Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
    • Series home
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Geological Society home
  • Content
    • Online First
    • Current volume
    • All volumes
    • Collections
    • Supplementary publications
    • Open Access
  • Subscribe
    • GSL fellows
    • Institutions
    • Corporate
    • Other member types
  • Info
    • Authors
    • Librarians
    • Readers
    • Access for GSL Fellows
    • Access for other member types
    • Press office
    • Accessibility
    • Help
  • Alert sign up
    • eTOC alerts
    • Online First alerts
    • RSS feeds
    • Newsletters
    • GSL blog
  • Propose
  • Geological Society of London Publications
    • Engineering Geology Special Publications
    • Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
    • Journal of Micropalaeontology
    • Journal of the Geological Society
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Memoirs
    • Petroleum Geology Conference Series
    • Petroleum Geoscience
    • Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society
    • Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
    • Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
    • Scottish Journal of Geology
    • Special Publications
    • Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of London

User menu

  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart

Search

  • Advanced search
Geological Society, London, Special Publications
  • Geological Society of London Publications
    • Engineering Geology Special Publications
    • Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis
    • Journal of Micropalaeontology
    • Journal of the Geological Society
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Memoirs
    • Petroleum Geology Conference Series
    • Petroleum Geoscience
    • Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society
    • Quarterly Journal of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology
    • Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society
    • Scottish Journal of Geology
    • Special Publications
    • Transactions of the Edinburgh Geological Society
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of Glasgow
    • Transactions of the Geological Society of London
  • My alerts
  • Log in
  • My Cart
  • Follow gsl on Twitter
  • Visit gsl on Facebook
  • Visit gsl on Youtube
  • Visit gsl on Linkedin
Geological Society, London, Special Publications

Advanced search

  • Home
    • Series home
    • Lyell Collection home
    • Geological Society home
  • Content
    • Online First
    • Current volume
    • All volumes
    • Collections
    • Supplementary publications
    • Open Access
  • Subscribe
    • GSL fellows
    • Institutions
    • Corporate
    • Other member types
  • Info
    • Authors
    • Librarians
    • Readers
    • Access for GSL Fellows
    • Access for other member types
    • Press office
    • Accessibility
    • Help
  • Alert sign up
    • eTOC alerts
    • Online First alerts
    • RSS feeds
    • Newsletters
    • GSL blog
  • Propose

Ice Sheets and the Anthropocene

Eric W. Wolff
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 395, 255-263, 25 November 2013, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP395.10
Eric W. Wolff
1British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
2Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK (e-mail: )
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: ew428@cam.ac.uk
PreviousNext
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

Abstract

Ice could play a role in identifying and defining the Anthropocene. The recurrence of northern hemisphere glaciation and the stability of the Greenland Ice Sheet are both potentially vulnerable to human impact on the environment. However, only a very long hiatus in either would be unusual in the context of the Quaternary Period, requiring the definition of a geological boundary. Human influence can clearly be discerned in several ice-core measurements. These include a sharp boundary in radioactivity due to atmospheric nuclear testing; increases, unprecedented at least in the Holocene, in Greenland concentrations of sulphate, nitrate and metals such as lead; the appearance in ice-core air bubbles of previously undetectable compounds such as SF6; and the rise, unprecedented in the last 800 ka, in concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane. Some combination of these changes could be used by future generations to clearly identify the onset of a new epoch defined at a particular calendar date. However, it is not yet clear what the character of the fully developed Anthropocene will be, and it might be wise to let future generations decide, with hindsight, when the Anthropocene started, acknowledging only that we are in the transition towards it.

  • © The Authors 2014
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

Gold Open Access: This article is published under the terms of the CC-BY 3.0 license.

View Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this volume

Geological Society, London, Special Publications: 395 (1)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications
Volume 395
2014
  • Table of Contents
  • Table of Contents (PDF)
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
  • Back Matter (PDF)
  • Front Matter (PDF)
Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Citation tools

Ice Sheets and the Anthropocene

Eric W. Wolff
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 395, 255-263, 25 November 2013, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP395.10
Eric W. Wolff
1British Antarctic Survey, High Cross, Madingley Road, Cambridge CB3 0ET, UK
2Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, UK (e-mail: )
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • For correspondence: ew428@cam.ac.uk

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Permissions
View PDF
Share

Ice Sheets and the Anthropocene

Eric W. Wolff
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 395, 255-263, 25 November 2013, https://doi.org/10.1144/SP395.10
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
Email to

Thank you for sharing this Geological Society, London, Special Publications article.

NOTE: We request your email address only to inform the recipient that it was you who recommended this article, and that it is not junk mail. We do not retain these email addresses.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Ice Sheets and the Anthropocene
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from Geological Society, London, Special Publications
(Your Name) thought you would be interested in this article in Geological Society, London, Special Publications.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Print
Download PPT
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One
  • Article
    • Abstract
    • Ice sheets
    • Signals of anthropogenic change in ice-core records
    • Should ice cores be used to define the start of the Anthropocene?
    • Some philosophical issues
    • Acknowledgments
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

Similar Articles

Cited By...

  • Most read
  • Most cited
Loading
  • The history of the European oil and gas industry (1600s–2000s)
  • Introduction to Himalayan tectonics: a modern synthesis
  • Fifty years of the Wilson Cycle concept in plate tectonics: an overview
  • Himalayan earthquakes: a review of historical seismicity and early 21st century slip potential
  • Fundamental controls on fluid flow in carbonates: current workflows to emerging technologies
More...

Special Publications

  • About the series
  • Books Editorial Committee
  • Submit a book proposal
  • Author information
  • Supplementary Publications
  • Subscribe
  • Pay per view
  • Alerts & RSS
  • Copyright & Permissions
  • Activate Online Subscription
  • Feedback
  • Help

Lyell Collection

  • About the Lyell Collection
  • Lyell Collection homepage
  • Collections
  • Open Access Collection
  • Open Access Policy
  • Lyell Collection access help
  • Recommend to your Library
  • Lyell Collection Sponsors
  • MARC records
  • Digital preservation
  • Developing countries
  • Geofacets
  • Manage your account
  • Cookies

The Geological Society

  • About the Society
  • Join the Society
  • Benefits for Members
  • Online Bookshop
  • Publishing policies
  • Awards, Grants & Bursaries
  • Education & Careers
  • Events
  • Geoscientist Online
  • Library & Information Services
  • Policy & Media
  • Society blog
  • Contact the Society

Published by The Geological Society of London, registered charity number 210161

Print ISSN 
0305-8719
Online ISSN 
2041-4927

Copyright © 2021 Geological Society of London