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You are now living in a new era of geological history, but information technology didn't just start. Scientists accept (mostly) agreed on a new way to split up upwards Earth's recent history that includes additions to the accepted geological charts. Co-ordinate to the latest version of the International Chronostratigraphic Chart from the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), we are living in the Meghalayan Age.

In that location are several different ways of breaking up the 4.6 billion year geological history of Earth. We currently live in the Holocene Epoch, which is non a new concept. This menses started 11,700 years ago at the stop of the terminal water ice age. What is new is the segmentation of the Holocene Epoch into iii distinct periods. The earliest block is now known every bit the Greenlandian Age (11,700 to 8,300 years ago), and following that was the Northgrippian (8,300 to iv,200 years ago). The current Meghalayan Historic period began 4,200 years ago and runs to this very day.

Each division in the International Chronostratigraphic Chart corresponds to some distinctive modify in the strata of Earth. For example, the end of the Cretaceous is marked by iridium sediments most probable deposited by an asteroid impact. The Meghalayan Historic period is indicated by a much more than subtle alter, which has naturally led to some disagreement in the scientific community.

The concept of the Meghalayan Age was only proposed vi years agone by the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). The IUGS recently ratified that proposal. Scientists point to shifts in oxygen isotopes caused by a massive global drought around 4,200 years ago. Researchers believe this drought may have lasted up to a century and acquired the collapse of many early civilizations, including the Former Kingdom of Egypt, the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia, and the Liangzhu civilisation of China. The few contemporary sources from this era report drastically reduced rainfall.

Those who oppose the change contend that the shifts used as markers of the Meghalayan Age may not accept been truly global in nature. From that perspective, it doesn't vest on the International Chronostratigraphic Nautical chart. They also complain that the IUGS moved unusually fast to make this change and didn't take the time to consider opposing viewpoints.

There may be even more changes coming, too. Some researchers think the chart should recognize an fifty-fifty newer slice of time known as the Anthropocene Epoch. That would recognize the global changes precipitated past human activeness. That modification is yet far from official, though.