Sunday, April 29, 2018

The Silurian Hypothesis: Would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record?

https://arxiv.org/pdf/1804.03748.pdf

Abstract
If an industrial civilization had existed on Earth many millions of years prior to our
own era, what traces would it have left and would they be detectable today? We
summarize the likely geological fingerprint of the Anthropocene, and demonstrate
that while clear, it will not differ greatly in many respects from other known events
in the geological record. We then propose tests that could plausibly distinguish an
industrial cause from an otherwise naturally occurring climate event.

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