Un'introduzione settecentesca all'Antropocene. Il Quaternario nelle ricerche di Giovanni Arduino sulla valle dell'Agno

During the year 2024, two important events occurred in the History of Earth Sciences, linked by the definition of the chronostratigraphic unit called the Quaternary. The first is the rejection from the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS) of the proposal of the formalization of a new epoch called Anthropocene, as the last epoch of the period Quaternary. The second is the promotion of the Agno Valley to a 101st site of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) Geological Heritage Site list for the History of Geosciences. Just in the Agno Valley, in the mid-eighteenth century the Veronese scientist Giovanni Arduino drew a geological section that inspired the geochronological subdivision of deep time still in effect today, including the Quaternary. Both Quaternary and Anthropocene chronostratigraphic units have been and continue to be hotly debated among geologists. Key words: Anthropocene, Quaternary, Giovanni Arduino, Agno Valley.