IT'S ABOUT TIME: CHRONOSTRATIGRAPHY, DIACHRONEITY, AND THE DEFINITION OF THE ANTHROPOCENE

The concept and definition of the term Anthropocene have rapidly taken diverging paths within different communities. Whereas this term has already become entrenched in the broader academic community, even to the point that journals now include the word in their title, the geoscience community is yet to arrive at a formal definition. The International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) within the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) is ultimately responsible for the process of arriving at a formal definition of any new interval of the Geologic Time Scale, and there are a whole host of procedures and processes in place to create such a definition. Contrastingly, the concept and term Anthropocene live clearly outside of the formal geoscience arena and community, and there are already a wide range of opinions regarding what can, and/or should, be considered for any formal definition.

The recent decisions taken within the ICS regarding the initial proposal for the Anthropocene highlighted several significant challenges facing the process of attempting to find a formal definition and ratifying a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) in the future. The flurry of press surrounding these recent decisions highlighted several discrepancies within the broader geoscience community and the procedures and objectives of formal definition of intervals of the Geologic Time Scale. Specifically, the question of diachroneity has been a central theme in many of the broader discussion of the definition of the Anthropocene, and unfortunately, has often been poorly represented in both the public discourse as well as the scientific literature. As mundane as the formal definition of the Anthropocene by the ICS may seem to geoscientists, this term has already become an entrenched part of the cultural zeitgeist. How we handle this term, and this process, will have much larger implications than just putting a new term on our chronostratigraphic chart.