coined
by
Paul
Crutzen
16
years
ago
to
mark
the
present
as
distinct
from
previous
geological
time.
The
term
has
since
flourished
in
both
scientific
and
popular
publications,
but
without
definition
it
has
developed
many
meanings.
In
2009
the
Anthropocene
Working
Group
(AWG)
was
established
to
advise
the
Subcommission
on
Quaternary
Stratigraphy
(SQS),
the
body
responsible
for
classification
of
the
past
2.6
million
years
of
Earth
history,
on
the
term’s
merit
and
potentially
to
propose
a
definition
based
upon
the
geological
evidence.
The
quest
to
subdivide
geological
time
into
sensible
and
strictly
defined
units,
of
the
Geological
Time
Scale
http://www.stratigraphy.org/index.php/ics
‐
chart
‐
timescale
,
is
one
of
the
cornerstones
of
the
geological
sciences
and
decisions
to
incorporate
new
units
are
not
taken
lightly