Scientists still debate whether the Anthropocene is different from the Holocene, and the term has not been formally adopted by the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), the international organization that names and defines epochs. The word Anthropocene is derived from the Greek words anthropo, for “man,” and cene for “new,” coined and made popular by biologist Eugene Stormer and chemist Paul Crutzen in 2000. However, the Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Officially, the current epoch is called the Holocene, which began 11,700 years ago after the last major ice age. The study of this correlation is called stratigraphy. From examining these fossils, scientists know that certain organisms are characteristic of certain parts of the geologic record. These units are classified based on Earth’s rock layers, or strata, and the fossils found within them. These divisions, in descending length of time, are called eons, eras, periods, epochs, and ages. Earth’s history is divided into a hierarchical series of smaller chunks of time, referred to as the geologic time scale.
0 kommentar(er)
