A Canadian Lake Holds the Key to the Beginning of the Anthropocene Epoch

Are we really living in the Anthropocene, the geological time marked by the global impact of human activity? And if so, when did it begin?

These are questions that the Anthropocene Working Group – established in 2009 by the International Commission on Stratigraphy to propose a definition of the concept and to estimate its potential as a unit of geologic time – is hoping to answer.

The group announced on July 11, 2023, that Lake Crawford in Ontario, Canada, had been chosen as the site with the sedimentary record that would be used to define the beginning of the Anthropocene.

What makes this site so special that it holds the dividing line between different geological epochs?

Are we really living in the Anthropocene, the geological time marked by the global impact of human activity? And if so, when did it begin?

These are questions that the Anthropocene Working Group – established in 2009 by the International Commission on Stratigraphy to propose a definition of the concept and to estimate its potential as a unit of geologic time – is hoping to answer.

The group announced on July 11, 2023, that Lake Crawford in Ontario, Canada, had been chosen as the site with the sedimentary record that would be used to define the beginning of the Anthropocene.

What makes this site so special that it holds the dividing line between different geological epochs?

Are we really living in the Anthropocene, the geological time marked by the global impact of human activity? And if so, when did it begin?

These are questions that the Anthropocene Working Group – established in 2009 by the International Commission on Stratigraphy to propose a definition of the concept and to estimate its potential as a unit of geologic time – is hoping to answer.

The group announced on July 11, 2023, that Lake Crawford in Ontario, Canada, had been chosen as the site with the sedimentary record that would be used to define the beginning of the Anthropocene.

What makes this site so special that it holds the dividing line between different geological epochs?