Humans as major geological and geomorphological agents in the Anthropocene: the significance of artificial ground in Great Britain
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Since the first prehistoric people started to dig for stone to make implements, rather than pick up loose material, humans have modified the landscape through excavation of rock and soil, generation of waste and creation of artificial ground. In Great Britain over the past 200 years, people have excavated, moved and built up the equivalent of at least six times the volume of Ben Nevis. It is estimated that the worldwide deliberate annual shift of sediment by human activity is 57,000 Mt (million tonnes) and exceeds that of transport by rivers to the oceans (22,000 Mt) almost by a factor of three. Humans sculpt and transform the landscape through the physical modification of the shape and properties of the ground. As such, humans are geological and geomorphological agents and the dominant factor in landscape evolution through settlement and widespread industrialization and urbanization. The most significant impact of this has been since the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, coincident with increased release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The anthropogenic sedimentological record, therefore, provides a marker on which to characterize the Anthropocene.
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- Authors
- Price, S. J., Ford, J. R., Cooper, A. H., & Neal, C.
- Affiliations
- British Geological Survey, Kingsley Dunham Centre, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK
- British Geological Survey (GB)
- Department of Archaeology, University of York, The King’s Manor, York YO1 7EP, UK
- ORCID
- Cooper, Anthony H.
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2011-03-13
- Volume
- 369
- Issue
- 1938
- Pages
- 1056-1084
- ISSN
- 1364-503X (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2962
- OpenAlex
- W2158712357
- Cited by
- 250
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 20 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 17 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 26 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 10 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 23.33
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Mathematical Physical and Engineering Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- NERC Open Research Archive (Natural Environment Research Council) (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Leicester
- British Geological Survey
- Natural Environment Research Council (bgs05008)
- Norges Geologiske Undersøkelse
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Soil Science › Soil and Environmental Studies
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Earth-Surface Processes › Geological formations and processes
- Social Sciences › Law › Geology and Environmental Impact Studies
- Keywords
- Anthropocene, artificial ground, human impact on landscape, sediment transport, landscape evolution, Industrial Revolution, urbanization, industrialization, Great Britain
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