Anthropocene: What, When and How?

The term Anthropocene has begun to be used to emphasize that conditions on Earth are governed by human activity and not by natural processes, as in the Holocene. However, the Anthropocene is not yet fully defined, neither temporally nor stratigraphically. The purpose of this study is therefore to define what characterizes the Anthropocene, investigate stratigraphic markers that define its beginning and thus find its start date. The study was based on a litterature review of scientific articles published in peer-review journals. The selected articles were limited to studies published after 2002 and which treated Anthropocene from a geological perspective. The study shows that the Great Acceleration (from 1950 onwards) is the time period that has given rise to the largest number of markers for the Anthropocene. Results indicate that the primary marker should either be fly ash (SCP) or δ13C, whereas artificial radionuclides (14C, 239Pu), δ15N and microplastics could be used as secondary markers. In the distant future, the effects of temperature rise and the sixth mass extinction are likely to be the clearest traces of the Anthropocene's beginning.