Stones / Stone

The Anthropocene, a blink of an eye after the Holocene, Pleistocene, Pliocene, Miocene, and all the other epochs, that with all their zeros lead far back before the planet became human. Deep Time. The trail of stones. From the various layers of the earth and the depths of time. Layer by layer, marker and markings for tables and time scales. Thanks to radiometry, radiocarbon dating, and other methods, each grain of sand has a measurable age. Written in stone. Rock hard facts. Let us follow their traces; thousands of tons of concrete, plastic mix, refined oil and the eroded trash of civilization are at work shaping the stone. Boulders in the surf of discourse. Constructions like the Dubai Palm or the airport in Hong Kong, built and cast in the water, are added to all of this. Human rock, only degradable to a certain extent. All that remains is to wear it down. After all, what’s so bad about lying on plastic granulate on the beach? Rock it baby, rock it!

More information in the media section

HKW Talk on the Anthropocene. With Matt Edgeworth

Anthropocene Working Group – Human Impacts and Their Consequences (2/3): James P. M. Syvitzki, International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme. Min 25:00-43:30

Anthropocene Working Group – Human Impacts and Their Consequences (1/3): Jan Z Zalasiewicz, Department of Geology, University of Leicester, International Commission on Stratigraphy. 24:00-40:00

Anthropocene Working Group – Human Impacts and Their Consequences (1/3): Mark Williams, Department of Geology, University of Leicester 79:00-89:00

External links for further reading

Anthropocene Observatory at HKW. Extract from Interview with Jan Zalaciewicz on Lake Assuan and sediments

Anthropocene Observatory at HKW. Extract from Interview with Paul N. Edwards on computermodelling

Herbie Hancock, Rockit, 1983

Hans Rosling on the invention of the washing mashine

IGBP (global change geosphere, biosphere programme), multimedia