The Silurian hypothesis: would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record?
2018/04/10 by Gavin A. Schmidt, Adam Frank · 8 voices · 3 citations
Social Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · Environmental Science · #Language and cultural evolution #Space Science and Extraterrestrial Life #Ecosystem dynamics and resilience
paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s1473550418000095
Abstract
Abstract If an industrial civilization had existed on Earth many millions of years prior to our own era, what traces would it have left and would they be detectable today? We summarize the likely geological fingerprint of the Anthropocene, and demonstrate that while clear, it will not differ greatly in many respects from other known events in the geological record. We then propose tests that could plausibly distinguish an industrial cause from an otherwise naturally occurring climate event.
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Discussions
- Would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in geological record? [hn, 156 points, 178 comments]
- Some crazy billionaire should fund the research to look for other markers of industrial civilization in all the strata with a lot of light carbon because nobody is going to get a grant for it otherwis [bsky, 5 points, 2 comments]
- The Silurian Hypothesis (2018) [hn, 4 points, 0 comments]
- Is it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record? [hn, 4 points, 2 comments]
- Would it be possible to detect an industrial civ. in the geological record? [hn, 3 points, 0 comments]
- The Silurian Hypothesis [hn, 2 points, 0 comments]
- The Silurian Hypothesis (2018) [hn, 2 points, 0 comments]
- Is it possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record? [hn, 1 points, 0 comments]
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