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Study: Earth has a 'pulse'

| July 8, 2021 1:00 AM

Earth rotates every 24 hours.

It goes around the sun (nearly) every 365.25 days.

And, apparently, Earth has a kind of pulse every 27.5 million years.

According to a study reported in November in the journal Geoscience Frontiers, accepted and posted online in June, our planet has a cluster pattern of major geologic events. Researchers at New York University and the Carnegie Institution for Science in California liken it to a pulse.

“A pulse of the Earth: A 27.5-Myr underlying cycle in coordinated geological events over the last 260 Myr” (million years) makes the most comprehensive attempt so far to answer a question many geologists have wondered:

Is there a pattern to major geological events — earthquakes, extinctions, oceanic events such as sea level changes, volcanic eruptions and so on? Or is it simply random? Some have theorized that there is a pattern, about every 30 million years.

Examining 260 million years of Earth history, the researchers indeed found 10 clusters of such events, meaning five or more, occurring roughly every 27.5 Myr.

Specifically, the report states the average interval was 26.9 Myr, with a mathematical peak at 27.5 Myr “at the 96 percent confidence level.”

A kind of geologic heartbeat.

And if you’re wondering, no, we’re not close to it happening again. More like halfway, give or take a million.

While 89 total events were chronicled in the study, the pattern, at least with respect to oceanic events, seems to go back much further. The conclusions were limited to 260 million years ago because dating methods are less accurate past that point.

Why this pattern exists, or why it’s at that particular interval, science can only surmise. Some scientists suggest it may have something to do with the shifting of tectonic plates, or perhaps Earth’s shifting relationships to other objects in the galaxy. Effects of passing through dark matter?

That will have to be answered another day, when man can unveil more of this vast and mysterious universe.

To read the study abstract see: Bit.ly/3hlQaHy

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Sholeh Patrick is a columnist and scientophile (is that a word?). Email Sholeh@cdapress.com.