Here comes the Anthropocene

Two excellent papers examine the meaning and formalization of an Anthropocene Epoch, a geological era in which humans have a major impact on surface processes and the environment. Steffen et al. (2016) take an Earth Systems approach while Williams et al. (2016) focus on biospheric signals.  Both papers are informative and data-based, and are required reading for anyone interested in this proposed change to the Geologic Timescale, but also those of us interested in global change (that is, all of us).

The field of stratigraphy is explicitly recognized in each analysis, as it provides the foundation of Earth’s geologic timescale.  A quick primer on stratigraphy: for the past 2.5 million years, we have lived in the Cenozoic Era’s Quaternary Period, which started with the Pleistocene Epoch and, currently, the Holocene Epoch.  The addition of an Anthropocene Epoch into the geological time scale is a key motivation behind these papers, which will be decided by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, supported by an Anthropocene Working Group that includes the leads and several authors of these two papers.  Steffen and colleagues use Earth Systems science to describe our planet’s evolution from an evolving Precambrian environment into a life-dominated Phanerozoic one (since ~540Ma).   They conclude that today’s Earth system has undergone a substantial transition away from the Holocene (interglacial) state, toward a world with much less polar ice, changed atmospheric composition, and accelerated plant and animal species extinction.  Williams and colleagues’ biotic approach emphasizes that modern humans are changing the planet’s relationship through human consumption of Earth’s resources, with major consequences for the ecosphere and a change in evolutionary state.  Using different perspectives, both papers reach the same conclusion of an Anthropocene state that is unlike the Holocene, supporting the need for a new epoch.  Both also favor a chemical tracer from mid-20thC nuclear activity as its lower boundary, though that, I believe, seems less compelling from their descriptions.

The stratigraphic foundation of the Phanerozoic Eon’s geologic timescale is the preservation of hard-bodied life.  Extinctions, a relatively sudden, large decline of species, punctuate the record with five major events (excluding today) and multiple smaller events, providing global markers for stratigraphic boundaries in the geologic record.  Some extinctions were relatively fast (kyr), while others reflect longer times (myr).  The species extinction of modern time, which started with the rise of humans as the planet’s dominant consumer of resources can likewise become the base of the Anthropocene.  This latest (6th) major extinction is already underway, and continuing for decades to centuries, perhaps even culminating in human extinction.  Life, notably the radiation of species, offers another global stratigraphic marker in the tradition of the geologic timescale.  Humans exploring and conquering the world transported other life, including plants and seeds, small animals (like insects and rodents), and even large animals (like horses) that since became entrained as fossils in modern depositional strata.  This biomarker would place the start of the Anthropocene well before the 20th century, as far back as 15th century, following Medieval times.  Arguably, the current 6th extinction also started around that time.  Unlike the Holocene, which started ~12,000 years ago as a garden-variety interglacial, the Anthropocene involves vast and fast changes on a global scale, affecting life, atmosphere, land and oceans.

These patterns are not mere extensions or accelerations of the Holocene interglacial.  The Anthropocene signature is unlike that of our planet’s past icehouse-greenhouse system, leading to my earlier, alternative suggestion to adopt a Pleistocene-Anthropocene boundary that reflects this fundamental change in Earth System from an externally-driven (or Milankovitch) state to a human-driven state.  As we move toward a decision on the timescale, these papers make a compelling case for an Anthropocene Epoch, while reminding us of the large changes in environmental conditions that are already underway.

Steffen, W., Leinfelder, R., Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, C. N., Williams, M., Summerhayes, C., Barnosky, A. D., Cearreta, A., Crutzen, P., Edgeworth, M., Ellis, E. C., Fairchild, I. J., Gałuszka, A., Grinevald, J., Haywood, A., Sul, J. I. d., Jeandel, C., McNeill, J.R., Odada, E., Oreskes, N., Revkin, A., Richter, D. d. B., Syvitski, J., Vidas, D., Wagreich, M., Wing, S. L., Wolfe, A. P. and Schellnhuber, H.J. (2016).  Stratigraphic and Earth System Approaches to Defining the Anthropocene. Earth's Future, 4: 324–345. doi:10.1002/2016EF000379.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016EF000379/full

van der Pluijm, B. (2014). Hello Anthropocene, Goodbye Holocene. Earth's Future, 2: 566–568. doi:10.1002/2014EF000268.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014EF000268/full

Williams, M., Zalasiewicz, J., Waters, C. N., Edgeworth, M., Bennett, C., Barnosky, A. D., Ellis, E. C., Ellis, M. A., Cearreta, A., Haff, P. K., Ivar do Sul, J. A., Leinfelder, R., McNeill, J. R., Odada, E., Oreskes, N., Revkin, A., Richter, D. d., Steffen, W., Summerhayes, C., Syvitski, J. P., Vidas, D., Wagreich, M., Wing, S. L., Wolfe, A. P. and Zhisheng, A. (2016).  The Anthropocene: a conspicuous stratigraphical signal of anthropogenic changes in production and consumption across the biosphere. Earth's Future, 4: 34–53. doi:10.1002/2015EF000339. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2015EF000339/full

Modified from AGU Editors’ Vox; https://eos.org/editors-vox/here-comes-the-anthropocene.

vanderTrick: Make an animated GIF

Online freebies are good for the quick creation of an animated GIF, but limits on size and resolution, and common watermarks, are annoying.  So, a better way is to use dedicated image software, in particular Photoshop.  Oddly, the instructions for animation were not obvious (to me at least), so here it goes.

Open Photoshop (I have CS6)
File > Scripts > Load Files into Stack.
Open the set of images you want animated, and click OK.
Make sure you can see the Timeline panel in Photoshop (otherwise, Window > Timeline )
In the Timeline panel, click “Make Frames From Layers” on the drop down menu in upper right, which loads the individual images. [or, hit "Create Frame animation"]
Highlight images in Timeline and select time (all or individually) by clicking on the default time below an image. Note that you can reverse image order in Timeline by clicking on “Reverse Frames” in dropdown.
Lastly, select Once or Forever at bottom menu in Timeline panel.

Then we are ready to create the animated gif.  Click File/Export > Save for Web in Photoshop, which opens a new window that shows the top image and allows several tweaks (like size, looping).  Other options abound (overwhelming for novice user like me) that can be ignored for now.
Click “Save…”, and voila.  Some examples below.

Or faster.

I found this site most helpful, and it includes steps for older Photoshop versions as well: http://www.briandalessandro.com/blog/create-an-animated-gif-in-photoshop-cs5/ 

vanderTrick: Change or Add an Icon in Chrome Bookmarks Bar (Favicon)

Missing a link icon in Chrome's Bookmarks Bar (that is, the empty folder look) or annoyed by its appearance, here is a quick and easy fix (well, more a mini-hack).

Find a site with a favicon that you like, say, AT&T's globe.
Open and drag the link from the Link Bar to the Bookmarks Bar, where it now appears as:

Edit this bookmark by right-clicking and >Edit...

Next, change the Name to, say, Trick, and the link to the site needing an icon or replacing a native favicon:

Click Save:

The Bookmarks Bar now shows that icon with the desired name and link.  Not sure if this means that the originating site gets favicon hits, but that does not matter for a public site.  Note that dragging the link to the Other Bookmarks tab retains the favicon, even though the old or no icon appears in the Link Bar.

Voila, a simple tweak that improves the browser look with a functionality that is surprisingly missing from Bookmarks Manager.

Learn more about Favicons here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favicon.

Fall 2015 U-M Geoscience News

Ben van der Pluijm ended a nearly 15 year stint as director of the Global Change Program, which offered a set of introductory courses on planetary stewardship and sustainability, and (College of LSA’s first) minor degree (GCminor). The inception of this educational program was funded by generous support of the Hewlett Foundation and the U-M’s Provost Office, in collaboration with Tim Killeen (now president of Univ of Illinois) and other colleagues at U-M. The GC Program has been absorbed by U-M Program in the Environment’s growing offerings. Ben is now developing a new course that focuses on societal resilience (Earth/Environ259), moving from the aspirations of sustainability to the impacts of change. Over the summer, Ben also worked on a new version of the successful Earth Structure textbook, which changed so much that a new title will be used (draft cover below). “Processes in Structural Geology and Tectonics” radically reorganizes the standard course outline, by integrating observation, theory and process, without losing site of fundamentals. The primary goal of this new approach is to improve students’ understanding and retention of key elements and processes in this area of study. An experiment with online posting is under development (http://psgt.earth.lsa.umich.edu/), allowing greater international access and lower prices (see also earthstructureweb on Facebook).

Graduate student Austin Boles continues the development of H analysis as a proxy of fluid sources, most recently on samples from the Alpine Fault of New Zealand. Erin Lynch is similarly working on sources and timing of fluid history, focusing her efforts on the Cordilleran fold-thrust belts of S and N America. Samantha Nemkin, jointly supervised with Rob van der Voo, continues her work on the timing of remagnetization using the paleomagnetic fold test in limestones and fold dating of interbedded shales. Several undergraduate students are also involved in these projects. Various projects with recent group members Anja Schleicher (GFZ Potsdam) and Elisa Fitz-Diaz (UNAM) are continuing as well. A project on dating deformation in the Canadian Rockies that started well over a decade ago with then-PDF Peter Vrolijk (van der Pluijm et al., Nature, 2001), culminated in a regional study and synthesis of the Alberta Rockies that emphasizes the importance of short deformation pulses instead of long-lasting, continuous deformation (Pana and van der Pluijm, GSAB, 2015). These views are not embraced by everyone.

Ben and Lies continue to host U-M alumni travel, most recently to the Barents and White seas, visiting Russian harbor cities like Murmansk and Arkhangelsk (picture), seeing samples from the bottom of the Kola Peninsula deep hole (an amazing 12 km deep!), and foggy Nordkapp and Tromsø in Norway, all of which with 24 hr daylight.

Lastly, a GSA-Baltimore set of sessions organized by PhD grads Sam Haines, Bernie Housen, Eric Tohver and Arlo Weil celebrates Ben’s 30 years of research and graduate mentoring at Michigan, and, gasp, his 60th birthday.

Modified from: Geoscience News, Fall 2015.