Anthropocene
informal geologic chronological term
Anthropocene is a term that has been used to refer to the period of time during which humanity has become a planetary force of change. It appears in scientific social discourse, especially with respect to accelerating geophysical and biochemical changes that characterize the 20th and 21st centuries on Earth. Originally a proposal for a new geological epoch following the Holocene, it was rejected as such in 2024 by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) and the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS).
The term has been used in sophisticated research relating to Earth's water and salt, geology, geomorphology, landscape, limnology, hydrology, ecosystems and climate. The effects of human activities on Earth can be seen, for example, in regards to biodiversity loss, and climate change. Various start dates for the Anthropocene have been proposed, ranging from the beginning of the Neolithic Revolution (12,000–15,000 years ago), to as recently as the 1960s. The biologist Eugene F. Stoermer is credited with first coining and using the term anthropocene informally in the 1980s; Paul J. Crutzen re-invented and popularized the term.
The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) of the Subcommission on Quaternary Stratigraphy (SQS) of the ICS voted in 2016 to proceed towards a formal golden spike (GSSP) proposal to define an Anthropocene epoch in the geologic time scale. Later that year, the group presented the proposal to the International Geological Congress.
In 2019, the AWG voted in favour of submitting a formal proposal to the ICS by 2021.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Anthropocene” as informal geologic chronological term. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as informal geologic chronological term. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q26841. The Library of Congress control number is sh2016001862. Authority coordinates are 43.468, -79.949. None of the 2 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2024, 2016, 2019 and 2021.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Anthropocene”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Anthropocene primary sources, Anthropocene archive and Anthropocene research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Anthropocene” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.