PARIS: Scientists on Tuesday (Wednesday in Manila) designated a small body of water near Toronto, Canada as ground-zero for the Anthropocene, the proposed geological epoch defined by humanity's massive and destabilizing impact on the planet.

Layered sediment at the bottom of Lake Crawford — laced with microplastics, fly-ash spread by burning oil and coal, and the detritus of nuclear bomb explosions — is the single best repository of evidence that a new, and challenging, chapter in Earth's history has begun, members of the Anthropocene Working Group concluded.