article_snippet: Experts have been divided on when mankind caused a lasting impact on the Earth's geology with some suggesting 1964 when the fallout from atomic testing became apparent.
article_snippet: According to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS),  the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) are officially in the Holocene epoch, which began 11,700 years ago after the last major ice age.
article_snippet: But up until now, experts have been divided on when mankind caused a lasting impact on the Earth's geology with some suggesting 1964 when the fallout from atomic testing became apparent.
article_snippet: Previous epochs began and ended due meteorite strikes, sustained volcanic eruptions and the shifting of the continents.
article_snippet: But to define an epoch scientists must pinpoint and date a global environmental change that has been captured in natural material, such as rocks, ancient ice or sediment from the ocean floor.
article_snippet: Such a marker - like the chemical signature left by the meteorite strike that wiped out the dinosaurs - is called a golden spike.
article_snippet: According to the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), we are officially in the Holocene epoch, which began 11,700 years ago after the last major ice age .
article_snippet: scientists will be in no doubt that these global changes to Earth were caused by scientists own species. '
article_snippet: Today we can say when these global changes to Earth began and why. '
article_snippet: He added while 1964 saw a peak in radioactive fallout following nuclear weapons testing, a peak in radioactive fallout was not - in geological terms - an Earth-changing event.