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Chapter 9 - Stratigraphy: Finding Global Markers in a Small Canadian Lake

from Part Two - One Anthropocene; Many Stories

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2022

By
Francine McCarthy
Edited by
Julia Adeney Thomas
Julia Adeney Thomas
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame, Indiana
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Summary

After the 2019 Anthropocene Working Group vote to propose the Anthropocene as a geological epoch, the search began for a sequence of rock strata that could serve as the new epoch's marker. Canada's Crawford Lake has many characteristics that make it a potential candidate for this marker (known as the "geologic section," GSSP, or, more colloquially, the "golden spike.") This small, deep lake fills a karstic sinkhole on the Niagara Escarpment. The undisturbed sediment deep beneath its waters contains clear couplets called varves deposited seasonally (much like tree rings), recording annual environmental change. Core samples taken from the lake bottom tell the story of human disruption. Evidence of a nearby Iroquoian village, dating to the 13th – 15th century, illustrates human impact prior to the mid-20th century, but the magnitude of human impact in the mid-20th century is far greater, as the varves clearly show. We can read evidence of the Anthropocene in lake bottom deposits.

Keywords

geologic timelake sedimentsannual laminae (varves)anthropogenic impactisochronous markersIroquoian agriculturegolden spikeGSSP
Type
Chapter
Information
Altered Earth
Getting the Anthropocene Right
 , pp. 196 - 208
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

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References

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