A Minerology for the Anthropocene

Many mineral species, objects of research or appreciated by collectors, owe their existence to the action of human societies. Through their activities, humans modify the Earth's surface–the stratigraphic entities of the Anthropocene—or pierce its interior, creating physico-chemical imbalances in ecosystems of widely varying scales. Once Man turns away from his works, Nature acts alone and produces minerals. Their belonging to the catalogue of recognised mineral species is the subject of lively debate among specialists. We shall try and provide further arguments to this debate. Based on the analysis of case studies—an old mine gallery, a coal mine slag heap, foundry slags, buried archaeological metals—this paper attempts to show both the richness of a true mineralogy of the Anthropocene—as a scientific approach—and its limits in the direction of the "artificial" on one side, and the infinitely small on the other.

A Minerology for the Anthropocene

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