"Many geologists believe that geological events are random over time," said Geologist Michael Rampino of New York University, "But our study provides statistical evidence for a common cycle, suggesting that these geologic events are correlated and not random."
According to a new study published in the journal Geoscience Frontiers, geological activities on Earth follow a 27.5-million-year-cycle.
From SciTechDaily:
Using the latest age-dating data available, Rampino and his colleagues compiled updated records of major geological events over the last 260 million years and conducted new analyses.
The team analyzed the ages of 89 well-dated major geological events of the last 260 million years. These events include marine and land extinctions, major volcanic outpourings of lava called flood-basalt eruptions, events when oceans were depleted of oxygen, sea-level fluctuations, and changes or reorganization in the Earth’s tectonic plates.
They found that these global geologic events are generally clustered at 10 different timepoints over the 260 million years, grouped in peaks or pulses of roughly 27.5 million years apart.
Thankfully, the most recent cluster of geological events was about 7 million years ago, so the next major pulse is (or should be) 20 million years in the future. Phew!