If society disappeared today, what evidence of our presence would be here in 1 million years?

Question

Do we know that we are the first continuous civilisation on this planet? After 1 million years, what evidence would have been left behind by others should an extinction event occured? What man-made materials would still be in a form which would allow another society to deduce an earlier civilisation must have existed

Answer 1

I loved your question because I've often wondered myself ;-)

based on what archeologists find it seems pretty clear that the best buildings will leave traces still recognizeable for at best a couple dozen thousand years - but not for 1 million years.

as for all the rest, i.e. artifacts, most of it would probably degrade beyond recognition. So maybe a USB key would survive in some form but seem a toy or something to hand from a necklace - not a sophisticated device using flash memory (especially not to a future civilisation that would be decades, or centuries, away from inventing the transistor not to mention microchips).

of course some bones and skulls would be found, some in possibly at least partly preserved constructions - but it would be hard to decide at what level we were, Romans-like, or what we really were?


so, would anything be left? I'm thinking maybe uranium, in or around (whatever would be left of) nuclear plants. Future civilisations, once they'd have discovered radioactivity, could not help but wonder at those regions of high radioactivity (relative to the background). And since there would not be any uranium-rich rocks around (unlike in Africa where there was one case of a natural nuclear reactor!), they'd have to wonder whether it could not be the trace of an ancient civilisation that controlled nuclear power.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

Well, there will be plenty of evidence left behind by us humans. One million years is actually not that long in geological or cosmological time. The dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago, and there are plenty of fossil records to tell us that they existed.

After a merely 1 million years, we will still be able to find some of the buildings, the roads, the machines that we had built. The great cities like New York, Paris, London, Tokyo, etc will be easily found. Our fossil remains in grave sites all over the world can also be easily found. In orbit, there will still be some man-made satellites circling the Earth or the Solar System.

Most important of all, there will be "information" left behind by us: CDs, DVDs, digital tape, and all types of storage media containing pictures, audio clips, videos, Word documents, etc. etc. And further still, there will be TV and radio signals in space broadcast by us over the airwaves for the last 50-60 years.

PS - Yes of course there will be plenty of garbage (plastics, styrofoams, radioactive wastes, etc.) to be found too!

Answer 3

Yes there would be traces of our civilisation after 1 million years. all thought most modern things that we've have manufactured will revert to back to the basic element they where made from. We have used natural products that are already millions of years old like marble, granite in buildings these would still be there. And also things like gold deposits in the bank vaults around the world would still remain surrounded by other metal which may have corroded But the gold will still be there refined and in blocks with the stamps still visiable as it is an inert metal. That would be hard to explain as a natural occurance. Diamonds and other gems would still been around and they would be another indicator of modern civilisation as they dont get cut buy nature. We have taken things that have been around for millions of years and cut shaped them to suit our purposes. they will remain in thoses shapes because they have already gone through alot of the processes that make them impervious to change. And of course the land refill sites would be odd geological occurances to explian as most of them are old opencast minining. The sides would still retain some sort of feature hard to explain as a natural occurance. Also the contents would be another mystery as there would just about everything in there organic and not organic. Also the metals would would leaves another mystery to be solved how did so many different metals happens to come to be in one place. Even in there in their oxidized state they would been identifiable as different metals. And finally our bones would fossilize and all marks left on our skeletons left by surgeons like face lifts. Titanium screw or stainless steel (which isnt suppose to corrode) pins or plates in the skull, Silicon implants all would point to a civilisation that had some sort of advanced medical knowledge. Things like scrap yards would leave a confusing mess of metals and perhaps some of the alloy metals we use will still be around is some shape or form. And depending on how advanced the archaeologist search is they might be able to detect the changes in genetically modified species we have left behind. Our civilisation has left an indelible mark on the surface of this planet. It would be hard to explain the underground tests of nuclear bombs as natural occurances. The sites where we store nuclear waste although no longer radio active would be another mystery. Anything that we have buried deep underground has more chance of surviving that on the surface of the planet. Just the sheer abundance of our skeletons on very major land mass would also indicate that we had the ability to cover large distances across water as a land based bi ped. No other species apart from birds have done that before in the fossil history. Grave yards with granite head stones alone would indicate civilisation Granite been one of the oldest rocks on the planet will no simply crumble into dust. It will still be there in a millions years.

Answer 4

Fabulous question! I often wonder the same thing. I am sure concrete and some metals would remain. Evidence of some of our land fills might exist because of the compaction of the material.
Do you also question what use or importance they might give to the material they do find? I find it funny sometimes how anthropologist try to tell us what was and wasn't of importance to societies that were in existence even far less time then you question. Especially when decedents of these civilizations are still around and have handed down legends of their people.
I imagine some futuristic anthropologist running around with some toilet seat around their neck claiming it was some collar of royalty.

Answer 5

a million years is a lengthy time period and that i do not imagine any man made textile will arise to that lengthy of a era. If the earth as all of us know it, nevertheless is the following, i trust that organic supplies which incorporates diamonds will nevertheless be the following. No plastics, no metallic, no timber gadgets, no metals that were produced might want to face up to all of those years and who's acquainted with, this earth may no longer be the following a million years from now. we are on a course that would want to placed an end to the comprehensive planet.

Answer 6

assuming there's any ice caps left, if someone looked through the ice cores they'd find large blips in the CO2 and pollution levels just around the time mankind disappeared. I also think there would be some residual evidence of the world's major cities left. Yes, they all have crimbled to dust and be buried, but if we can find evidence of wooden huts which are several thousand years old, then surely you'd find some evidence of New York or London, even if they would be underwater! ;-)

Answer 7

I Think the ort of thing shall be the nondegradablethings like plastice, some one in future might dig up loads of our old plastic toys,unless they have been melted down some how in 1 million years,, im not sure ifbuildingswillbe left since the earth is changing rapidly!

Answer 8

Hi. Excellent question. It made me think, but I believe I did come up with one sure sign: our artificial toxic wastes and radioactive materials. These would have all been manufactured so future scientists could tell.

Answer 9

The Pyramids of Giza.

Answer 10

certainly lots of bones will survive. Some of our structures may survive real big ones like pyramid, big dams etc. Some digging will un earth even buildings and other things we create