In the last 260 million years, our planet has witnessed many great events. Dinosaurs came and went, continents that once had a single landmass called ‘pangea’ were divided into seven segments and took their current form, and the world began to change rapidly and irreversibly with the entry of humans into the theater stage of life.
And while all this was going on, the Earth continued to ‘time’. A recent study of ancient geological events showed that our planet had a slow and steady ‘heartbeat’ of geological activity.
The ‘heart’ of the Earth beats every 27.5 million years
According to a study published in Geoscience Frontiers, volcanic activity, mass extinctions, Representing these clustered geological events, including plate realignment and sea-level rise, this heartbeat is an incredibly slow 27.5 million-year cycle of catastrophic tides and flows. In other words, the heartbeat in question occurs every 27.5 million years. “Many geologists believe that geological events are random over time,”
said in a statement in 2021, “But our study provides statistical evidence for a common cycle,” said Michael Rampino, a geologist at New York University and the study’s lead author. , which suggests that these geological events are interconnected and not random.” saves in the form.
The team did an analysis of the ages of 89 well-understood geological events that took place over the last 260 million years. According to the analysis, some of the times when such events occurred were particularly difficult, as more than eight world-changing events occurred in geologically small time periods, creating a catastrophic ‘pulse’ as you can see in the chart below:
In the midst of these events, “times of marine and non-marine extinctions, great oceanic anoxic events, continental flood-basalt eruptions, sea level fluctuations, global intraplate magmatism pulses, and changes in seafloor spreading rates and plate reconfigurations” The research group states that “Our results show that global geological events are generally connected and come in pulses with an underlying cycle of ~27.5 million years.”
The cause of the heartbeat is unknown
On the other hand, it was published in 2020 and again by the same research team. Another study by .
However, it is unknown what causes the Earth’s heartbeat every 27.5 million years. While other research by Rampino and his group thinks that the reason may be comet impacts, a space researcher argues that the reason may be the 9th planet, ‘Planet X’, which is claimed to be in the Solar System, but whose existence is now unproven.
But the research team also speculates that this may be because it is closer to our planet than previously thought. In their statement, the group notes that the heartbeat may be “the result of geophysical processes related to these cyclical pulses of tectonic and climate change, plate tectonics and the dynamics of mantle plumes”, or alternatively, that it may be accelerated “by astronomical cycles related to Earth’s movements in the Solar System and Galaxy.” .
When will the next ‘heartbeat’ be?
According to the calculations made according to the experts, it is thought that there is about 20 million years ahead for the ‘heartbeat’ full of the aforementioned chain of disasters. Observing that the previous ‘heartbeat’ occurred approximately 8 million years ago in the graph they created, the researchers point to a time far enough for us to take a deep breath for the next.
However, if we consider the disasters experienced today, from climate change to wars, from earthquakes to volcanic eruptions and wars, we can say that today’s people create their own ‘heartbeat’ with their own hands, even if there is no giant heartbeat.