Guest essay by Eric Worrall
“Ship of Fools” Captain Chris Turney at UNSW claims to have identified a climate catastrophe 42,000 years ago, caused by a period of solar minima, intense cosmic ray bombardment, and the collapse of the Earth’s geomagnetic field.
Earth’s magnetic field broke down 42,000 years ago and caused massive sudden climate change
February 19, 2021 7.20am AEDT
Chris Fogwill
Professor of Glaciology and Palaeoclimatology, Head of School Geography, Geology and the Environment and Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures, Keele UniversityAlan Hogg
Professor, Director, Carbon Dating Laboratory, University of WaikatoChris Turney
Professor of Earth Science and Climate Change, Director of the Earth and Sustainability Science Research Centre, Director of Chronos 14Carbon-Cycle Facility, and UNSW Director of ARC Centre for Excellence in Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, UNSWZoë Thomas Zoë Thomas is a Friend of The Conversation.
ARC DECRA Fellow, UNSWThe world experienced a few centuries of apocalyptic conditions 42,000 years ago, triggered by a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles combined with changes in the Sun’s behaviour. That’s the key finding of our new multidisciplinary study, published in Science.
This last major geomagnetic reversal triggered a series of dramatic events that have far-reaching consequences for our planet. They read like the plot of a horror movie: the ozone layer was destroyed, electrical storms raged across the tropics, solar winds generated spectacular light shows (auroras), Arctic air poured across North America, ice sheets and glaciers surged and weather patterns shifted violently.
During these events, life on earth was exposed to intense ultraviolet light, Neanderthals and giant animals known as megafauna went extinct, while modern humans sought protection in caves.
…
Because of the coincidence of seemingly random cosmic events and the extreme environmental changes found around the world 42,000 years ago, we have called this period the “Adams Event” – a tribute to the great science fiction writer Douglas Adams, who wrote The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and identified “42” as the answer to life, the universe and everything. Douglas Adams really was onto something big, and the remaining mystery is how he knew?
…
Read more: https://theconversation.com/earths-magnetic-field-broke-down-42-000-years-ago-and-caused-massive-sudden-climate-change-155580
The abstract of the study;
A global environmental crisis 42,000 years ago
Alan Cooper, Chris S. M. Turney, Jonathan Palmer, Alan Hogg, Matt McGlone, Janet Wilmshurst, Andrew M. Lorrey, Timothy J. Heaton, James M. Russell, Ken McCracken, Julien G. Anet, Eugene Rozanov, Marina Friedel, Ivo Suter, Thomas Peter, Raimund Muscheler, Florian Adolphi, Anthony Dosseto, J. Tyler Faith, Pavla Fenwick, Christopher J. Fogwill, Konrad Hughen, Mathew Lipson, Jiabo Liu, Norbert Nowaczyk, Eleanor Rainsley, Christopher Bronk Ramsey, Paolo Sebastianelli, Yassine Souilmi, Janelle Stevenson, Zoë Thomas, Raymond Tobler, Roland Zech
Geological archives record multiple reversals of Earth’s magnetic poles, but the global impacts of these events, if any, remain unclear. Uncertain radiocarbon calibration has limited investigation of the potential effects of the last major magnetic inversion, known as the Laschamps Excursion [41 to 42 thousand years ago (ka)]. We use ancient New Zealand kauri trees (Agathis australis) to develop a detailed record of atmospheric radiocarbon levels across the Laschamps Excursion. We precisely characterize the geomagnetic reversal and perform global chemistry-climate modeling and detailed radiocarbon dating of paleoenvironmental records to investigate impacts. We find that geomagnetic field minima ~42 ka, in combination with Grand Solar Minima, caused substantial changes in atmospheric ozone concentration and circulation, driving synchronous global climate shifts that caused major environmental changes, extinction events, and transformations in the archaeological record.
Read more: https://science.sciencemag.org/content/371/6531/811
Sadly the full study is paywalled, but I think we get the idea.
I asked Dr. Willie Soon about this paper. He is very dubious about the suggestion that cosmic rays significantly influence global climate, the date for the Laschamp events (41,000 year geomagnetic anomaly), dating of the kauri trees, and claims that the collapse of the Earth’s geomagnetic field led to the destruction of the ozone layer.
Chris Turney’s other efforts include his ill considered ship of fools expedition which got stuck in the Antarctic global warming, and some fascinating dying penguin theories.
We (the climate skeptics) need an update on the geomagnetic field hard paradoxes observations.
In the last decade, it was discovered (the geomagnetic field specialists), that the earth’s geomagnetic field has abruptly and cyclically, changed in a manner which is impossible to explain using a ‘self-generating’ concept.
For example, the Younger Dryas abrupt change, 12,900 years ago. from an interglacial climate back to a glacial climate, at a time when solar insolation at 65N was maximum, for 1200 years, with 70% of the cooling occurring in less than a decade, correlates with the largest change to the geomagnetic field in the last 20,000 years.
At the time of occurrence of the YD, there is a large region in Sweden, Gothenburg Magnetic Excursion, abruptly changed polarity.
The current Geomagnetic field generating model electrical not correct. The Geomagnetic field is not caused by a convection currents in the liquid core. That ‘model’ cannot explain the current or past geomagnetic field observations.
A) North Pole Location Changes (post 1997)
Starting in 1997…. The Geomagnetic North pole ‘drift’ suddenly increased by a factor of ten from 15km/yr to 55 km/yr.
B) Geomagnetic field strength of the entire planet was decreasing in about 5 per cent century and starting in 1997, the geomagnetic field intensity of the planet started to decrease 5 per decade.
What Caused Recent Acceleration of the North Magnetic Pole Drift?
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2010EO510001/pdf
The north magnetic pole (NMP) is the point at the Earth’s surface where the geomagnetic field is directed vertically downward. It drifts in time as a result of core convection, which sustains the Earth’s main magnetic field through the geodynamo process. During the 1990s the NMP drift speed suddenly increased from 15 kilometers per year at the start of the decade to 55 kilometers per year by the decade’s end.
This acceleration was all the more surprising given that the NMP drift speed had remained less than 15 kilometers per year over the previous 150 years of observation. Why did NMP drift accelerate in the 1990s?
http://cio.eldoc.ub.rug.nl/FILES/root/2000/QuatIntRenssen/2000QuatIntRenssen.pdf
Younger Dryas Abrupt Cooling Event
…we argue that this is indeed supported by three observations: (1) the abrupt and strong increase in residual 14C at the start of the Younger Dryas that seems to be too sharp to be caused by ocean circulation changes alone, (2) the Younger Dryas being part of an approxl. 2500 year quasi-cycle also found in the 14C record that is supposedly of solar origin, (3) the registration of the Younger Dryas in geological records in the tropics and the mid-latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere.
The Younger Dryas (YD, 12.9}11.6 ka cal BP, Alley et al., 1993) was a cold event that interrupted the general warming trend during the last deglaciation. The YD was not unique, as it represents the last of a number of events during the Late Pleistocene, all characterised by rapid and intensive cooling in the North Atlantic region (e.g., Bond et al., 1993; Anderson, 1997).
Moreover, the YD seems to be part of a millennial-scale cycle of cool climatic events that extends into the Holocene (Denton and KarleHn, 1973; Harvey, 1980; Magny and Ru!aldi, 1995; O’Brien et al., 1995; Bond et al., 1997). Based on analysis of the 14C record from tree rings, Stuiver and Braziunas (1993) suggested that solar variability could be an important factor affecting climate variations during the Holocene (see also Magny, 1993, 1995a),
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/003358947790031X
The Gothenburg Magnetic Excursion
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1134%2FS0016793212050076#
Manifestation of the gothenburg geomagnetic field excursion in sediments on the northwestern Central Russian Upland
“Abstract
The Gothenburg Magnetic Excursion in a broad sense ranges from 13,750 to 12,350 years BP and ends with the Gothenburg Magnetic Flip at 12,400−12,350 years BP (= the Fjärås Stadial in southern Scandinavia) with an equatorial VGP position in the central Pacific.
The Gothenburg Magnetic Flip is recorded in five closely dated and mutually correlated cores in Sweden. In all five cores, the inclination is completely reversed in the layer representing the Fjärås Stadial dated at 12,400−12,350 years BP. The cores were taken 160 km apart and represent both marine and lacustrine environments.”
What makes the geomagnetic field past observations of sudden changes to the geomagnetic field that correlate with small, medium, and super large climate changes… Is there are real time super large changes to the geomagnetic field that are happening now.
The sudden change in the Northern magnetic pole drift velocity and the sudden decrease in the strength of the geomagnetic field…
….was one of the reasons the EU space agency found the half billion dollars funding for the ‘Swarm’ satellite system which was developed to monitor the magnetic field.
http://news.yahoo.com/earths-magnetic-field-weakening-10-times-faster-now-121247349.html
“Earth’s Magnetic Field Is Weakening 10 Times Faster Now
…Previously, researchers estimated the field was weakening about 5 percent per century, but the new data revealed the field is actually weakening at 5 percent per decade, or 10 times faster than thought. As such, rather than the full flip occurring in about 2,000 years, as was predicted, the new data suggest it could happen sooner.
Floberghagen hopes that more data from Swarm will shed light on why the field is weakening faster now….”
What Caused Recent Acceleration of the North Magnetic Pole Drift?
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2010EO510001/pdf
The north magnetic pole (NMP) is the point at the Earth’s surface where the geomagnetic field is directed vertically downward. It drifts in time as a result of core convection, which sustains the Earth’s main magnetic field through the geodynamo process. During the 1990s the NMP drift speed suddenly increased from 15 kilometers per year at the start of the decade to 55 kilometers per year by the decade’s end. This acceleration was all the more surprising given that the NMP drift speed had remained less than 15 kilometers per year over the previous 150 years of observation. Why did NMP drift accelerate in the 1990s?
Most people are not aware that the current ‘theory’ (then current theory as to what generates the geomagnetic field is a computer program that includes non physical assumptions that ‘generates’ a toy model result) concerning what physically causes the geomagnetic field appears to be a urban legend because it cannot explain what is happening to geomagnetic field now or in the past.
The self-generating magnetic field theory…. assumed when the earth was formed there was an initial electric current (this is assumed) and that tiny electric current, generated a magnetic field in the liquid core. And the convection motion in the liquid core amplified that tiny electric current. The convection motion of conductive liquid and the initial electric current in the earth…
Produce a special ‘system’ (that cannot be drawn or explained) creates a massive amount of electrical current and electric current generates a magnetic field… And the system never dies out.
…. And 4.7 billion years later…. This self-generating model is assumed to have not failed. Every laboratory test failed. There is zero experimental evidence to support the self-generating model. i.e. When this ‘experiment’ is tried in the lab with liquid sodium (UK 10, 15 years of testing) the initial current generates a magnetic field and then the when the current or magnet is removed the self generating system decays to zero.
Mutations caused by cosmic rays during magnetic reversals are thought to be major evolutionary drivers. Maybe Neanderthal’s DNA was mutated in a non advantageous way?
The world experienced a few centuries of apocalyptic conditions 42,000 years ago, triggered by a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic poles combined with changes in the Sun’s behaviour. That’s the key finding of our new multidisciplinary study, published in Science
I saw this and thought, “Hmm… maybe this is them strting on their journey to sane science?”
But then there was this… Because of the coincidence of seemingly random cosmic events and the extreme environmental changes found around the world 42,000 years ago
…and I realised they aren’t making any connections.
Also, I’m a bit puzzled Dr Soon isn’t a fan of the GCR theory – I thought the connection between solar activity and the changes in GCR’s is pretty well established by the data.
If I am not mistaken, this claims that Neandrathals recognized that cosmic rays were a hazard to them (!) and rushed, suddenly, into caves, which is where, prior to the cosmic wave assault, they did not live. This killed them. This would presume they did not live in caves before the magnetic event. Meanwhile, modern humans, rushing up from Africa did not live in caves, were not wiped out by cosmic rays and were unaffected. Coo Coo. As an aside, if ‘modern’ humans bred with them and the result was a ‘human’ child who could breed with either side, they were all human. Just that some of them seem now to be uglier than others.
THAT would be biologic science.
Prideaux GJ, Long JA, Ayliffe LK, Hellstrom JC, Pillans B, Boles WE, Hutchinson MN, Roberts RG, Cupper ML, Arnold LJ, Devine PD, Warburton NM. An arid-adapted middle Pleistocene vertebrate fauna from south-central Australia. Nature. 2007 Jan 25;445(7126):422-5. doi: 10.1038/nature05471. PMID: 17251978.
Probably contested but it’s not consensus that climate change had an effect on mega fauna in Australia that began disappearing 100 ka.