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.
(private-note)Open access?
https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.03748
Blog post discussing it
https://cultureminds.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/the-silurian-hypothesis-astrobiology-paleontology-and-doctor-who/
%0 Journal Article
%1 Schmidt2018Silurian
%A Schmidt, Gavin A.
%A Frank, Adam
%D 2018
%J International Journal of Astrobiology
%K silly paleo astrobiology geology
%P 1--9
%R 10.1017/s1473550418000095
%T The Silurian hypothesis: would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record?
%U http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1473550418000095
%X 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.
@article{Schmidt2018Silurian,
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.},
added-at = {2018-06-18T21:23:34.000+0200},
author = {Schmidt, Gavin A. and Frank, Adam},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2ae63233cb59f7d6ec6f4f47a025dc9d8/pbett},
citeulike-article-id = {14576035},
citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1473550418000095},
comment = {(private-note)Open access?
https://arxiv.org/abs/1804.03748
Blog post discussing it
https://cultureminds.wordpress.com/2018/04/24/the-silurian-hypothesis-astrobiology-paleontology-and-doctor-who/},
day = 16,
doi = {10.1017/s1473550418000095},
interhash = {2dcd051ed8136922ee9fe0b62e8c54dd},
intrahash = {ae63233cb59f7d6ec6f4f47a025dc9d8},
issn = {1473-5504},
journal = {International Journal of Astrobiology},
keywords = {silly paleo astrobiology geology},
month = apr,
pages = {1--9},
posted-at = {2018-04-27 07:35:18},
priority = {2},
timestamp = {2018-06-22T18:39:21.000+0200},
title = {The Silurian hypothesis: would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record?},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1473550418000095},
year = 2018
}