1 It is nearly two decades since the ‘Anthropocene’was first proposed by Paul Crutzen and Eugene Stoermer to identify the most recent time interval in which many geologically significant processes and conditions have been, and continue to be, profoundly altered by human activities. In the last ten years or so it has become apparent the extent to which these activities are increasingly influencing earth surface processes, including changes in erosion and sediment transport resulting from agriculture and urbanisation, and variations in the chemical composition of the atmosphere, oceans and soils, with notable perturbations in element cycling, such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and various metals. Changes in environmental conditions generated by these processes include global warming, ocean acidification and coastal eutrophication and ensuing anoxia; habitat loss, species range shifts and extinctions; and globally significant physical and chemical changes, including cryospheric loss, ozone depletion and accelerating eustatic sea-level rise.