Comment on "When did the Anthropocene begin? A mid-twentieth century boundary is stratigraphically optimal" by Jan Zalasiewicz et al. (2015), Quaternary International, 383, 196-203

We offer a comment on the paper: "When did the Anthropocene begin? A mid-twentieth century boundary is stratigraphically optimal" by Jan Zalasiewicz et al. (2015), Quaternary International, 383, 196-203. We consider this proposal in the context of the procedures and terminology employed by the International Union of Geological Sciences which underpin the formal designation of chronostratigraphic units. Our conclusion is that there is no practical value in establishing the lower boundary of a new interval of geological time in the mid-twentieth century; equally, there is no sound stratigraphical basis for designating an additional chronostratigraphic unit above the Holocene in the international Geological Time Scale. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd and INQUA. All rights reserved.Peer reviewe

Geology of London, UK

The population of London is around 7 million. The infrastructure to support this makes London one of the most intensively investigated areas of upper crust. However construction work in London continues to reveal the presence of unexpected ground conditions. These have been discovered in isolation and often recorded with no further work to explain them. There is a scientific, industrial and commercial need to refine the geological framework for London and its surrounding area. This paper reviews the geological setting of London as it is understood at present, and outlines the issues that current research is attempting to resolve

GSSPs, global stratigraphy and correlation

Procedures used to define an international chronostratigraphic stage boundary and to locate and ratify a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) are outlined. A majority of current GSSPs use biostratigraphic data as primary markers with no reference to any physicochemical markers, despite the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic Classification (ISSC) suggestion that such markers should be included if possible. It is argued that such definitions will not produce the high-precision Phanerozoic time scale necessary to understand such phenomena as pre-Pleistocene ice ages and global climate change. It is strongly recommended that all GSSPs should have physico-chemical markers as an integral part of their guiding criteria, and where such markers cannot be found, the GSSP should be relocated. The methods and approach embodied in oceanic stratigraphy – coring, logging, analysing and archiving of drill sites by numerous experts using a wide range of methods – could usefully serve as a scientific model for the analysis and archiving of GSSPs, all of which are on the present-day continents. The incorporation of many more stratigraphic sections into GSSP studies, the application of physico-chemical methods, and the replacement of old U–Pb dates by newer CA-TIMS U–Pb dates, together with the use of constrained optimization (CONOP) programs that produce a calendar of events from many sections, should lead to much more precise timescales for pre-Cenozoic time than are currently available

The relationship between the loess stratigraphy in the Vojvodina region of northern Serbia and the Saalian and Rissian Stage glaciations – a review

The regional loess stratigraphy in the Vojvodina region, in the southeastern Carpathian Basin has often been successfully correlated to global palaeoclimate. The loess record in the Carpathian Basin is a quasi-continuous data set on the sedimentary, climatic, and environmental conditions during the last four glacial/interglacial cycles. In this study, we present a standardized loess stratigraphy dataset and illustrate how it correlates with the marine oxygen isotope and Chinese loess stratigraphical records of palaeoclimate. We argue that the loess stratigraphy in Vojvodina region is an important link in the integration of European terrestrial stratigraphical schemes and the marine oxygen isotope stratigraphical model. Despite a few problems with these correlations, the suggested general framework represents a significant stratigraphical approach towards better and chronologically consistent, European stratigraphical models. We highlight how the loess record can better understand terrestrial environmental change through multiple glacial cycles when other records, such as glacial records. In these cases, evidence of glaciations are often missing due to the inherently fragmentary nature of these records, a situation common to most other terrestrial records. The loess sequences of the Carpathian (Pannonian) Basin provide an unique quasi-continuous environmental record that enables direct links to be made between the loess sediment records and their sources - glacial erosion in the Alps and other southern European mountains. This reveals evidence of glaciations during every glacial cycle of the Saalian Stage complex, equivalent to MIS 10, 8, and 6. It is argued, therefore, that loess has the potential to provide a direct link between terrestrial glaciations and wider records of global climate change, which is an enigma for many other continental records, especially during the Saalian Stage complex and equivalent Rissian Stage glaciations (MIS 10-6). The Serbian loess records display a strong relationship with the intensity of European glaciations during different glacial cycles. Loess sedimentation rates are highest in the most entensive European glaciation of the Saalian complex (MIS 6) and much lower during the weaker ‘missing’ glaciations equivalent to MIS 8 and 10.In contrast loess exposures in the Vojvodina region indicate that dust deposition was minimal during the interglacials, as was characteristic for interglacial loess in China. However, in contrast to the Chinese loess which saw deserts form in some interglacials, during the interglacials in Europe soils formed on the loess.A key observation from the Vojvodina loess is that a gradual increase in interglacial aridity through the late Middle Pleistocene (the Saalian complex). The explanation for the progressively increasing aridity in the southeastern Carpathian Basin and the Balkan region at this time is still unclear. However, this trend - of gradually increasing interglacial aridity - is consistent with the idea of the Saalian complex as representing a 400 ka mega glacial cycle modulated by shorter classic 100 ka glacial cycles