Scientists claim Anthropocene era started with New Mexico atomic bomb in 1945

HUMAN impact on our planet has been so strong that scientists argue we’ve created a new geological layer to Earth.

/ABC Filepic; Mushroom cloud from the Bravo bomb dropped in Mar 01 1954 Nuclear explosion atomic bombs explosives

AN INTERNATIONAL team of scientists has suggested humans have had such an impact on our planet that it is moving to a new geological era.

For the last 11,700 years since the end of the most recent ice age, the Earth has been in the Holocene era meaning the geology of our planet has been fairly constant since then.

But human activity — especially in recent years — has had such an impact that we could be entering a new era, known as an epoch, which scientists have labelled the Anthropocene.

The premise behind the new epoch was first established by Nobel prize winning atmospheric Chemist Paul Crutzen 15 years ago.

He suggests human behaviour, including farming, driving cars, and using aerosols has had such an enormous impact that our planet has changed its geology and created new and distinctive strata (layer of the Earth).

The idea has since been widely embraced by academics, but there has been no agreement about when the epoch began.

Human behaviour has had an undeniably huge impact on the Earth’s crust. Picture: Patrick Cullis

After being assembled in Berlin last year, the Anthropocene Working Group, have been working to decide whether the epoch should be officially adopted by the International Commission on Stratigraphy

They have concluded the birthdate of the new epoch should be when the first atomic bomb was detonated in the New Mexico desert on 16 July, 1945.

The working group argue the beginning of the nuclear age was a defining moment in history and the fallout from atomic bombs is detectable in the geological record.

Chair of the Anthropocene Working Group Dr Jan Zalasiewicz said similar to all geological boundaries, the date was not a perfect marker.

“Levels of global radiation really rose in the early 1950s, as bomb tests took place,” he said.

“But it may be the optimal way to resolve the multiple lines of evidence on human-driven planetary change. Time and much more discussion will tell.”

The Anthropocene Working Group has plans to submit a proposal to the ISC in 2016.

They have said they will continue piecing together more evidence on the new epoch, while discussing other possible time boundaries.

Until then, Earth will remain in the Holocene era. At least in name.