Interesting that at a time when planetary survival is in jeopardy, analysts shd return to a geological metaphor. Does history then equal stratigraphy?
That is exactly the claim. The geologists of the Anthropocene Working Group identify the stratum marking the end of the Holocene in radioactive isotopes left by nuclear fallout in the period of above-ground testing (1952-63). These can be identified in fine layers deposited in undisturbed lake beds around the world, and most precisely, in ice cores from Antarctica. Of course, geological markers based on the activity of living creatures are nothing new. What's new is that the creatures are humans, and the rate of change, particularly in CO2 concentration, is faster than anything previously recorded, by orders of magnitude.
The dating of the new geological epoch is hotly contested, and in my view, the other proposed dates (Industrial revolution, colonization of the New World) are full of significance. Colonialism inaugurates a form of domination, the enslavement of people on plantations, that allowed early cycles of capital accumulation to proceed through the plunder of the rest of the planet. The formally "free" labor of the Industrial Revolution could only compete with colonial domination because the life of previous geological epochs was brought out of the ground and sent back into the atmosphere by the burning of coal and oil. However, the big changes in atmospheric and oceanic chemistry only become clearly measurable in the 1950s, and they are correlated with the particular form of technological development that begins in the US during WWII, then spreads around the planet afterwards. The contemporary US state is brought to account with the 1950s date, along with all those that emulate it. The present US administration shows some dawning awareness of these things. If you're interested, I and a couple friends made a short video and a long text about these issues:
Basically it's a depth interpretation of the Superman festival held every year in the tiny town of Metropolis, Illinois....
best, Brian