In an Earth-sized take on the age-old ‘correlation or causality’ question, researchers have come across a fascinating match between Earth’s magnetic field and its oxygen levels since the Cambrian explosion, about 500 million years ago. The full results by [Weijia Kuang] et al. were published in Science Advances, where the authors speculate that this high correlation between the geomagnetic dipole and oxygen levels as recorded in the Earth’s geological mineral record may be indicative of the Earth’s geological processes affecting the evolution of lifeforms in its biosphere.
As with any such correlation, one has to entertain the notion that said correlation might be spurious or indirectly related before assuming a strong causal link. Here it is for example known already that the solar winds affect the Earth’s atmosphere and with it the geomagnetic field, as more intense solar winds increase the loss of oxygen into space, but this does not affect the strength of the geomagnetic field, just its shape. The question is thus whether there is a mechanism that would affect this field strength and consequently cause the loss of oxygen to the solar winds to spike.
Here the authors suggest that the Earth’s core dynamics – critical to the geomagnetic field – may play a major role, with conceivably the core-mantle interactions over the course of millions of years affecting it. As supercontinents like Pangea formed, broke up and partially reformed again, the impact of this material solidifying and melting could have been the underlying cause of these fluctuations in oxygen and magnetic field strength levels.
Although hard to say at this point in time, it may very well be that this correlation is causal, albeit as symptoms of activity of the Earth’s core and liquid mantle.
Both magnetic field and oxygen leves can be affected by changes in earth core (eg. temperature?), maybe that is the original cause…
Maybe it is not loss of oxygen to the solar wind, but gain of hydrogen from the solar wind? The oxygen then would transfer from the atmosphere to the oceans by reacting with protons not deflected by the weaker magnetic field.
If I remember right, the vast bulk of oxygen is generated by the photosynthetic plankton in the oceans. Perhaps it was different back then, but here we are now, and this has been confirmed by independent studies (as far as I could tell). Not sure how that would correlate with the strength of the magnetic field, which would be fascinating study done by someone like Philip Ball or Nick Lane (who, too, stand on the shoulders of giants).
So we need to hold our breath during the transition of the North and south poles?
I’ll be sure to write it up and post it in TikTok so people are ready for it.
Be sure to also shill your book and vitamin supplements on it
“These products are not meant to diagnose, treat, or cure any disease.”
“Here it is for example known already that the solar winds affect the Earth’s atmosphere and with it the geomagnetic field, as more intense solar winds increase the loss of oxygen into space, but this does not affect the strength of the geomagnetic field, just its shape.”
You may have hit the nail on the head, so to speak, as the field strength determines how much the solar wind and coronal mass ejections can interact with the earth and its atmosphere.
We also already know that there are many magnetic field cycles that the earth goes through, as well as many cycles that solar activity goes through (which have already been shown to have correlation with the field strength of the earth), so perhaps it is ultimately the sun.
The magnetic fields of the Sun and Earth are mutually inductively coupled. Leading to some very interesting phenomena that can explain this link of planetary field and O2. Bond noted that the Sun’s field strength was connected to the Earth’s field strength and climate.
Do you suppose that the mantle would have to accommodate that energy input that is being inducted into an electrically and thermally responding field generating outer and inner core? A little thermal expansion maybe?
Resulting in the mantle needing to adjust its internal structure as a strain energy response that, due to the immense pressures at depths and the mantle’s great thickness, transfers these energies to the mantle’s outer surface where the pressures are low enough to allow tearing and melting of the mantle’s surface?
The paper below completes this scenario explaining a path to oxygen generation from tectonic forcing.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32129-y Tectonically-driven oxidant production in the hot biosphere
You may find my link below interesting. It could be the greatest geological hack in history. The mantle has been discovered to oscillate in 3-4 million year cycles that I can show are correlated to solar magnetic field strength.
https://electroplatetectonics.blogspot.com/?m=1
Let me know what you think, Marc
Gosh, I think I missed the memo that oxygen levels dropped to 10% recently.
Oxygen deprivation may be to blame.
As a mathematician I would never recommend trusting a linear correlation on a function that’s clearly not linear. This is a quintessential misuse of statistics.