Date | March 08, 2017:

Scientists have identified more than 200 minerals created as side-effects of human industries in a sign that mankind's imprint on the Earth is so deep that it marks a new geological epoch, a study said on Wednesday.

Rare chemical combinations such as those found in mines, ore dumps or smelters have triggered the formation of new minerals, it said. One previously unknown mineral crystal, for instance, was found on a wooden pit prop deep in a nickel mine in Russia.

The scientists listed 208 items in the first global catalogue of minerals caused exclusively or mainly by human activities, compared to about 5,000 formed by purely natural processes including iron, silicon, gold or silver.

The new minerals, with names including bluelizardite, fluckite or kokinosite, add to other evidence that mankind is leaving an indelible mark in geological records through the use of materials such as concrete, pottery, steel and aluminium.

Many scientists favour designating a new epoch in the Earth's history called the Anthropocene - an epoch dominated by man, or "anthropos" in Greek. It would succeed the Holocene, the epoch that began 11,500 years ago when the Ice Age faded.

"Mineralogy supports the idea of the Anthropocene epoch," Hazen told Reuters of the findings published in the journal American Mineralogist.Reuters

(Source: http://www.thehindu.com/)