Digitalization and the Anthropocene

Seizing the Digitalization Opportunity

Sediment flux and the Anthropocene.

Data and computer simulations are reviewed to help better define the timing and magnitude of human influence on sediment flux--the Anthropocene epoch. Impacts on the Earth surface processes are not spatially or temporally homogeneous. Human influences on this sediment flux have a secondary effect on floodplain and delta-plain functions and sediment dispersal into the coastal ocean. Human impact...

Ice Sheets and the Anthropocene

Ice could play a role in identifying and defining the Anthropocene. The recurrence of northern hemisphere glaciation and the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet are both potentially vulnerable to human impact on the environment. However, only a very long hiatus in either would be unusual in the context of the Quaternary Period, requiring the definition of a geological boundary. Human influence...

Geobiology of the Anthropocene

Homo sapiens first appeared on the Earth somewhere in Africa roughly 200 000 years ago. It happened with little fanfare; few could have imagined that this new species of primate would someday disrupt the Earth system to the point of defining a new geologic epoch around its legacy. Indeed, the first 150 000 years of the natural history of our species, mostly in Africa, were fairly uneventful for...

Stratigraphy of the Anthropocene.

The Anthropocene, an informal term used to signal the impact of collective human activity on biological, physical and chemical processes on the Earth system, is assessed using stratigraphic criteria. It is complex in time, space and process, and may be considered in terms of the scale, relative timing, duration and novelty of its various phenomena. The lithostratigraphic signal includes both di...