3 ms·

Geologist here: no. Geomagnetic field reversed thousands of times in the Phanerozoic (last 650 My) without any relation with mass extinction events. Organisms c

by furins 6y ago

Geologist here: no. Geomagnetic field reversed thousands of times in the Phanerozoic (last 650 My) without any relation with mass extinction events. Organisms can deal with this kind of events.

dmos62 6y ago
More info? According to Wikipedia, the Phanerozoic Eon has been lasting for 541 million years (I rechecked because wasn't sure what My meant at first). How would we even detect extinction events from a few million years back? Also, hundreds of millions years divided by thousands of geomagnetic field reversals sounds like very rare (considering the briefness of human existance). Also, ecosystem collapses are probably not all the same: there's gigantic explosions (a la dinosaur killer), there could be ocean acidifaction, etc.
- dwaltrip 6y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinction_events https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinction_events https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event It doesn’t look like magnetic pole reversals cause mass extinctions.
- DataGata 6y ago
  There are a lot of good pop science books to read about the history of life on earth. "The Ends of the World" is probably the best one. "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs" is also a good one, and it doesn't focus purely on the dinosaurs as the title suggests, but about how we know how they evolved and existed.
_bxg1 6y ago
Can a technological civilization, though?
- akiselev 6y ago
  Yes. Some technology and techniques will trickle down from defense and aerospace like it usually does. Manufacturing will be scaled up and infrastructure retrofitted. Events much more traumatic like an atmospheric EMP have been a design concern since shortly after we developed nuclear weapons. We've got well understood technology to solve any issues that come up.
  - jopsen 6y ago
    It also seems likely that quick geological events are rather slow on a human time scale... So we'll hopefully have hundreds of years, if not thousands of years to prepare.
narrationbox 6y ago
There have been proposals for an artificial magnetosphere for Mars to help with terraforming. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/V2050/pdf/8250.pdf http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/V2050/pdf/8250.pdf https://phys.org/news/2017-03-nasa-magnetic-shield-mars-atmosphere.html https://phys.org/news/2017-03-nasa-magnetic-shield-mars-atmo... If things truly get bad, we are not entirely out of options (though powering the aforementioned shield might be somewhat difficult).

by furins 6y ago

Geologist here: no. Geomagnetic field reversed thousands of times in the Phanerozoic (last 650 My) without any relation with mass extinction events. Organisms can deal with this kind of events.

dmos62 6y ago

More info? According to Wikipedia, the Phanerozoic Eon has been lasting for 541 million years (I rechecked because wasn't sure what My meant at first). How would we even detect extinction events from a few million years back? Also, hundreds of millions years divided by thousands of geomagnetic field reversals sounds like very rare (considering the briefness of human existance). Also, ecosystem collapses are probably not all the same: there's gigantic explosions (a la dinosaur killer), there could be ocean acidifaction, etc.

dwaltrip 6y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinction_events https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_extinction_events https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_event It doesn’t look like magnetic pole reversals cause mass extinctions.
DataGata 6y ago
There are a lot of good pop science books to read about the history of life on earth. "The Ends of the World" is probably the best one. "The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs" is also a good one, and it doesn't focus purely on the dinosaurs as the title suggests, but about how we know how they evolved and existed.

_bxg1 6y ago

Can a technological civilization, though?

akiselev 6y ago
Yes. Some technology and techniques will trickle down from defense and aerospace like it usually does. Manufacturing will be scaled up and infrastructure retrofitted. Events much more traumatic like an atmospheric EMP have been a design concern since shortly after we developed nuclear weapons. We've got well understood technology to solve any issues that come up.
- jopsen 6y ago
  It also seems likely that quick geological events are rather slow on a human time scale... So we'll hopefully have hundreds of years, if not thousands of years to prepare.

narrationbox 6y ago

There have been proposals for an artificial magnetosphere for Mars to help with terraforming. http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/V2050/pdf/8250.pdf http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/V2050/pdf/8250.pdf https://phys.org/news/2017-03-nasa-magnetic-shield-mars-atmosphere.html https://phys.org/news/2017-03-nasa-magnetic-shield-mars-atmo... If things truly get bad, we are not entirely out of options (though powering the aforementioned shield might be somewhat difficult).