The model allows scientists to test different theories regarding how Earth’s surface responds to climate change and tectonic forces, and the research provides an improved model for understanding how terrestrial sediment transport regulates the planet’s carbon cycle over millions of years.
Our knowledge of Earth’s history is a first step and a cornerstone for predicting its future. Scientists have been trying to understand the dynamics of the earth’s movement and the terrain and climatic changes that shaped the face of our planet, in an attempt to predict what the future will bring in terms of changes that affect life in all its forms on the planet, but the overlapping of the forces affecting these changes was the reason for their lack of understanding of the history of the planet. Thus, it was a stumbling block in attempts to predict and foresee what the future holds.
One hundred million years of changes
Now, a team of geoscientists from the University of Sydney, in collaboration with scientists from France, has developed a detailed and dynamic model of the Earth’s surface over the past 100 million years at high resolution (up to 10 kilometers), broken down into frames per million years.
The model overlaps the forces of climate, tectonic movement, time, and the gradual sculpting of the Earth’s surface by rivers, which represent the influencing forces that change the face of our planet.
Results are published search In the prestigious “Science” journal on the second of March.
The model provides – for the first time – a high-resolution understanding of how the geophysical landscapes we see today were formed, and how millions of tons of sediment flowed into the oceans. Statement The journalist published by the “Eurek Alert” website said, “To predict the future, we must understand the past. But our geological models have provided only a simple understanding of how the modern physical features of our planet form.”
The first interactive dynamic model
“If you’re looking for a continuous model of the interaction between river basins and erosion on a global scale and sediment deposition at high resolution over the past 100 million years, it doesn’t exist. So this is a huge advance. It’s not just a tool to help us investigate the past, but it’s It will also help scientists understand and predict the future.”
Says the second researcher, Dr. Laurent Huson of the Institute of Geosciences in Grenoble (Institute of Earth Sciences) in France “This unprecedented, high-resolution model of Earth’s recent past will provide geoscientists with a more complete and dynamic understanding of the Earth’s surface. With extreme precision, it can explain the dynamics of sediment transport from the land to the ocean in a way that we have not been able to do before.”
A more accurate understanding of the planet’s past
Also in the press release, Sales says that understanding the flow of terrestrial sediments into marine environments is vital to understanding current ocean chemistry. “Given that ocean chemistry changes rapidly due to human-caused climate change, a more complete picture might aid our understanding of marine environments,” he added. .
The model will allow scientists to test different theories regarding how the Earth’s surface responds to climate change and tectonic forces. Furthermore, the research provides an improved model for understanding how Earth’s sediment transport regulates the planet’s carbon cycle over millions of years.
“Our findings will provide a dynamic and detailed background for scientists in other areas to prepare and test hypotheses, such as biochemical cycles or in biological evolution,” Sales concludes.