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Updated: Nov 12, 2025

Speciation and Bioavailability Measurements of Environmental Plutonium Using Diffusion in Thin Films
Published on: November 9, 2015
Plutonium in coral archives: A good primary marker for an Anthropocene type section
Joan-Albert Sanchez-Cabeza1, Serguei Damián Rico-Esenaro2, José Antonio Corcho-Alvarado3
1Unidad Académica Mazatlán, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mazatlán, Mexico.
Abstract:
While we officially live in the Holocene epoch, global warming and many other impacts of global change have led to the proposal and wide adoption of the Anthropocene to define the present geological epoch. The Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) established that it should be treated as a formal stratigraphic unit, demonstrated by a reference level commonly known as "golden spike", still under discussion. Here we show that the onset of bomb-derived plutonium recorded in two banded massive corals from the Caribbean Sea is consistent (1955-1956 CE), so sites far from nuclear testing grounds are potentially suitable to host a type section of the Anthropocene. Coastal coral demonstration sites are feasible, could foster economic development, and may serve as focal points for scientific dissemination and environmental education.
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