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Canadian lake picked as the cradle of the Golden Spike, dawn of a new epoch

Geologists say Ontario’s Crawford Lake best illustrates case to declare a new age geological epoch
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The waters of Crawford Lake in Milton, Ont., on Friday, July 7, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston

A team of geologists has concluded, after studying sites around the globe, that a tiny, deep lake in southern Ontario should mark the birth of the modern world.

A few layers of sediment from around 1950 at the bottom of Crawford Lake, they say, show more clearly than anywhere else how human activities have changed the planet’s functioning to the extent that a new geological epoch should be declared: the Anthropocene, or the age of people.

“It’s

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