Global Peak in Atmospheric Radiocarbon Provides a Potential Definition for the Onset of the Anthropocene Epoch in 1965

TY - JOUR

T1 - Global Peak in Atmospheric Radiocarbon Provides a Potential Definition for the Onset of the Anthropocene Epoch in 1965

AU - Turney, Chris S.M.

AU - Palmer, Jonathan

AU - Maslin, Mark A.

AU - Hogg, Alan

AU - Fogwill, Christopher J.

AU - Southon, John

AU - Fenwick, Pavla

AU - Helle, Gerhard

AU - Wilmshurst, Janet M.

AU - McGlone, Matt

AU - Bronk Ramsey, Christopher

AU - Thomas, Zoë

AU - Lipson, Mathew

AU - Beaven, Brent

AU - Jones, Richard T.

AU - Andrews, Oliver

AU - Hua, Quan

N1 - Funding Information: Our thanks to the captain and crew of the MV Akademik Shokalskiy, and Henk Haazen and Kali Kahn on the Tiama for help in the field. This work was supported by the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013–2014, the Australian Research Council (FL100100195, FT120100004, and DP130104156), the New Zealand Department of Conservation and the University of New South Wales. Research on the New Zealand subantarctic Campbell Island was undertaken under Department of Conservation National Authorisation Numbers 37687-FAU and 39761-RES. JMW and MSM were supported by SSIF funding for Crown Research Institutes from the New Zealand Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s Science and Innovation Group. We thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful comments. Publisher Copyright: © 2018 The Author(s).

PY - 2018/12/1

Y1 - 2018/12/1

N2 - Anthropogenic activity is now recognised as having profoundly and permanently altered the Earth system, suggesting we have entered a human-dominated geological epoch, the 'Anthropocene'. To formally define the onset of the Anthropocene, a synchronous global signature within geological-forming materials is required. Here we report a series of precisely-dated tree-ring records from Campbell Island (Southern Ocean) that capture peak atmospheric radiocarbon (14C) resulting from Northern Hemisphere-dominated thermonuclear bomb tests during the 1950s and 1960s. The only alien tree on the island, a Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), allows us to seasonally-resolve Southern Hemisphere atmospheric 14C, demonstrating the 'bomb peak' in this remote and pristine location occurred in the last-quarter of 1965 (October-December), coincident with the broader changes associated with the post-World War II 'Great Acceleration' in industrial capacity and consumption. Our findings provide a precisely-resolved potential Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) or 'golden spike', marking the onset of the Anthropocene Epoch.

AB - Anthropogenic activity is now recognised as having profoundly and permanently altered the Earth system, suggesting we have entered a human-dominated geological epoch, the 'Anthropocene'. To formally define the onset of the Anthropocene, a synchronous global signature within geological-forming materials is required. Here we report a series of precisely-dated tree-ring records from Campbell Island (Southern Ocean) that capture peak atmospheric radiocarbon (14C) resulting from Northern Hemisphere-dominated thermonuclear bomb tests during the 1950s and 1960s. The only alien tree on the island, a Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis), allows us to seasonally-resolve Southern Hemisphere atmospheric 14C, demonstrating the 'bomb peak' in this remote and pristine location occurred in the last-quarter of 1965 (October-December), coincident with the broader changes associated with the post-World War II 'Great Acceleration' in industrial capacity and consumption. Our findings provide a precisely-resolved potential Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) or 'golden spike', marking the onset of the Anthropocene Epoch.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85042230057&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-018-20970-5

DO - 10.1038/s41598-018-20970-5

M3 - Article

C2 - 29459648

AN - SCOPUS:85042230057

SN - 2045-2322

VL - 8

JO - Scientific reports

JF - Scientific reports

IS - 1

M1 - 3293

ER -