Where the Meghalayan meets the Anthropocene: Stratigraphic signals of human-environmental interactions on the periphery of Indian civilisation

Paweł Prokop

doi:10.7163/gpol.0185

Abstract

The aims of this study were to review human-environment interactions during the Meghalayan and to search for the stratigraphic boundary of a new epoch, informally termed the Anthropocene, as well as to determine whether the stratigraphic signals of human activity on the Meghalaya Plateau in Northeast India can be correlated globally. This plateau is the base of the Meghalayan Age that was determined from a speleothem in a cave located on it. Review indicates that study region developed on the periphery of ancient Indian civilisation, with stratigraphic signals of human activity being apparent in only the last few thousand years; that is, substantially later than the neighbouring ancient Indian civilisation. The stratigraphic signals are heterogeneous and diachronous, not only as a result of various human activities, but also in the effect of the diverse sensitivities of the environment to anthropogenic disturbances. A discrete and visible cultural layer that relates to the development of settlements and the production of new materials is still being formed and reworked. The only synchronous stratigraphic signal with a global range seems to be associated with the artificial radionuclide fallout from nuclear weapons testing, which covers a topsoil layer of up to tens of centimetres thick

Highlights

Human-environment interactions exhibit great diversity, with many feedbacks and nonlinear processes, thresholds and time lags (An, 2012; Ruddiman, Ellis, Kaplan & Fuller, 2015; Waters & Zalasiewicz, 2018; Zalasiewicz et al, 2019b).The effects of such interactions can be preserved in accumulating strata as lithostratigraphic, biostratigraphic and chemostratigraphic signals (Zalasiewicz et al, 2019)
The main aim of the present study is to review the role of natural and human-induced factors in the transformation of the environment of the region where the Meghalayan Global Stratigraphic Section and Point (GSSP) is located
This review indicates that, even in a peripherally-located area of Indian civilisation, there are numerous stratigraphic indicators of human activity

Summary

Introduction

Human-environment interactions exhibit great diversity, with many feedbacks and nonlinear processes, thresholds and time lags (An, 2012; Ruddiman, Ellis, Kaplan & Fuller, 2015; Waters & Zalasiewicz, 2018; Zalasiewicz et al, 2019b) The effects of such interactions can be preserved in accumulating strata as lithostratigraphic (environmental and human-induced sediment transport and deposition, modification of terrain, deposition related to constructions, etc.), biostratigraphic (pollen grains spectra, extinctions and invasions of species) and chemostratigraphic (heavy metal tracers, isotopes, artificial radionuclides) signals (Zalasiewicz et al, 2019).

Meghalayan Age establishment ratification

BHUTAN Meghalaya

Findings

Conclusions