For the last 10,000 years or so—that is, since the last time the earth was covered in ice—we’ve been in what geologists call the Holocene Epoch. But a group of British geologists writing in GSA Today suggest that because the byproducts of ever-increasing human consumption will leave a lasting mark in the geologic record, a epoch name change is in order. Their suggestion? The Anthropocene Epoch. (The same idea was put forth about five years ago by Nobel Prize-winning chemist Paul Crutzen, whom the authors credit.)
The paper lists specific geological alterations humans have ushered in, including: an increase in erosion through agriculture and dams; an increase in atmospheric carbon, largely from the use of fossil fuels; a host of plant and animal extinctions; and rising sea levels.
The question is when this Anthropocene period should start. In the past, new epochs were marked by a global standard section and point (GSSP), or “golden spike,” in which some quantifiable geologic measure of the era, something that wasn’t present in the previous era, could be measured across the globe. The Anthropocene, for instance, might be defined by its high carbon levels, or by the radioactive isotopes from atomic bombs. But the authors argue that the true start of the Anthropocene was the Industrial Revolution:
In the case of the Anthropocene, however, it is not clear that a GSSP is immediately necessary…It may be that simply selecting a numerical age (say the beginning of 1800) may be an equally effective practical measure. This would allow (for the present and near future) simple and unambiguous correlation of the stratigraphical and historical records and give consistent utility and meaning to this as yet informal (but increasingly used) term.
(Hat tip: Chris) (A coal power plant in Helsinki, Flickr, by Mikko Italahti)
Anthropologists have discovered the earliest known iron mine in South America, in the Andes mountains of southern Peru. The mine was begun about 2000 years ago by the Nasca people, according to Kevin Vaughn, of Purdue University. During its 1,400 years of operation, workers removed some 3,700 metric tons of earth by hand to get at the mine’s hematite ore. The Nasca apparently didn’t exhaust the vein, either, as the ancient mine now sits opposite a modern-day one.
Beginning in 2004, Vaughn discovered shards of pottery with distinct colors and designs at the site, allowing him to place the age within a century. He later used radiocarbon dating to get more precise dates, then gave the artifacts to the museum of the National Cultural Institute in Ica, Peru.
Curiously - or perhaps refreshingly - the Nasca were disinclined to make weapons out of the iron they mined. Instead, they used the ore to make bright glazes, dyes, and paints for decorating items such as their fanciful pottery (above, a Nasca killer whale, or orca).
Is it possible for a redwood tree to be an environmental menace? In the densely packed San Francisco Bay area, sparring homeowners are finding the answer is a “maybe” even when both have the planet’s best interests at heart, the San Jose Mercury News reports.
On one side of the fence - in this case, a backyard fence in Sunnyvale, Calif. - are the redwood trees Richard Treanor and Carolynn Bisset planted to give their home some privacy. On the other side are the solar panels Mark Vargas installed to cut his family’s power bills to almost nothing. Recently the redwood trees have grown tall enough to cast their shadows on the solar cells. Vargas went to court, and now both families are digging in their heels, despite a potential penalty of $1,000 per day for not removing the trees.
What would you do? Cut down the redwoods, or demand that Vargas suck more electricity from the power company to make up the difference? (His roof is too small to allow him to move the solar array.)
A growing tree can remove around 14 pounds of carbon from the atmosphere each year, according to a source in the article, but a solar array offsets that amount (by reducing the demand for power generation) every few days.
(Image: jsilver/Flickr; hat tip: KSJ Tracker)
On Wednesday, Yellowstone National Park launched a new webcam service that lets you spy on Old Faithful and the park’s other huge geysers. The webcam gives live, streaming images 24 hours a day (though I must admit that watching during the night hours isn’t so exciting).
Even in the daytime, you might have to watch for awhile before any action happens. Old Faithful erupts every 90 minutes or so, when the expansion of steam bubbles inside exerts enough pressure to explode from the ground—shooting hot, hot water more than 100 feet into the air.
The park has other webcams, too. One shows the New Mammoth Hot Springs; another shows the air quality at the parking lot of the Old Faithful Inn. Or, if you don’t care much about the video, but want real-time information about Yellowstone’s volcanic activity, head over to the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory.
A bizarre, 60-foot-tall palm topped by a display of hundreds of flowers has been discovered near a cashew plantation in Madagascar. When the flowers are at full bloom they drip nectar, luring hordes of insects and birds with their sweetness. Shortly after, the entire tree dies of exhaustion. It’s these sorts of bizarre discoveries - still regularly cropping up even in this old world of ours - that keep me hopeful about our planet and its inexhaustible supply of mysteries.
The mysteries of Tahina spectabilis, as the new plant is known, extend into the species’ academic footnotes. The botanist who described it, John Dransfield of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew, UK, was at a loss to explain how the great palm came to exist on Madagascar, a large island about 250 miles off Africa, in the Indian Ocean. The plant’s closest relatives are in the Middle East and Southeast Asia; it has no near relatives on Madagascar.
It’s also something of a mystery how a giant palm with 15-foot fronds went undiscovered for so long on the island nation. Madagascar has been extensively deforested and turned over to cultivation. Much of what’s left has long been combed over by biologists specifically looking for new, thrilling nuggets among its unique collection of plants and animals. (As Douglas Adams, of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy fame, poignantly described in Last Chance to See, a great little book about conservation.)
But perhaps the clearest indication of the palm’s bizarreness is that it made it onto Slashdot - despite a total lack of electrical power, firmware upgrades, or Macintosh compatibility. In a related post, Slashdot suggests that the plant’s impressive size makes it visible on Google Earth. Your dedicated Gist blogger was unable to verify this, but would love it if any readers find the location and post it in comments.
So just what do they mean by “impressive”? Here’s another photo for some scale. The small mammals scurrying around the base of the palm are humans. The backlit triangle of foliage (resembling a shopworn Christmas tree) is the great flowering display of the palm, the rest of which sits somewhat more humbly below it.
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