Geologists believe that we’ve entered a period marked by the dominance of humankind on the planet, which they’ve dubbed the Anthropocene Epoch, and they’ve chosen the one spot on Earth that characterizes the time, CNN reports.
The 25 geologists on the Anthropocene Working Group chose Crawford Lake in Ontario, Canada as the location that reflects the impact of humans on the planet’s geology because the composition of the sediment of the six-acre lake, nearly 80 feet deep, best marks the beginning of the era, which the AWG previously determined started in 1950. Crawford Lake was chosen after a number of rounds of voting starting with nine locations, culled down from a list of a dozen.
The start of the epoch is not without controversy in the geological movement. Many within the discipline feel the start of the epoch was earlier; others say they can’t be certain it’s started yet because geological time is really long.