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Humanity inscribes itself into the rock record of Earth's history.
人类确实把自己铭刻到了纪录地球历史的石碑上。
People now move more sediment than all the world's rivers combined.
人们现在移动的沉积物量比所有现存河流所加起来的总和还要多。
Fossil fuel burning has changed the composition of the atmosphere.
化石燃料燃烧已经改变了大气成分。
Everywhere are traces of the sudden appearance of rare radioactive elements like plutonium, a legacy of nuclear weapons.
到处都有迹可循的是诸如核武器或燃料等设备中才涉及到的钚这类放射性元素的突然微量出现。
And now there's even a new type of rock—that people brought into existence.
现在甚至还发现有一种新型岩石—这全都是经由人类之手所缔造。
Geologists found the novel stone on the beaches of Hawaii.
地理学家们在夏威夷海滩上发现了一种新石块。
Its constituents include solids of volcanic origin, sand, shells and, yes, plastic.
它的成分里面有火山源，沙粒，贝壳以及，是的，还有塑料。
The discoverers dubbed the material plastiglomerate.
发现者将它的命名为塑料聚块。
The finding is in the journal GSA Today, published by the Geological Society of America.
这项研究已发表在美国地理科学协会主办的《今日地理学》期刊上。
People's campfires on the beach inadvertently helped create plastiglomerate.
人们在海边露营的篝火无意中促进了这种塑料团块的形成。
Some plastic, from a soda bottle, fishing line or a plethora of other possible polymeric sources, found itself near the fire and melted.
瓶装苏达饮料，鱼线或者其它可能含有多聚物成分的塑料，被遗弃在篝火边之后融化掉。
The resultant sticky goo cemented all the disparate bits together.
结果导致产生的黏性物质彼此之间相互融合。
The new substance appears to be persistent, destined to stick around for a long, long time.
这种新物质貌似性质很稳定，黏性长达很长一段时间。
And that's the kind of techno-fossil that may prove to be a hallmark of the Anthropocene age, this time of humanity shaping the planet.
而就是这种技术导致的化石类物质也许能作为地球人类时代存在过的标记，我们人类影响着自己所生活的这颗星球。
