Video Response: Fossil Records in Spain – cement technofossils
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Technofossils are human-generated objects that, if preserved in the strata, will serve as future geological markers through which the Anthropocene epoch can be considered.
As you have learned from the videos and assignments so far: those that believe that we have shifted out of the Holocene think that our human generated technofossils: plastics, aluminum, concrete, lead and fly-ash from the burning of fossil fuels, our impact on global climate and even the soon to be fossil bones of our domesticated farm animals that we rely on for food (pigs, chickens and cows) are all possible human made/human caused markers of the Anthropocene.
Concrete is one of the most significant technofossils that humanity will leave behind. Since its invention, enough concrete has been poured to coat the Earth in a two-millimetre thick layer of the material. From 1995 to 2015, rapid urbanization and population growth saw the production of more than half of the planet’s total
volume of concrete. A similar story is true for many other technofossils such as plastics and aluminum.
Technofossils like plastics, concrete and aluminum, along with other humanmade materials, can essentially serve as trace fossils through which the proposed Anthropocene epoch can be dated and characterized. Rapidly changing as
advancements in technology take place, and largely resistant to decay, they make up physical components of the technosphere, which is the aggregate of all human systems and technologies (industrial, agricultural, etc.), including
human-generated objects (plastics, concrete, etc.), that is regarded by some as a new “sphere” on Earth originating from (and currently largely parasitic on) the biosphere. The technosphere is estimated to weigh upwards of 27 trillion tons, that’s almost 57,000 times the weight of all the humans on Earth.
WATCH this Video Fossil Records in Spain- cement as a technofossil
https://anthropocene.canadiangeographic.ca/anthropocene-education-program-videos/#target15Links to an external site.
Ask yourself and discuss: Have humans now become a geophysical force? Are we indeed creating a new time period? Share your reaction to the video- isn’t it incredible that the earth system is using, and in turn, fossilizing our human made materials in this way? Do you feel you are contributing to the layer of technofossils around the world?