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

• Published in: Scientific Reports
• Main Authors: Turney, Chris, Palmer, Jonathan, Maslin, Mark, Hogg, Alan, Fogwill, Christopher, Southon, John, Fenwick, Pavla, Helle, Gerhard, Wilmshurst, Janet, McGlone, Matt, Ramsey, Christopher, Thomas, Zöe, Lipson, Mathew, Beaven, Brent, Jones, Richard, Andrews, Oliver, Hua, Quan
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Southern Ocean
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/1983/6b29f21c-f002-45cc-a6d4-9c7c326a36ea; https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/en/publications/6b29f21c-f002-45cc-a6d4-9c7c326a36ea; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-20970-5; https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/files/146735349/s41598_018_20970_5.pdf

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.