Earth's Biggest Disasters Strike In a Hidden Pattern Every 27 Million Years (sciencealert.com)
- Reference: 0184728970
- News link: https://science.slashdot.org/story/26/07/28/0047230/earths-biggest-disasters-strike-in-a-hidden-pattern-every-27-million-years
- Source link: https://www.sciencealert.com/earths-biggest-disasters-strike-in-a-hidden-pattern-every-27-million-years
> One possibility lies deep within Earth itself. The planet's mantle is constantly circulating through convection, albeit at an almost unimaginably slow pace. Periodic changes in mantle convection, or the initiation of mantle plumes, could influence volcanism, plate tectonics, mountain building, and other large-scale geological processes. Because these systems are closely interconnected, disturbances originating deep within Earth could eventually ripple through the planet's surface, oceans, climate, and biosphere.
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> Another hypothesis focuses on interactions between Earth's surface and interior. Long-term orbital variations influence climate and sea level, periodically redistributing enormous amounts of water, ice, and sediment across the planet. [New York University geologist Michael Rampino] discusses the possibility that these changing surface loads subtly modify stresses within Earth's crust and upper mantle, potentially influencing tectonic and volcanic activity over geological timescales.
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> Rampino also considers possible influences beyond Earth, an idea he has been weighing up since the 1980s. As the Solar System orbits the center of the Milky Way, it oscillates above and below the galaxy's mid-plane, with the timing of these passages aligning with that of Earth's major upheavals. These crossings, other researchers have suggested, could also gravitationally perturb comets in the distant Oort Cloud, increasing the likelihood of large asteroid impacts.
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> Another, even more speculative, hypothesis suggests that if dark matter is concentrated near the galactic plane, a fraction of it could occasionally be captured by Earth. Over millions of years, this process could generate small amounts of internal heat, potentially influencing geological activity. At present, however, there is no direct evidence supporting either mechanism, so they remain very controversial.
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> Large asteroid impacts are discussed separately in the paper. Although they were not included in the statistical analysis of the 89 geological events, the timing of several of Earth's largest known impact craters appears broadly consistent with the proposed 27.5-million-year rhythm, as Rampino has [4]discussed in [5]earlier papers . Rampino suggests this correspondence may warrant further investigation, but stops short of claiming a causal relationship.
[1] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eve.2026.100116
[2] https://www.sciencealert.com/earths-biggest-disasters-strike-in-a-hidden-pattern-every-27-million-years
[3] https://slashdot.org/~alternative_right
[4] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2024.104369
[5] https://doi.org/10.1089/ast.2019.2043
A deepness in the sky (Score:3)
Fascinating. According to this paper, previous major mass extinctions coincide with the sun crossing the galactic plane.
It is as if there is something about the location within the Milky Way that makes complex biospheres (or preventing major disasters) more or less likely. Zones of... something or other.
Or maybe it is just coincidence.
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> previous major mass extinctions coincide with the sun crossing the galactic plane.
That's a hypothesis worth investigating.
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I read about it in a scientific report published ages ago, the title was "Currents of Space". It was, I believe, written by some unsuccessful chemist. Very readable, as far as those papers go.
It's a conspiracy! (Score:2)
The paper's author used their country's supply of red yarn, push pins, and straws. The follow-on paper will say how the Mayans were right and that they're uncovered the date and time of the apocalypse. Tin foil headwear: engage!
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I did not realize the Illuminati already existed 27 million years ago.
Shit journal - open-access - money grab (Score:3)
This is a journal to make money for the publisher and nothing more. Anything published in there is likely shit and not worth paying attention to, because they couldn't get published anywhere legit. But hey, maybe they'll sell a movie script? Not 2012. No, 27,500,000!
Data (Score:2)
[1]Here's a graph of the extinction data [els-cdn.com].
When I look at those spikes, it looks like there are a bunch of things that randomly want to kill us (like asteroids, gamma ray bursts, sudden changes in sea level, whatever, a bunch of other things), and they happen somewhat randomly with a normal distribution. Because of the way a normal distribution works, it will have some periodicity (ie, on average an asteroid will hit every X years, but with a deviation).
There is nothing special about 37 million years. [2]That [xkcd.com]
[1] https://ars.els-cdn.com/content/image/1-s2.0-S2950117226000129-gr1.jpg
[2] https://xkcd.com/2400/
WTF? (Score:1)
My theory of mass extinction is some kind of massive gas wave coming out of some liberal's ass. That is at least as credible as this. Which is to say, not very. (/s for the sarcasm impaired.)
The previous big disaster was 27 m years ago (Score:2)
The last one was on November 5, 2024.
Fourier analysis (figure 7 in the paper) (Score:2)
It's quite interesting, because it definitely shows a signal -- and as the figure notes, possibly a second signal -- in the noise.
Two considerations come to mind, however. The first is that this figure is based on 89 selected events, and while the criteria for those selections seem well-grounded, perhaps it should 62 or 117 events. In other words, have events been included that should not have been, or have events been omitted because they're not yet known? My own feeling is that as a first approximat
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Yeah this isn't new either. I first remember reading this as speculation over a decade ago.
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Given your uid, probably on here as well.
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I remember how some of our professors used to fish out their old research papers, make some changes here and there with some
"new data" and "new perspective", polish them up and send them for publication. Mainly to meet their number of published papers per year department requirement.