The Silurian Hypothesis: Would it be possible to detect an industrial civilization in the geological record?

TL;DR

This paper explores whether an ancient industrial civilization could be detected in Earth's geological record by analyzing potential geological signatures and proposing tests to distinguish artificial from natural events.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of the Silurian Hypothesis, analyzing potential geological evidence of ancient industrial civilizations and methods to identify them.

Findings

The geological fingerprint of industrial activity may resemble natural events.

Proposed tests could help differentiate artificial signatures from natural climate events.

Detectability depends on the nature and extent of the ancient civilization's impact.

Abstract

If an industrial civilization had existed on Earth many millions of years prior to our own era, what traces would it have left and would they be detectable today? We summarize the likely geological fingerprint of the Anthropocene, and demonstrate that while clear, it will not differ greatly in many respects from other known events in the geological record. We then propose tests that could plausibly distinguish an industrial cause from an otherwise naturally occurring climate event.