
Geology’s Timekeepers Are Feuding - Tomte
https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/565628/?single_page=true
======
Rexxar
non-amp link:
[https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/anthropo...](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/07/anthropocene-
holocene-geology-drama/565628/)

------
ggm
I like the idea of using the post atomic era radioactivity as a signature.

Doesn't the age of steam leave a coal ash deposit over the ocean floor?

------
ganzuul
It is odd that we don't look underwater for civilizations from before the end
of the last ice age. We observe sea levels rising now from the melting of the
ice caps, so why would it not have happened then too?

~~~
vidanay
Underwater archaeology is a significant subject of study.

[http://www.pnas.org/content/111/19/6911](http://www.pnas.org/content/111/19/6911)

~~~
greglindahl
And here's an article about underwater archaeology in the popular press:

[https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/26/the-first-
br...](https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/apr/26/the-first-brexit-
submerged-landscapes-of-the-north-sea-and-channel)

... which makes it clear that archaeologists are being pretty systematic about
looking for settlements that were on the shore and are now drowned.

------
dotancohen
The ideas conveyed in the article are interesting in their own right, there
was no need for profanity. I wish that Hacker News had a downvote option for
cases such as this.

~~~
Tomte
You can't be serious. You want to downvote an article full of information,
only because a person quoted in that article used the f word? So much that you
feel the need to shout it out into the world?

~~~
dotancohen
No. I want to downvote an article full of information because the author
decided to open the article with an f word quote that was unnecessary.

You can have your normalization of profanity in your pop superhero blockbuster
movies. I hold my scientific journalism to a higher standard.

~~~
Tomte
That's so puritanical that I doubt many people wopuld agree with you. I
certainly don't.

~~~
zyx321
Not just puritanical. It's elitist as fuuuuuu-

