The team of scientists concludes that the climate changes that occurred in the last 260 million years and caused the mass extinction of life during these periods were caused by large volcanic eruptions and subsequent environmental crises. Analysis published in the journal Earth Science Reviewsshow that these eruptions release large amounts of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere, leading to extreme greenhouse climate warming and near-lethal or lethal conditions for our planet.

Importantly, these events, which occur every 26 to 33 million years, coincide with critical changes in the planet’s orbit in the Solar System that follow the same cyclical patterns, the researchers added.

“Earth’s geological processes, long thought to be strictly determined events on the planet, may actually be controlled by astronomical cycles in the Solar System and Milky Way galaxy,” says Michael Rampino, a professor at NYU. biology and senior author of the paper.

“Importantly, these forces have come together many times in Earth’s past, heralding dramatic changes in our climate.”

The researchers, including Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution for Science and Barnard College geologist Sedelia Rodriguez, caution that their findings do not apply to climate change in the 20th and 21st centuries, which scientists have shown was caused by human activities. The last studied pulses of volcanic eruptions occurred about 16 million years ago.

But they add that the analysis still confirms the profound impact of carbon dioxide emissions on climate warming. Scientists focused on continental basalt flood eruptions (CFBs), the largest eruptions of volcanic lava on Earth, covering nearly half a million square miles, and other major geological events over the past 260 million years.

These included oceanic anoxic events (periods in which the Earth’s oceans are depleted of oxygen, resulting in toxic water), as well as hyperthermal climate pulses, or rapid increases in global temperature, that lead to periods of mass extinctions of marine and non-marine life.

They found that CFB eruptions often coincide with other deadly geological events, highlighting the larger impact of volcanic activity. The fact that millions of regular cycles of volcanism and extreme climates are common with the known cycles of Earth’s orbit in our solar system and the Milky Way galaxy suggests a connection with astronomy.

The authors found that the alignment between geological and astrophysical cycles is too close to be a mere coincidence. An important question that remains is to determine how the planet’s astronomical movements affect Earth’s internal geological engines.

“This is an unexpected connection that involves the convergence of both astronomy and geology; events that occur on Earth occur in the context of our astronomical environment,” says Rampino.