109
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to
Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. J. Culver (ed.), Troubled Waters, Springer Climate,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52383-1_7
Chapter 7
The Anthropocene, Wait, What?
A Basque’s Coastal Experience Helps
to Figure It Out
Eduardo Leorri
Abstract At the very end of the twentieth century I was working on my PhD project that included getting (knee) deep into the mud of the Bilbao Estuary (Northern
Spain) to understand the environmental evolution of this system dramatically altered
by anthropogenic activities. Almost concomitantly, a new term to describe the
period during which humans have become major drivers of change was coined:
“Anthropocene.” This chapter briefly narrates my experience as PhD student and
how it led me to adopt this term to identify sediments reflecting predominantly
human activities and why (in my opinion) this term is relevant.
Keywords Anthropocene · Estuaries · Pollution · Bilbao estuary ·
Micropaleontology · Coastal environments · Sediments · Holocene · Heavy metals
Why the Anthropocene?
So, what is the Anthropocene and why is it important? To answer this question, I
need to first tell you about the Holocene. The Holocene has been formally recognized since 1885 (Gervais first used the term circa 1867) as the latest interval of
geologic time (an epoch), although the beginning of this interval was formally
defined and dated at 11,700 years b2k (before 2000 A.D.) only a decade or so ago.
Together with the immediately preceding Pleistocene, these two epochs are the subdivisions of the Quaternary geologic period. At its 10-year anniversary (in 2018) the
Holocene was formally divided into three ages to reflect the use of three informal
divisions (early, middle, and late Holocene), which are recognized now by the
International Commission on Stratigraphy. The Holocene, which means the “entire
recent”, might well be the most studied part of the geologic record, and it includes
E. Leorri (*)
Department of Geological Sciences, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
e-mail: leorrie@ecu.edu
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to
Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
S. J. Culver (ed.), Troubled Waters, Springer Climate,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52383-1_7
Chapter 7
The Anthropocene, Wait, What?
A Basque’s Coastal Experience Helps
to Figure It Out
Eduardo Leorri
Abstract At the very end of the twentieth century I was working on my PhD project that included getting (knee) deep into the mud of the Bilbao Estuary (Northern
Spain) to understand the environmental evolution of this system dramatically altered
by anthropogenic activities. Almost concomitantly, a new term to describe the
period during which humans have become major drivers of change was coined:
“Anthropocene.” This chapter briefly narrates my experience as PhD student and
how it led me to adopt this term to identify sediments reflecting predominantly
human activities and why (in my opinion) this term is relevant.
Keywords Anthropocene · Estuaries · Pollution · Bilbao estuary ·
Micropaleontology · Coastal environments · Sediments · Holocene · Heavy metals
Why the Anthropocene?
So, what is the Anthropocene and why is it important? To answer this question, I
need to first tell you about the Holocene. The Holocene has been formally recognized since 1885 (Gervais first used the term circa 1867) as the latest interval of
geologic time (an epoch), although the beginning of this interval was formally
defined and dated at 11,700 years b2k (before 2000 A.D.) only a decade or so ago.
Together with the immediately preceding Pleistocene, these two epochs are the subdivisions of the Quaternary geologic period. At its 10-year anniversary (in 2018) the
Holocene was formally divided into three ages to reflect the use of three informal
divisions (early, middle, and late Holocene), which are recognized now by the
International Commission on Stratigraphy. The Holocene, which means the “entire
recent”, might well be the most studied part of the geologic record, and it includes
E. Leorri (*)
Department of Geological Sciences, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
e-mail: leorrie@ecu.edu