A lateral variation in the heterolithic platform facies is present on the southern flank of the Askrigg Block where it transitions to mudrock-dominated basinal facies of the Craven Basin during the Brigantian substage. Revised geological mapping and new micropalaeontological assessment are used to correlate Transition Zone strata with the mixed carbonate and deltaic (Yoredale) cyclic facies of the Alston Formation of the Askrigg Block. This shows the Hawes Limestone to be entirely early Brigantian in age, with a consistent thickness across the study area. The overlying Gayle and Hardraw Scar cycles show marked variations consistent with displacement on the North Craven Fault, whereas the subsequent Simonstone and Middle Limestone cycles are absent within the Transition Zone. The Transition Zone includes younger Brigantian strata than found on the southern Askrigg Block. The Transition Zone is demonstrated to be: (1) affected by early Brigantian regional extension leading to transtensional oblique-slip displacement on the North Craven Fault and northward tilting of the Askrigg Block; (2) development of an erosive palaeo-slope in the Transition Zone during the early to late Brigantian extending across the North Craven Fault in response to transpressional structural inversion, uplift and erosion; (3) onlap of the late Brigantian Alston Formation and subsequently Bowland Shale Formation onto the incised Alston Formation during post-rift regional subsidence; and (4) ultimate northward tilting of the Askrigg Block during the early Pendleian in response to transpressional oblique-slip on the North Craven Fault, prior to deposition of the Millstone Grit Group.

Abstract We evaluate episodes of biosphere change throughout Earth history and compare them with contemporary and near-future anthropogenic changes, developing the concept of biosphere disruptors – agents that force global-scale macroevolutionary change. Transient disruptors are geologically short-lived agents (mean 8.0×10 5 years), including massive volcanism and asteroid impacts. Persistent disruptors , including atmospheric and ocean oxygenation and land plant evolution, remain in the Earth System over long timescales (mean 1.3×10 8 years). In the geological record, transient disruptors are associated with temporary but sometimes massive biosphere degradation, whereas persistent disruptors are associated with sustained biosphere enhancement. Most anthropogenic biosphere impacts resemble those of past transient disruptors , globally degrading wild biomass and biodiversity. Humanity is driving the second highest rate of biosphere degradation in Earth history after the Cretaceous-Paleogene asteroid impact. However, humanity is the first disrupting agent capable of reflecting on and potentially transforming its impact on planetary habitability. If this can be achieved, humanity could drive the greatest rate of increase in planetary habitability in Earth history on centennial to millennial timescales.

In a world where facts are contested, the conceptual tool of the Anthropocene epoch - that is, the dramatic and clearly demonstrable ways humans have changed the Earth system trajectory since the mid-20th century - provides real value for society in general and for education in particular. As a unifying concept, it helps us (a) understand the transformed bioclimatic conditions in which we live, (b) appreciate how fragile they are, how rapidly they are shifting, and their implications for humanity, and (c) explain the importance of containing climatic, biological, and attendant societal runaway effects, through deeper understanding of the Earth system. The Anthropocene as an educational tool can illuminate the web of connections between these themes, but should remain at arm's length from calls to action.

People have observed and collected fossils for thousands of years, sometimes using these to tell stories about mythical beasts or events. In more recent times, fossils have been fundamental to the development of a deep understanding of Earth's dynamic processes, including its evolving biosphere, with notable contributions to the development of this science from Western, Middle Eastern and Asian traditions. Thus, fossils have been used both through technical studies in scholarly research and for telling stories about our broader relationships with the biosphere. Here, we examine the fossil records of two aspects of anthropogenic impact on the biosphere, those of extinction and of non-native species. We discuss how a scientific understanding of the fossil record grounds our projections of future environmental change, while storytelling is an essential art that helps people understand and forge a more sustainable relationship with a biosphere that has maintained life for billions of years. This article is part of the theme issue 'The biosphere in the Anthropocene'.

The term ‘Anthropocene’ was coined in recognition that human activities have ended the relatively stable environment of the Holocene epoch. However, its widespread adoption across the humanities, arts and sciences has led to diverse and sometimes incompatible definitions. In this Perspective, we argue for a stabilized definition of the Anthropocene epoch to help address contemporary environmental challenges, and explore various applications of the Anthropocene across disciplines. The Anthropocene epoch, with a proposed start point in 1952, underscores that human-driven global-scale environmental disruption differs from earlier human impacts of the Holocene, which did not cause such profound destabilization. This clear distinction enables quantitative and qualitative comparisons between the Holocene and Anthropocene epochs, as already utilized, for instance, within the planetary boundaries framework. As the Anthropocene Earth system transformation is systemic, political responses also need be systemic, rather than ad hoc. A unified Anthropocene epoch would help facilitate systematic, actionable climate and environmental policies. By contrast, alternative, extended interpretations of the Anthropocene are used to reflect accumulated human environmental impacts over many millennia. These broader interpretations portray the totality of anthropogenic change but obscure the quantitatively established departure from Holocene conditions. Applying a consistent Anthropocene epoch definition will improve its utility to science, scholarship and policy. The Anthropocene is a term applied across geological, environmental and social sciences, and the humanities and arts. This Perspective explores various applications of the term and discusses how a consistent definition could support transdisciplinary efforts to address modern environmental challenges.

The mid-twentieth-century initiation of the Great Acceleration left an indelible anthropogenic imprint on the Earth's stratigraphic record, including the global dispersal of novel materials. Microplastics (particles 1 μm - 5 mm) are emblematic diagnostic markers of this interval due to their mostly entirely novel polymeric chemistry and ubiquity across diverse depositional environments. Microplastics represented an important component of the ultimately rejected proposal to formalize an Anthropocene epoch beginning in 1952 CE, but the stratigraphic utility of microplastics as near-synchronous markers of human transformation of the planet remains a critical frontier in Earth System science. This study provides a comprehensive synthesis of the role of microplastics as a stratigraphic marker, reflecting their growing environmental impacts. We evaluate their performance against the Anthropocene's proposed primary marker of plutonium and introduce a novel framework for their geological interpretation. We propose a polymer-based chemostratigraphic model incorporating abundance, lineage and interval zones to capture the evolution of synthetic materials since the 1950s. Crucially, we address the often-neglected principles of taphonomy in microplastic research. Our analysis reveals that, although methodological inconsistencies and post-depositional mobility pose challenges, specific polymers with documented production histories can provide highly precise horizons for global correlation. By harmonising analytical protocols and integrating taphonomic assessments, microplastics can provide a durable, multidimensional record of the Anthropocene that complements traditional geochemical and biotic signals.

The Geological Time Scale provides a global framework for correlating major Earth system changes over geological history. The Anthropocene term is widely used to describe transformative human impacts on the environment but lacks a formal Geological Time Scale definition, and hence is applied and interpreted inconsistently. In this Perspective, we summarize multi-proxy evidence from 12 globally distributed stratigraphic records to show that mid-twentieth century Earth system changes are abrupt, globally synchronous, and stratigraphically distinct, providing a basis for precisely defining the Anthropocene as a series and epoch. Accelerated fossil fuel combustion, industrial pollution and biosphere transformation have caused extensive climate, environmental and ecosystem disruptions that are recorded in stratigraphic successions. Atmospheric carbon dioxide and methane concentrations at 51% and 157% above Holocene levels have driven global temperatures to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, marking a substantial departure from earlier relatively stable climatic conditions. A sharp global plutonium increase in 1952, related to above-ground thermonuclear detonations, provides the most suitable primary marker for establishing the Anthropocene’s base, supported by an array of proxies, many unique to the Anthropocene. Formal recognition of the Anthropocene on the Geological Time Scale would communicate the scale and abruptness of human-driven Earth system change, distinct from the less pronounced human impacts during the Holocene. The Anthropocene is widely used without fixed definition. This Perspective argues for its base to be defined in 1952 by a sharp plutonium upturn coinciding with changes in multiple proxies, providing a globally correlatable horizon reflecting substantial human-driven Earth system disruption.

Damianos provides his views on the significance of the March 2024 decision by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) to reject the proposal of the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG), the body we represent, to formalize the Anthropocene as a series/epoch of the Geological Time Scale. He draws upon 'four years of ethnographic observation' of the AWG, over which time this body provided him with access to its meetings and discussions. Given this access, the numerous misrepresentations within his article warrant redress. Ultimately, his conclusions mimic claims of influential figures within the governing bodies of the stratigraphic process: that the AWG were attempting to formalize the Anthropocene for political reasons and subvert the process through use of the media, and that the proposed definition was based upon claims about the future and not the past geological record. We refute those accusations, and emphasize that the proposed Anthropocene epoch, based on scrupulous and detailed analysis of the stratigraphic record, demonstrates striking and transformative Earth System change driven by the mid-20th century 'Great Acceleration' of human activities.

The unprecedented environmental changes resulting from anthropogenic activities initiated during the Great Acceleration of the mid-20th century can be traced using radiocarbon analysis. The cosmogenic isotope 14C, which is produced in the atmosphere, is well-known as the geochronological tool applied to archives of the last 55 thousand years. However, during the last 200 years, the natural signal of 14C in the atmosphere and connected reservoirs (biosphere, ocean, soils, etc.,) has been perturbed by human activities. Two anthropogenic effects are observed: a decreasing trend observed in 14C concentration of the atmosphere (Suess effect) which has been temporarily reversed by aboveground thermonuclear tests of the 1950/60s.The excess of the artificially produced 14C (bomb pulse) is a useful time marker for the mid-20th century and the detection of the bomb peak in natural archives has thus been proposed as a tool to locate and date the onset of a proposed new epoch, the Anthropocene [1].Here we present the results of radiocarbon analysis conducted as a part of the research dedicated to establishing the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the proposed Anthropocene series. The studied sites include corals (Flinders Reef, AU and Flower Garden Banks, USA)[2, 3], peat (Śnieżka peatland, PL)[4], lake sediment (Crawford Lake, CA and Searsville Lake, USA)[5, 6] and marine sediment (East Gotland Basin, Baltic Sea)[7]. The variety of records (different carbon reservoirs) required site and sample-specific treatment prior to analysis and site-specific interpretation of the measured 14C. Nevertheless, the mid-20th century bomb peak was detected at all but one of these sites (Searsville Lake)[6]. In all records, the observed onset of the 14C bomb peak always postdates 1954, the year of the first atmospheric 14C bomb increase. The specific reservoir effects and corrections will be discussed.ReferencesThe Anthropocene Review, 2023. 10(1):1. Waters, C.N., et al. (Eds.), Candidate sites and other reference sections for the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point of the Anthropocene series. p. 3-24.2. Zinke, J., et al., North Flinders Reef (Coral Sea, Australia) Porites sp. corals as a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene series. p. 201-224.3. DeLong, K.L., et al., The Flower Garden Banks Siderastrea siderea coral as a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene series. p. 225-250.4. Fiałkiewicz-Kozieł, B., et al., The Śnieżka peatland as a candidate for the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene series. p. 288-315.5. McCarthy, F.M.G., et al., The varved succession of Crawford Lake, Milton, Ontario, Canada as a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene series. p. 146-176.6. Stegner, M.A., et al., The Searsville Lake Site (California, USA) as a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene Series. p. 116-145.7. Kaiser, J., et al., The East Gotland Basin (Baltic Sea) as a candidate Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point for the Anthropocene series. p. 25-48.

The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) was founded in 2009 to investigate the potential of the Anthropocene as a chronostratigraphic unit of the Geological Time Scale. After more than 14 years of work, many key publications and fierce discussions both within and outside the AWG, and several rounds of voting, the AWG concluded by great majority that the Anthropocene concept of Crutzen (2002) has stratigraphic reality and that a formal GSSP definition is pragmatic and suitable at the mid-twentieth century, coincident with the Great Acceleration of Earth System Sciences. The resulting GSSP proposal is located in Crawford Lake (Canada) sediment core with the base of the Anthropocene marked by an upturn in plutonium coincident with autumn 1952. However, during the years of AWG investigations, criticisms from outside and a minority group within the AWG opposed to the majority consensus and published results of the AWG (see Zalasiewicz et al., in press), have undermined the significance, importance and usefulness of the Anthropocene as a (chrono)stratigraphic unit. However, beyond its debated geological implications but in it’s wider interdisciplinary and popular context, the term has evolved into a symbol emblematic of global change, the current climate, and ecological crisis. An argument of prominent geoscientists is that the AWG is politically and not scientifically motivated when dealing with the Anthropocene. Despite the AWG following established ICS protocols and procedures for stratigraphic working groups and founding their conclusions transparently through publications (e.g. Waters et al., 2016, 2023; Zalasiewicz et al., 2017), a political dimension is implicitly imposed on both AWG members, but also at their critics. To what extent would rejection of the Anthropocene proposal be interpreted outside of the sciences as a rejection of the scale of the current global crises? Research into the Anthropocene by the AWG has resulted in awareness and engagement of involved scientists in a crisis for which geology has some liability, but also in a wider interest of the humanities, media and arts on the stratigraphic work of the AWG. Hence, one may interpret geological research in the Anthropocene as a great and timely societal mission for the geosciences, resulting, hopefully, in a sustainable geological discipline emerging out of its historical linkage with the fossil energy sector.Crutzen, P.J., 2002. Geology of Mankind. Nature 415: 23.Waters, C.N. et al., 2016. The Anthropocene is functionally and stratigraphically distinct from the Holocene. Science 351(6269): 137.Waters, C.N. et al., (Eds.), 2023. Candidate sites and other reference sections for the Global boundary Stratotype Section and Point of the Anthropocene series. The Anthropocene Review 10(1): 3–24.Zalasiewicz, J. et al., 2017. The Working Group on the Anthropocene: Summary of evidence and interim recommendations. Anthropocene 19: 55–60.Zalasiewicz, J. et al., in press. The Anthropocene within the Geological Time Scale: analysis of fundamental questions. Episodes.

The Anthropocene was introduced to denote a dramatic, ongoing, planetary shift from prolonged relative Holocene stability, driving the Earth system into a new functional state outside its natural variability. Now stratigraphically-grounded, the Anthropocene is de facto a new epoch, not the subjective filtering of all anthropogenic impacts in Earth history.

Abrupt planetary change forced by the cumulative and overwhelming impacts of human activities in the mid‐twentieth century supports a new geologic epoch, named after Anthropos , the agent of this change. This transformation extends well beyond Holocene norms and is identified in geologic records worldwide. A proposal to define the Anthropocene series/epoch in varved sediments from Crawford Lake, Ontario was rejected by the International Union of Geological Sciences, but the novel Earth System state will persist for tens of millennia, dampening Milankovitch forcing that paces glacial–interglacial cycles through the Quaternary Period.

This is the Executive Summary of a report produced by the membership of the Anthropocene Working Group as part of a submission to the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy to seek formalisation of the Anthropocene as an epoch of geological time. It summarises the content of two reports and their associated appendices which provide a background to: the history of usage of the term Anthropocene, when the proposed epoch started, the characterisation of the Anthropocene geological deposits and their stratigraphic value, the recognition of the Anthropocene in different sedimentary environments, the rank and duration of the Anthropocene, the proposed Global boundary Stratigraphic Section and Point and supporting Standard Auxiliary Boundary Sections.

Even though geologists have rejected the designation of an Anthropocene epoch, the idea of a major planetary transition in the mid-twentieth century remains useful across physical and social sciences, the humanities and policy. Even though geologists have rejected the designation of an Anthropocene epoch, the idea of a major planetary transition in the mid-twentieth century remains useful across physical and social sciences, the humanities and policy.

This is a guide to the key exposures of the Bowland Shale Formation present within the Craven and Edale basins of England, providing contrasting settings from respectively the northern and southern parts of the Craven Group extent. It provides a description of the evolution of the deposition of the hemipelagic mudstone-dominated components of the Craven Group during the Visean to early Namurian (Mississippian to early Pennsylvanian). It explains the significance of the chosen localities in understanding the development of the Bowland Shale Formation and gives details on the sections visible at the time of compilation, providing useful guidance for field visits.

The "Great Acceleration" beginning in the mid-20th century provides the causal mechanism of the Anthropocene, which has been proposed as a new epoch of geological time beginning in 1952 CE. Here we identify key parameters and their diagnostic palaeontological signals of the Anthropocene, including the rapid breakdown of discrete biogeographical ranges for marine and terrestrial species, rapid changes to ecologies resulting from climate change and ecological degradation, the spread of exotic foodstuffs beyond their ecological range, and the accumulation of reconfigured forest materials such as medium density fibreboard (MDF) all being symptoms of the Great Acceleration. We show: 1) how Anthropocene successions in North America, South America, Africa, Oceania, Europe, and Asia can be correlated using palaeontological signatures of highly invasive species and changes to ecologies that demonstrate the growing interconnectivity of human systems; 2) how the unique depositional settings of landfills may concentrate the remains of organisms far beyond their geographical range of environmental tolerance; and 3) how a range of settings may preserve a long-lived, unique palaeontological record within post-mid-20th century deposits. Collectively these changes provide a global palaeontological signature that is distinct from all past records of deep-time biotic change, including those of the Holocene.