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

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 8; no. 1; pp. 3293 - 10
• Main Authors: Turney, Chris S. M., Palmer, Jonathan, Maslin, Mark A., Hogg, Alan, Fogwill, Christopher J., Southon, John, Fenwick, Pavla, Helle, Gerhard, Wilmshurst, Janet M., McGlone, Matt, Bronk Ramsey, Christopher, Thomas, Zoë, Lipson, Mathew, Beaven, Brent, Jones, Richard T., Andrews, Oliver, Hua, Quan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19-02-2018; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 704/106/47; 704/172/4081; Anthropocene; Anthropogenic factors; Archives & records; Atmosphere; Climate change; Environmental science; Geobiology; Geology; Humanities and Social Sciences; Laboratories; multidisciplinary; Picea sitchensis; Research centers; Research parks; Science; Science (multidisciplinary)
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-20970-5

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 (
14
C) 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
14
C, 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.