It has been 10,000 years that we Earth creatures have lived in the Holocene post-glacial Epoch but it is time now to enter the first ever human impacted geological period which is being called by Scientists, the Anthropocene.
It is characterized by annihilation of fossil carbon stores in a few centuries which took hundreds of millions of years to produce. Tremendously increased erosion, sedimentation and deposition also mark this period. There is the enormously accelerating loss of ice cover in the alpine and polar regions of the world leading to temperature impacts. Massive changes in atmospheric gases also mark the period. These gases affect average global temperatures and extremes. They affect the acidity of water and this in turn affects the survival of many species. Post-glacial rebound with tectonic ramifications and changed ocean levels will be produced. Deserts are on the move and ecosystems are moving faster than some species can adapt. There are marked increases in extinction and changes in species distribution and abundance. Coral reefs and plankton, at the root of the oceanic food chain, are severley impacted. Coastal and island geographic areas face boundary and elevational changes. The nuclear genie fissioning and fusioning are out of the bottle as is the human genome and we found out that we are 90% similar to the rat and have genes in common with Archaea, bacteria like creatures living near undersea volcanic vents and making yellow mats at Yellowstone. If we act like slime, maybe thats why. We ahve a dune buggy wheeling around Mars exploring and answering to ground crew on Earth. Remarkable.
Hello Earth. Humans are here and are going to leave our mark in the stratigraphy. This mark can be a few decimeters thick or a few meters or more. It is up to us humans. I rather think it will be centimeters.
Jormawankenobe
Copyright 2008 Jorma Jyrkkanen, Bsc, PDP
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