During Unearthing the Present, scientists, researchers, artists, and activists gathered to decipher stratigraphic samples taken from lake deposits in northeastern China—in an effort to jointly identify ways and means of responding to the signals of the Anthropocene. The sediment cores from Sihailongwan Lake are particularly marked by the history of Chinese industrialization, with both socio-political upheavals and technological change precisely traced in the sediment samples. Participants explored the chemical markers of Chinese environmental and industrial history and the different ways in which energy sources and usage have been conceptualized in northeastern China. Sihailongwan Lake is one of twelve sites across the globe explored by geologists looking for traces of human impact on the planet. Read our online guide The Geological Anthropocene for more information and to explore the other sites.