Tag

Earth History

All articles tagged with #earth history

science16 days ago•14 min saved

Earth’s Ten Worst Moments for Life: When Survival Was Perilous

The piece surveys ten historical Earth events where life faced extreme survival challenges, from oceanic anoxia in the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary and Doggerland’s submergence to the Carboniferous era’s giant insects, fungi like Prototaxites, an 18-million-year ERV-Fc pandemic, the Late Jurassic giants, the Carnian Pluvial Episode, the K-Pg asteroid impact that vaporized life within 1,500 km, to the End-Permian Great Dying, illustrating how life has endured repeated planetary crises and how modern resilience has enabled humans to persist despite present extinction fears.

via BBC Wildlife Magazine|

#climate-change #dinosaurs #earth-history

science2 months ago•99 min saved

Earth’s green revolution: how land plants transformed the planet

Plants first evolved from green algae and began colonizing land around 470 million years ago. To survive, they developed a waxy cuticle to reduce water loss, stronger cell walls, and simple anchor structures; by about 420 million years ago, vascular tissue allowed taller growth and the creation of soils, accelerating weathering and increasing atmospheric oxygen. Later, seeds around 380 million years ago improved reproductive success in dry conditions, and flowering plants around 140 million years ago spread with animal pollinators and fruit dispersal, driving widespread biodiversity. This chain of innovations transformed Earth’s atmosphere, soils, and ecosystems, enabling life to flourish on land.

via Live Science|

#earth-history #evolution #fossils

science3 months ago•1 min saved

Scottish rocks reveal fleeting thaw during Snowball Earth

Analyses of 2,600 well-preserved varves from Scotland's Garvellachs reveal year-by-year climate signals during the Snowball Earth period, showing rare brief thaw episodes that briefly woke the climate and challenging the idea of a completely frozen world, with implications for Earth's climate sensitivity.

via The Guardian|

#climate-cycles #earth-history #science

science3 months ago•8 min saved

Earth’s Largest Impact Craters: The 12-Chart Global Snapshot

Visual Capitalist maps the 12 largest confirmed Earth impact craters, led by Vredefort (≈160 km) in South Africa and Chicxulub (≈150 km) in Mexico; other entries include Sudbury, Popigai, Acraman, Manicouagan, Morokweng, Kara, Beaverhead, Tookoonooka, Charlevoix, and Siljan. The article notes that crater size doesn’t always predict devastation—impact energy, velocity, angle, and composition are crucial—with Chicxulub likely releasing over 100 million megatons of TNT and triggering mass extinction, while older craters like Sudbury and Morokweng formed long before complex life. Many ancient craters have eroded away, making these 12 especially valuable for studying Earth’s violent history, and some preserve significant mineral deposits and geology from their cosmic origins.

via Visual Capitalist|

#asteroid-impacts #earth-history #geology

science4 months ago•5 min saved

Potential Catastrophic Volcanoes Threaten Humanity's Future

Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs) are massive, long-lasting volcanic events capable of causing global destruction and mass extinctions, with historical examples like the Siberian Traps illustrating their potential to reshape Earth's environment and climate. While rare today, understanding LIPs is crucial for preparedness, as their effects include climate disruption, ecosystem collapse, and potential threats to civilization.

via Indian Defence Review|

#climate-change #earth-history #lips

science5 months ago•3 min saved

Earth's Origin Traced to a Single, Ancient Ancestor

A new study suggests that the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) of all life on Earth existed around 4.2 billion years ago, much earlier than previously thought, and likely had an early immune system, indicating that life was fighting off viruses from its very beginnings.

via Yahoo|

#early-immune-system #earth-history #luca

science5 months ago•3 min saved

Coral Reefs: Key Players in Earth's Climate and Carbon Cycle for 250 Million Years

Coral reefs have played a crucial role in regulating Earth's climate for over 250 million years by influencing ocean alkalinity and carbon absorption, with their rise and fall affecting climate recovery times and marine evolution; current reef decline due to human activity may impact this natural climate regulation, but recovery would take thousands to hundreds of thousands of years.

via The Conversation|

#carbon-cycle #climate-regulation #coral-reefs

science5 months ago•3 min saved

Ancient Earth Warming Halted Plant Growth and Carbon Absorption

Around 56 million years ago, a rapid and intense global warming event caused significant changes in Earth's vegetation, with drought-resistant plants thriving at mid-latitudes and increased biomass in high-latitudes, but overall reducing the planet's capacity to sequester carbon, which prolonged the warming period. Modern warming, occurring ten times faster, may pose even greater challenges for plant adaptation and climate regulation.

via ScienceAlert|

#carbon-sequestration #climate-change #earth-history

science8 months ago•1 min saved

Hidden Cosmic Impact Revealed in Museum's Glass Shards

Researchers discovered that some tektites in an Australian museum, previously thought to originate from an 800,000-year-old asteroid impact, are actually over 11 million years old, revealing a forgotten cosmic impact in Earth's history.

via The New York Times|

#asteroid-impact #earth-history #geology

science8 months ago•4 min saved

Ancient Meteorite Impact Shaped Earth's Biological Evolution

A new study revises the date of a Scottish meteorite impact from 1.2 billion to about 990 million years ago, providing a precise timestamp that links the event to the emergence of complex life on land, and offering insights into Earth's geological and biological evolution.

via Earth.com|

#early-life #earth-history #meteorite-impact

science8 months ago•3 min saved

Hidden Mathematical Pattern Revealed in Earth's History

A recent study discovered a hidden hierarchical, multifractal pattern in Earth's geological transitions, suggesting that Earth's history follows a complex, structured cascade of events over at least 500 million years, which could improve understanding of past and future planetary changes.

via yahoo.com|

#earth-history #geological-time-scales #geology

science9 months ago•2 min saved

New Study Reveals Hidden Patterns and Limits in Earth's Geological History

A new study suggests that the boundaries between Earth's geological periods follow a hidden hierarchical, fractal pattern, which could improve our understanding of past planetary changes and help predict future shifts.

via IFLScience|

#climate-shifts #earth-history #geological-time

science9 months ago•4 min saved

Scientists Discover 117-Million-Year-Old Structures Beneath Atlantic Ocean

Scientists have discovered massive 117-million-year-old mud waves beneath the Atlantic Ocean, indicating that the ocean's formation began earlier than previously thought, around 117 million years ago, driven by salt-laden water flows that reshaped the seafloor and redefined geological timelines.

via Indian Defence Review|

#atlantic-ocean-formation #earth-history #geoscience

science9 months ago•3 min saved

Ancient Comet Impact May Have Triggered Earth's Last Ice Age and Mythical Atlantis

New evidence suggests that tiny particles from a disintegrating comet may have caused the abrupt climate cooling during the Younger Dryas event over 12,000 years ago, indicating a possible impact winter that contributed to the rapid temperature drop.

via Live Science|

#climate-change #comet-impact #earth-history

science9 months ago•3 min saved

The Incredible Odds of Our Existence Explained by an Evolutionary Biologist

Evolutionary biologist Sean B. Carroll explains that the probability of individual human existence is about one in 70 trillion, emphasizing how contingent and unlikely our presence on Earth is, shaped by a series of improbable events across cosmic, geological, and biological scales.

via Open Culture|

#biological-chance #earth-history #evolution