The first estimate of the size of the planet’s technosphere has concluded that its mass is approximately 30 trillion tons.

The technosphere is made up of all those structures we use to maintain our life on the planet, from houses and farms to computers and smartphones. The new study, led by Professors Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams and Colin Waters from the University of Leicester Department of Geology, suggests that the mass of this combined structure is more than 50 kilos for every square metre of the planet’s surface.

Furthermore, the researchers found that the number of technofossil ‘species’ is now greater than that of biotic species on Earth.

The idea of the technosphere is largely tied to the concept of the Anthropocene, a proposed epoch defined by the impact that humans have made on the planet. The structure and size of the technosphere is believed to lend a significant level of understanding to the extent of that impact.

In some part, the idea, and the study, is an attempt at understanding how the Earth may look to archaeologists and palaeontologists in the future. The technosphere can be considered a technological fossil record of the Anthropocene epoch for those to come. Part of understanding the technosphere is understanding what conclusions would be drawn about us in the future if studying, for example, the composition of our landfills.

A large part of forming this understanding is the notion of technofossils. In the same way that we consider dinosaur bones fossils that lend us a biological idea of an era, technofossils are the vast amounts of technology we are likely to leave behind that will inform future interpretations of our own time. If these technofossils were classified like normal fossils, the study suggests that the number of individual types of ‘technofossil’ likely exceeds a billion, far outnumbering biotic species.

“There is more to the technosphere than just its mass,” observed Waters. “It has enabled the production of an enormous array of material objects, from simple tools and coins, to ballpoint pens, books and CDs, to the most sophisticated computers and smartphones. Many of these, if entombed in strata, can be preserved into the distant geological future as ‘technofossils’ that will help characterize and date the Anthropocene.”

“The technosphere is the brainchild of the USA scientist Peter Haff – also one of the co-authors of this paper,” Zalasiewicz added.

“It is all of the structures that humans have constructed to keep them alive, in very large numbers now, on the planet: houses, factories, farms, mines, roads, airports and shipping ports, computer systems, together with its discarded waste.

“Humans and human organisations form part of it, too – although we are not always as much in control as we think we are, as the technosphere is a system, with its own dynamics and energy flows – and humans have to help keep it going to survive.”