Scientists have calculated the "pulse" of the Earth: it is 27.5 million years

It seems that over the past 260 Ma, dozens of major geological events have occurred at intervals.

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for quite some time some"geologists wondered whether there was a cycle of about 30 million years in the geological record," explains lead study author Michael Rampino, a professor in the Department of Biology and Environmental Studies at New York University. However, until recently, bad dating was difficult.

Many geologists believe that all extremegeological events are largely random. In the new study, scientists analyzed 89 major geological events that have occurred over the past 260 million years to see if they were really random or there is a pattern.

New research shows that major geological events occur in clusters every 27.5 million years. (Image courtesy of New York University)

These include extinctions, sea level fluctuations, major volcanic activity and the movement of Earth's tectonic plates, and periods when the oceans were toxic due to lack of oxygen.

The researchers then arranged the events inchronological order and analyzed their location on the timeline. The scientists found that most of them are grouped into 10 separate time periods with an interval of 27.5 million. This number may not be accurate, but it is "a pretty good estimate" with a confidence interval of 96%, the study authors note. They called their discovery "the pulse of the Earth."