Catastrophic events such as volcanic eruptions and mass extinctions appear to occur on a regular basis – determined by the “pulse” that strikes every 27.5 million years, found a new study.
The researchers used improved radioisotope dating technology to determine disasters such as sea level rise and volcanic eruptions.
They found that such events were “accidental” and obvious associated with repeated cycles of major major geological events.
The last cycle was 7 million years ago, which means it should be 20 million years before another round of such an event.
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Michael Rampino, geologist and professor in the Department of Biology at New York University, said, “Many geologists believe that geological events occur randomly over time. But our study provides statistical evidence for common cycles, showing that these geological events are correlated and not random.”
Research is in the journal Geoscience Frontiers. released.
Researchers have previously suggested a cycle of major geological events – including volcanic activity and mass extinctions on land and at sea – that ranged from 26 to 36 million years ago.
But many events are difficult to pinpoint accurately.
In recent years there has been a significant increase in radioisotopic dating and changes in geological timescales, generating new data about the timing of past events.
Rampino and his colleagues analyzed the ages of 89 large, well-dated geological events over the last 260 million years.
These events include ocean and land extinctions, large volcanic lava eruptions, called flood basalt eruptions, events in which the oceans run out of oxygen, sea level fluctuations and changes or rearrangements of the Earth’s tectonic plates.
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They found that these global geological events were generally grouped at 10 different time points over 260 million years, grouped into peaks or pulses that were about 27.5 million years apart.
The researchers believe that these impulses may be a function of cycles of activity in the Earth’s interior – geophysical processes linked to plate tectonics and climate dynamics.
Alternatively, a similar cycle in Earth’s orbit in space could make these events rhythmic.
Rampino said, “Regardless of the origin of these cyclical episodes, our results support the case for a largely periodic, coordinated, and sometimes catastrophic geological record that differs from the views of many geologists.”
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