A team of scientists suggests that the Anthropocene epoch, a proposed geological epoch defined by human impact, should be marked at Crawford Lake in Ontario, Canada.
The Anthropocene Working Group, after analyzing the lake's sediments, estimates that this new epoch began between 1950 and 1954.
This signifies a clear shift from the mid-20th century, taking Earth's systems beyond the regular boundaries of the Holocene epoch, which started 11,700 years ago at the end of the last Ice Age.