Data file : sediments of the East Atlantic continental margin, northwest Africa : sample collection and analysis

The petrology, provenance, and history of sediments from the continental shelf and upper continental slope of western Africa have been studied in some detail by scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as part of a long-term investigation of the marine geology of the Eastern Atlantic Continental Margin (funded by the National Science Foundation through the Office of the International Decade of Ocean Exploration in a grant to Dr. K.O. Emery- GX-28193). In this data file we present the analytical data and other information relating to all of the readily available samples (1178) of sediment from northwestern Africa (off the coasts of Morocco and what was recently called Spanish Sahara). These data have been described and interpreted in a recent article in the scientific literature (Summerhayes and others, 1976). The data file contains sample locations, shipboard descriptions, size data, sand fraction composition, clay mineral composition, carbonate assemblage, and carbonate, nitrogen, and carbon contents. The object of the data file is to make these data readily available to other research groups interested in African margin sediments.Prepared for the National Science Foundation (IDOE) under Grant No. GX-28193

Can nuclear weapons fallout mark the beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch?

Many scientists are making the case that humanity is living in a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene, but there is no agreement yet as to when this epoch began. The start might be defined by a historical event, such as the beginning of the fossil-fueled Industrial Revolution or the first nuclear explosion in 1945. Standard stratigraphic practice, however, requires a more significant, globally widespread, and abrupt signature, and the fallout from nuclear weapons testing appears most suitable. The appearance of plutonium 239 (used in post- 1945 above-ground nuclear weapons tests) makes a good marker: This isotope is rare in nature but a significant component of fallout. It has other features to recommend it as a stable marker in layers of sedimentary rock and soil, including: long half-life, low solubility, and high particle reactivity. It may be used in conjunction with other radioactive isotopes, such as americium 241 and carbon 14, to categorize distinct fallout signatures in sediments and ice caps. On a global scale, the first appearance of plutonium 239 in sedimentary sequences corresponds to the early 1950s. While plutonium is easily detectable over the entire Earth using modern measurement techniques, a site to define the Anthropocene (known as a Ògolden spikeÓ) would ideally be located between 30 and 60 degrees north of the equator, where fallout is maximal, within undisturbed marine or lake environments

Sources and hydrothermal alteration of organic matter in Quaternary sediments: A synthesis of studies from the Central Gulf of California

Deep sea drilling in the Central Gulf of California, a young and active spreading centre, shows that the high heat flow typical of these regions causes extensive alteration of sediment organic matter, especially near sills and above magma chambers where hydrothermal activity is concentrated. Even on the nearby passive margin, where there are no sills, heat flow is moderately high and hydrocarbon generation has begun in immature sequences. Migrating light hydrocarbons are detected especially where hydrothermal activity is concentrated. Thermogenic methane is more widespread, though not in the passive margin bordering the spreading centre. Despite the incidence of hydrocarbon generation and migration, the amounts of hydrocarbons involved are relatively small and apparently do not lead to commercially significant accumulations of petroleum.The organic matter in these sediments is mostly marine because the Gulf of California generally has low runoff from land and highly productive surface waters. Turbidites rich in terrigenous organic material are locally abundant in the mainly pelagic section in the Guaymas Basin. The highest concentrations of organic matter are found in laminated diatomites deposited on the Guaymas passive margin within the oxygen minimum zone.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25993/1/0000059.pd

The geological cycle of plastics and their use as a stratigraphic indicator of the Anthropocene

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 evident in terrestrial deposits, they are clearly becoming widespread in marine sedimentary deposits in both shallow- and deep-water settings. They are abundant and widespread as macroscopic fragments and virtually ubiquitous as microplastic particles; these are dispersed by both physical and biological processes, not least via the food chain and the ‘faecal express’ route from surface to sea floor. Plastics are already widely dispersed in sedimentary deposits, and their amount seems likely to grow several-fold over the next few decades. They will continue to be input into the sedimentary cycle over coming millennia as temporary stores – landfill sites – are eroded. Plastics already enable fine time resolution within Anthropocene deposits via the development of their different types and via the artefacts (‘technofossils’) they are moulded into, and many of these may have long-term preservation potential when buried in strata

Colonization of the Americas, 'Little Ice Age' climate, and bomb-produced carbon: their role in defining the Anthropocene

A recently published analysis by Lewis and Maslin (Lewis SL and Maslin MA (2015) Defining the Anthropocene. Nature 519: 171–180) has identified two new potential horizons for the Holocene−Anthropocene boundary: 1610 (associated with European colonization of the Americas), or 1964 (the peak of the excess radiocarbon signal arising from atom bomb tests). We discuss both of these novel suggestions, and consider that there is insufficient stratigraphic basis for the former, whereas placing the latter at the peak of the signal rather than at its inception does not follow normal stratigraphical practice. Wherever the boundary is eventually placed, it should be optimized to reflect stratigraphical evidence with the least possible ambiguity

The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene

Human activity is leaving a pervasive and persistent signature on Earth. Vigorous debate continues about whether this warrants recognition as a new geologic time unit known as the Anthropocene. We review anthropogenic markers of functional changes in the Earth system through the stratigraphic record. The appearance of manufactured materials in sediments − including aluminum, plastics and concrete − coincides with global spikes in fallout radionuclides and particulates from fossil-fuel combustion. Carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus cycles have been substantially modified over the last century. Rates of sea-level rise, and the extent of human perturbation of the climate system, exceed Late Holocene changes. Biotic changes include species invasions worldwide and accelerating rates of extinction. These combined signals render the Anthropocene stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene and earlier epochs

Is the Anthropocene distinct from the Holocene? [abstract only]

The inaugural meeting of the Anthropocene Working Group of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy in Berlin (Oct. 2014) produced a consensus statement that “humans have altered geologic processes across the Earth system sufficiently to cause a planetary transition to a new interval of geological time”, with the timing of the onset the focus of continued debate, but with a majority in favour of a mid-20th century beginning. The name has driven the assumption that the Anthropocene should be an epoch, but are its signatures truly driven out of the range evident for most of the Holocene, or are changes comparable or subsidiary to Holocene stages? The evidence rests upon a broad range of signatures reflecting humanity’s significant and increasing modification of Earth systems. These are visible in anthropogenic deposits in the form of the greatest expansion of novel minerals in the last 2.4 billion years and development of ubiquitous materials, such as plastics, present in the environment only in the last 60 years. Globally distributed spherical carbonaceous particles of fly ash represent another near-synchronous and permanent proxy. The artefacts we produce, the technofossils of the future, provide a decadal to annual stratigraphical resolution. These materials and deposits have in recent decades extended into the oceans and increasingly into the subsurface both onshore and offshore. These anthropogenic deposits are transported at rates exceeding those of the sediment carried by rivers by an order of magnitude, fluvial systems themselves showing widespread sediment retention in response to dam construction across most major river systems. The Anthropocene is evident in sediment and glacial ice strata as chemical markers. CO2 in the atmosphere has risen by ~45 percent above pre-Industrial Revolution levels, mainly through combustion of hydrocarbons over a few decades. Although average global temperature increases and resultant sea-level rises are still comparatively small, the shift to more negative δ13C values in tree-rings, limestones, speleothems, calcareous fossils and δ13CO2 in ice forms a permanent record. Nitrogen and phosphorus contents in surface soils has approximately doubled through increased use of fertilizers to increase agricultural yields as the human population has also doubled in the last 50 years. Industrial metals such as Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, Zn and persistent organic compounds have been widely and rapidly dispersed. A clear novel signature is radioactive fallout from atomic weapons testing, initiated in 1945 but becoming global in 1952 and in the case of Pu239 representing a long-lasting marker event. The Earth still has most of its complement of biological species, though many now as small populations: current trends of habitat loss and predation, if maintained, will push the Earth into the sixth mass extinction event in the next few centuries. Dramatic elapsed changes include trans-global species invasions and population modification through agricultural development on land and contamination of coastal zones. Although these changes are not synchronous, within near coastal environments microfauna/flora commonly show pronounced assemblage changes in the mid-20th century. Considering the entire range of environmental changes reflected in stratigraphic signatures, the global, large and rapid scale of change related to the mid-20th century is clearly distinct from previous Holocene signatures, consistent with interpretation of the Anthropocene as a potential epoch