Crawford Lake in Ontario, Canada looks like a normal lake. But as the Washington Post reports, the body of water in the Toronto suburbs has unique properties that could make it a landmark in human history. Or more precisely: in the history of our planet. Scientists will decide this summer whether to designate the lake as the so-called “golden prong” – essentially the formal starting point – of a new epoch called the Anthropocene. The reason? Much happens beneath the surface of the lake, including an upper layer of water and a cold, dark deeper layer beneath which the sediment is perfectly preserved (thanks to the coincidence of geological factors described in the story). “No other body of water is known to possess this unique combination of properties, making Crawford Lake a unique indicator of global change,” the Post said.
In that sense, it’s actually a “freak of nature,” says Francine McCarthy, a geosciences professor at Ontario’s Brock University who has been studying the lake for a long time. By examining the different layers of sediment, researchers can track down telltale signs of human activity. For example, around 1950 (about the beginning of the new epoch), traces of radioactive plutonium from nuclear tests in other parts of the world showed up in the mud. The sediment also reveals increases in fossil fuel burning, emergence of acid rain, loss of microbial species, etc. But “it’s not just a doomsday story,” McCarthy says, pointing out that the sediment also shows that humans are a Reversing things can happen, like when nuclear test bans dropped plutonium levels. The International Commission on Stratigraphy will decide in a few months which of the various candidates around the world will receive the designation “Golden Spike”, part of their mission to convince other scientists that the Anthropocene Age has indeed begun. Read the full story. (Read more Anthropocene Stories.)