The Anthropocene: How humans are changing the geological behaviour of Earth

Our planet is more than 4.5 billion years old. It has operated without human intervention for almost all its life. The spread of human influence on landscapes expanded greatly throughout the Holocene, and exploded in the mid 20th century.

We now have created a distinct global stratigraphic layer that uniquely fingerprints our impact on Earth. We re-distribute masses in our continents at a scale that influences the heights of mountains and changes the frequency and severity of earthquakes.

This talk will discuss the emergence of the Anthropocene as a new geologic epoch.

This event is part of the 2017 University of Melbourne Science Festival.
Students, staff and the general public are all welcome to attend. Registrations required.
Check out the full Science Festival Program.