Scientists reveal the step-by-step deceleration process of the Earth's rotation over the past 700 million years
2024-08-13
Recently, it was learned from Chengdu University of Technology that Professor Ma Chao from the Institute of Sedimentary Geology led a big data sedimentary team to reconstruct for the first time the process of the Earth's slow rotation from 700 million to 200 million years ago from geological records, combining geological records and astronomical calculations. The relevant results were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. During geological history, the phenomenon of slowing down the Earth's rotation has always existed due to tidal effects caused by the gravitational pull of the Earth and the Moon. But is the change in Earth's rotational deceleration during geological history the same as it is today? In response to this scientific question, the research team, together with the team of French astronomer Jacques Lascar and geologists from Germany and Ireland, conducted in-depth analysis and calculations of global geological records, obtaining the Earth's rotation period, the duration of a day on Earth, and the distance between Earth and the Moon from 700 million to 200 million years ago. The results show that in the past 700 to 200 million years, the distance between the Earth and the Moon increased by about 20000 kilometers, and the daily duration increased by about 2.2 hours. In addition, the Earth's rotation does not slow down steadily, but presents an evolutionary pattern of stepwise deceleration, namely "fast slow" and "fast slow". The two "fast slow" turning points occurred 550 million years ago and 250 million years ago, respectively, which coincided with the Cambrian Explosion and the largest mass extinction event in Earth's history. These two main "fast slow" deceleration periods may have provided necessary conditions for the evolution of early marine ecosystems. This study has important theoretical significance for reconstructing the evolutionary history of the Earth Moon system, exploring the climate, environment, and biological evolution of the Earth's rotational deceleration Ma Chao stated, "On this basis, the research team will further explore the intrinsic connections between changes in Earth's rotation and natural phenomena such as Earth's magnetic field, tidal effects, and climate change, in order to construct a more comprehensive and accurate model of Earth's system evolution
Edit:Xiong Dafei Responsible editor:Li Xiang
Source:People.cn
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