Earth has undergone several changes throughout its history, fueled by geological events and human activity. Dinosaurs came and went in the past 260 million years, as well as the Pangea split that created the continents and islands present today. Although these events seemed to happen in random order, scientists discovered that these geological events happened in a pattern.
A recent study of ancient geological events showed that Earth has a slow, steady "heartbeat" of geological activity that happens every 27.5 million years. Researchers said that this gives the planet a "pulse" at a scheduled time rather than happening at random.
27.5-Million-Year Cycle is the Pulse of the Earth
Researchers believe for the past 50 years that cycles of major geological events range between 26 to 36 million years. But due to limitations of technology in dating geological events, early work on these correlations was hampered and prevented scientists from conducting quantitative investigations, according to SciTech Daily.
The new study shows significant improvements in radio-isotopic dating techniques and how the changes in geologic timescales have allowed scientists to gather new data on the timing of past events. The team was able to compile updated records of major geological events over the past 260 million years.
They conducted a new analysis on 89 well-dated major geological events that included volcanic activity, marine, and landmass extinctions, plate tectonics, rising rea levels, and events that depleted oxygen in oceans. They found that these global events are clustered at 10 different time points and grouped in peaks or pulses every 27.5 million years.
The most recent geological event recorded was 7 million years ago, which means that there are 20.5 million more years to go before the next pulse of a major geological event.
New York University geologist Michael Rampino, study's lead author, said in a 2021 statement that the study provides statistical evidence for a common cycle that points to these geological events as correlated rather than random events.
What Causes These Pulses?
According to Science Alert, some studies apart from Rampino and his team suggested that comet strikes and Planet X is to blame. But this is not widely accepted by the scientific community as they believe that the geological "heartbeat" of Earth could be due to something closer to home.
The team wrote that these cyclic pulses of tectonics and climate change could be due to geophysical processes that are linked to the dynamics of mantle plumes and plate tectonics or could be due to astronomical cycles that depend on Earth's motion around the sun.
Rampino added that the Solar System sometimes moves through planes that have more dark matter in the galaxy, Live Science reported. When this happens, it absorbs a large amount of dark matter that can annihilate or release heat that triggers geological heating and activity. He explains that this interaction could be associated with the pulse of the Earth.
But given that dark matter remains a mystery to scientists, this explanation remains a theory. Rampino and his team hope to get better data about other geological events in history to see whether this pulse extends further back in time.
They published the full findings of their study, titled "A Pulse of the Earth: A 27.5-Myr Underlying Cycle in Coordinated Geological Events Over the Last 260 Myr," in the journal Geoscience Frontiers.
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