This is kind of interesting to me because there are several absolutely a clear mineralogical change that meets this requirement:
But to merit inclusion on the geological scale, any time interval needs to meet certain criteria, such as having a clear, objective starting point in the mineral record.
With maybe the undoubted introduction of plastics into the earths crust as a mineral. Future scientists will absolutely be able to time this change globally because in geological terms, plastics will have been introduced ‘everywhere’ at about the same time. It will be a distinct marker that can be used to effectively time mass extinctions and a massive change to the atmospheric concentration of CO2.
Just because I have no clue about the definition:
Does plastic count as a mineral?Why wouldnt it?
I don’t know the definition
I was of the opinion that some specific chemical properties must be met.And that was the reason why I asked in this humble way
I’m not trying to push back against the humility, but I asked it that way to try and get you to consider some underlying assumptions you might have. Its more of a rhetorical approach, not meant in rudeness. Imagine it to have a /c or ‘casual’ or curious tone.
I like the idea of having more “intent” markers; /s seems to be the only one people recognise (and I’ve seen some on here push back against it as a Reddit thing).
Because it is made from organic compounds, not minerals?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_mineral
Mississippian
The Mississippian was proposed by Alexander Winchell in 1870 named after the extensive exposure of lower Carboniferous limestone in the upper Mississippi River valley. During the Mississippian, there was a marine connection between the Paleo-Tethys and Panthalassa through the Rheic Ocean resulting in the near worldwide distribution of marine faunas and so allowing widespread correlations using marine biostratigraphy. However, there are few Mississippian volcanic rocks, and so obtaining radiometric dates is difficult.
The carboniferous Mississippian is defined by a strata of what is effectively of organic origin.
Geologists? Don’t mining companies own them?
Yes, in the same way that all biologists are owned by Monsanto and all computer scientists are owned by Microsoft.
We measure geological epochs in millions of years. We just barely started the Holocene 12k years ago. While speaking about human impact makes sense in shorter timescale fields like sociology, I’m not sure we need to start a new geological timescale. Humanity is just a brief blip in the holocene that may not even survive to another epoch if whatever intelligence that follows us continues to use the same systems we developed.
