A new international study suggests that magnetic field reversal, combined with changing solar winds, contributed to an environmental crisis and mass extinctions 42,000 years ago. These scientists happened around the time of the disappearance of the Neanderthals, an extinct human species that roamed present-day Europe, and which would have arrived with electrical storms, widespread auroras, and a flow of cosmic radiation. One of the researchers in the previous video commented:
… would have been incredibly scary.
The authors of the study have called this catastrophic time period the Adams Transition Geomagnetic Event, o Adams event, a reference to a troupe created by Douglas Adams, author of the science fiction comedy series The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Adams wrote this famously 42 was the answer to:
… life, the universe and everything.
The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney and the South Australian Museum co-directed the study, which was published on 19 February 2021 in the peer-reviewed journal. Science. As Chris Turney of UNSW, co-author of the study, said in a statement:
The Earth’s magnetic field dropped from only 0 to 6% during the Adams event. We basically had no magnetic field. Our cosmic radiation shield had completely disappeared.
Because the magnetic inversion 42,000 years ago helped cause terrestrial extinctions, these scientists said, the skies would have been illuminated by widespread auroras. These scientists suggest that the investment could help explain evolutionary mysteries, such as the extinction of Neanderthals. Image using Unsplash / UNSW.
The results were dramatic. Solar flares and galactic cosmic rays ripped particles from the Earth’s atmosphere, ionizing the air and removing the ozone layer. Our ancestors would have witnessed shocking spectacles of light in the sky both day and night. Auroras, usually confined to the polar regions, would have spread all over the world. Ionized air would have been a major conductor of electrical storms, increasing its frequency.
The turbulence that occurs on the surface and the loss of UV protection of the ozone layer could explain the sudden appearance of rock art when the first humans retreated to the caves to protect them.
How Science the magazine reported on February 18:
… the world turned upside down, at least magnetically speaking.
The oldest known rock art in Europe, about 42,000 years old, is in the El Castillo cave in Spain. These red handprints may be related to an ancient form of sunscreen. Image via Paul Pettitt / Gobierno de Cantabria / UNSW.
Trees were the key to the mystery
The kauri tree, the largest tree species in New Zealand, was the key to understanding this ancient environmental crisis. Sometimes called the God of the Forest, kauri trees are some of the oldest forests in the world. A 60-ton log of a kauri tree was found a few years ago by workers paving the way for a power plant in New Zealand. The tree, which had been preserved in a swamp, turned out to be 42,000 years old and a valuable time capsule for scientists. Its rings spanned about 1,700 years and captured magnetic inversion.
This brief magnetic reversal had been known before, but its terrestrial effects were previously thought to be mild. The event was discovered in the 1960s in the lava flows of Laschamps in Clermont-Ferrand, France, as evidenced by magnetic studies of ancient lava. This magnetic inversion was brief; it was what scientists called an excursion: not a lasting change in the Earth’s magnetic field, but only a temporary change. As you know, the Earth’s magnetic north and south poles are not fixed or tied to the Earth’s axes of rotation. Magnetic poles wander and oscillate and, from time to time, completely exchange places, as seems to have happened temporarily 41,000 to 42,000 years ago. This particular temporary change lasted about 800 years before returning. It is now called the Laschamps Event, or Laschamp Tour.
This ancient record of kauri lived during the Adams event. Image via Nelson Parker.
As Turney explained:
For the first time, we were able to accurately date the times and environmental impacts of the latest magnetic pole switch. The findings were made possible by New Zealand’s ancient kauri trees, which have been preserved in sediment for over 40,000 years. Using ancient trees we could measure and date the rise in atmospheric radiocarbon levels caused by the sinking of the Earth’s magnetic field.
Thus, the Laschamp event refers to the inversion of the magnetic pole. The new term used by scientists in 2021: the Adams event – refers more generally to the effects on the Earth during this time. It appears that the Earth has experienced an increase in auroras, electrical storms, and cosmic radiation, causing an increase in atmospheric radiocarbon levels. Researchers have linked these events to the extinction of megafauna 42,000 years ago in mainland Australia and Tasmania.
Scientists have done many studies on the breakdown during the Laschamp event. The new study focused on the time period prior to the Laschamp event, as magnetic fields migrated across the Earth to their opposite positions. Scientists found that this period is when earthly agitations were maximum.
By studying the kauri tree, researchers were able to create a more detailed chronology of the Laschamp event. As Alan Cooper of the South Australian Museum further explained:
Kauri trees are like the Rosetta Stone, which helps us unite records of environmental changes in caves, ice cores, and peatlands around the world.
Could it happen today?
Some evidence suggests that a change in the orientation of the Earth’s magnetic field is already underway. Scientists have tracked the North Magnetic Pole wandering faster in recent years than in the past. And in the last 170 years, the Earth’s magnetic field has weakened by about 9%.
The confidence of modern society in the electricity grid and satellites makes all dystopian novelties come to life, if incoming radiation destroys our sources of energy and communication. According to Turney, the issue of climate change adds an additional element of disaster:
Our atmosphere is already full of carbon at levels never seen before by humanity. A reversal of the magnetic pole or an extreme change in solar activity would be unprecedented accelerators of climate change. We must urgently reduce carbon emissions before such a random event occurs again.
Simply put: radiocarbon dating in kauri trees helped researchers relate the magnetic field reversal 42,000 years ago to environmental calamities and extinction events.
Source: A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago
Via UNSW Sydney
