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There are markers besides climate change, too.
除了氣候變化之外，還有其他標志。
Microplastics in oceans and rivers are laying down sedimentary layers of chemicals never seen before in nature.
海洋和河流中的微塑料正在沉積為化學物質層，這在自然界中從未被發現過。
Nitrogen fertilisers have altered the balance of chemical isotopes in peat bogs.
氮肥改變了泥炭沼澤中化學同位素的平衡。
The world is in the midst of a mass extinction.
世界正處于大滅絕之中。
At the same time shipping and air travel have scattered much of the remaining flora and fauna far from where they evolved.
與此同時，航運和航空旅行使許多現存的動植物遠離了它們進化的地方。
Both the extinction and the redistribution will be visible when what is alive today joins the fossil record of the past.
當今天活著的生物與過去的化石記錄結合在一起時，滅絕和重新分布都將同時可見。
The iugs’s rules say that geological transitions must be marked not just by a particular event, but by a specific alteration in a specific geological feature.
國際地質勘探局的規則指出，地質變遷不僅要以某一特定事件為標志，還要以某一特定地質特征的特定變化為標志。
(For instance, the start of the Edicarian period, 635m years ago, is defined by a visible change in a band of exposed rocks in southern Australia.)
(例如，6.35億年前伊迪卡利亞時期的開始，是由澳大利亞南部裸露巖石帶的明顯變化確定的。)
The awg’s announcement marked the end of a years-long search for a suitable marker for the Anthropocene.
人類世工作組的宣布標志著長達數年的尋找人類世合適標志工作的結束。
Scientists examined sites from the estuaries of San Francisco to the sediment beneath Vienna’s main square, before settling on Crawford Lake.
科學家們考察了從舊金山河口到維也納主要廣場下的沉積物，最后選定了克勞福德湖。
The lake has several advantages.
這個湖有幾個優點。
Every summer, as the surface waters warm, flakes of calcium carbonate precipitate out and drift to the bottom.
每年夏天，隨著表層海水變暖，碳酸鈣薄片沉淀出來，沉向海底。
There they form regular white bands amid the sediments, much like age rings in trees.
它們在沉積物中形成規則的白色帶，很像樹木的年輪。
The sediments themselves lie deep enough that they remain undisturbed by the wind and waves above.
沉積物本身埋藏得足夠深，不受上面風浪的干擾。
They therefore contain records, in date order, of everything from CO2 concentrations to particles of plutonium from the explosions of nuclear weapons, the first of which happened in 1945.
因此，它們按日期順序包含了從二氧化碳濃度到核武器爆炸產生的钚顆粒的所有記錄，第一次核武器爆炸發生在1945年。
Indeed, the awg has proposed that the subsequent spike in plutonium—an element which was vanishingly rare before the atomic age—should serve as the “primary marker” for the beginning of the Anthropocene.
事實上，人類世工作組已經提出，钚(一種在原子時代之前非常罕見的元素)隨后的峰值應該作為人類世開始的“主要標志”。
Not everyone is convinced, for plutonium is unstable.
并不是所有人都相信這一點，因為钚是不穩定的。
The isotopes that the awg have in mind have half-lives of 6,500 and 24,000 years, meaning almost all the plutonium will be gone within 200,000 years.
人類世工作組所考慮的同位素的半衰期分別為6500年和24000年，這意味著幾乎所有的钚都將在20萬年內消失。
Dissidents suggest that fly ash from fossil-fuel combustion would make a better alternative.
唱反調者認為化石燃料燃燒產生的粉煤灰是更好的替代品。
Like plutonium, it is not something that the planet has seen before.
就像钚一樣，這是地球上以前從未見過的東西。
And unlike plutonium, it will, if left undisturbed, hang around in the rocks for many millions of years to come.
與钚不同的是，如果不受干擾，它將在未來數百萬年里在巖石中徘徊。
