Abstract
Episodes of mass extinctions on the Earth are now strongly suspected to be cyclical1. We report here that our analysis of the data of Raup and Sepkoski1 suggests that the dominant cyclicity in major marine mass extinctions during at least the past 250 Myr is 30 ± 1 Myr, with the standard deviation of an individual episode being ±9 Myr. We find this terrestrial cycle to be strongly correlated with the time needed for the Solar System to oscillate vertically about the plane of the Galaxy, which is 33 ± 3 Myr according to the best current astronomical evidence. It is argued that galactic triggering or forcing of terrestrial biological crises may arise as a result of collisions (or close encounters) of the Solar System with intermediate-sized to large-sized interstellar clouds of gas and dust, which are sufficiently concentrated towards the galactic plane to produce the observed cyclicity and its scatter. Among other consequences, a nearby interstellar cloud would gravitationally perturb the Solar System's family of comets and thereby increase the flux of comets and comet-derived bodies near the Earth, leading to large-body impacts. We find a dominant cyclicity of 31 ± 1 Myr in the observed age distribution of impact craters on Earth, the phase of this cycle agreeing with that shown by the major biological crises. Our galactic hypothesis can thus simultaneously account for the mean interval between major terrestrial crises and for the 50% scatter of the time intervals about their mean value.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Raup, D. M. & Sepkoski, J. J. Proc. natn. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 81, 801–805 (1984).
Stothers, R. Astr. Astrophys. 77, 121–127 (1979).
Fischer, A. G. & Arthur, M. A. Soc. Econ. Paleont. Miner. Spec. Publ. 25, 19–50 (1977).
Raup, D. M. Geol. Soc. Am. Spec. Pap. 190, 277–281 (1982).
Palmer, A. R. Geology 11, 503–504 (1983).
McCrea, W. H. Proc. R. Soc. A375, 1–41 (1981).
Dilke, F. W. W. & Gough, D. O. Nature 240, 262–294 (1972).
Hoyle, F. & Lyttleton, R. A. Proc. Camb. phil. Soc. 35, 405–415 (1939).
Shapley, H. Sky Telesc. 9, 36–37 (1949).
Steiner, J. & Grillmair, E. Bull. geol. Soc. Am. 84, 1003–1018 (1973).
Williams, G. E. Earth planet. Sci. Lett. 26, 361–369 (1975).
McCrea, W. H. Nature 255, 607–609 (1975).
Innanen, K. A., Patrick, A. T. & Duley, W. W. Astrophys. Space Sci. 57, 511–515 (1978).
Tamrazyan, G. P. Izv. Acad. Nauk Azerb. SSR 12, 85–115 (1957).
Hatfield, C. B. & Camp, C. J. Bull. geol. Soc. Am. 81, 911–914 (1970).
Meyerhoff, A. A. Mem. Can. Soc. petrol. Geol. 2, 745–758 (1973).
Oort, J. H. in Galactic Structure (eds Blaauw, A. & Schmidt, M.) 455–511 (University of Chicago, 1965).
Eggen, O. J. Publ. astr. Soc. Pacif. 81, 741–753 (1969).
Krisciunas, K. Astr. J. 82, 195–197 (1977).
Hill, G., Hilditch, R. W. & Barnes, J. V. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 186, 813–830 (1979).
Rohlfs, K. & Kreitschmann, J. Astrophys. Space Sci. 79, 289–319 (1981).
Klugh, H. E. Statistics, the Essentials for Research, Ch. 10 (Wiley, New York, 1970).
Knude, J. Astr. Astrophys. 126, 89–93 (1983).
Talbot, R. J. Jr. & Newman, M. J. Astrophys. J. Suppl. 34, 295–308 (1977).
Ilovaisky, S. A. & Lequeux, J. Astr. Astrophys. 18, 169–185 (1972).
Clark, D. H. & Caswell, J. L. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 174, 267–305 (1976).
Terry, K. D. & Tucker, W. H. Science 159, 421–423 (1968).
Ruderman, M. A. Science 184, 1079–1081 (1974).
Whitten, R. C., Cuzzi, J., Borucki, W. J. & Wolfe, J. H. Nature 263, 398–400 (1976).
Clark, D. H., McCrea, W. H. & Stephenson, F. R. Nature 265, 318–319 (1977).
Stark, A. A. in Kinematics, Dynamics and Structure of the Milky Way (ed. Shuter, W. L. H.) 127–133 (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1983).
Clube, S. V. M. & Napier, W. M. Q. Jl. R. astr. Soc. 23, 45–66 (1982).
van den Bergh, S. J. R. astr. Soc. Can. 76, 303–308 (1982).
Sanders, D. B., Scoville, N. Z. & Solomon, P. M. Preprint, Univ. Massachusetts (1984).
Cohen, R. S., Cong, H., Dame, T. M. & Thaddeus, P. Astrophys. J. 239, L53–56 (1980).
Chandrasekhar, S. Principles of Stellar Dynamics, 190 (University of Chicago, 1942).
Vidal-Madjar, A., Laurent, C., Bruston, P. & Audouze, J. Astrophys. J. 223, 589–600 (1978).
Begelman, M. C. & Rees, M. J. Nature 261, 298–299 (1976).
Talbot, R. J. Jr, Butler, D. M. & Newman, M. J. Nature 262, 561–563 (1976).
Butler, D. M., Newman, M. J. & Talbot, R. J. Jr Science 201, 522–525 (1978).
McKay, C. P. & Thomas, G. E. Geophys. Res. Lett. 5, 215–218 (1978).
Hills, J. G. Astr. J. 86, 1730–1740 (1981).
Oort, J. H. Bull. astr. Inst. Neth. 11, 91–110 (1950).
Urey, H. C. Nature 242, 32–33 (1973).
Napier, W. M. & Clube, S. V. M. Nature 282, 455–459 (1979).
Clube, S. V. M. & Napier, W. M. Earth planet. Sci. Lett. 57, 251–262 (1982).
Silver, L. T. & Schultz, P. H. (eds) Geol. Soc. Am. Spec. Pap. 190, 1–528 (1982).
Pollack, J. B., Toon, O. B., Ackerman, T. P., McKay, C. P. & Turco, R. P. Science 219, 287–289 (1983).
Grieve, R. A. F. Geol. Soc. Am. Spec. Pap. 190, 25–37 (1982).
Seyfert, C. K. & Sirkin, L. A. Earth History and Plate Tectonics, 383–389 (Harper & Row, New York, 1979).
Alvarez, L. W., Alvarez, W., Asaro, F. & Michel, H. V. Science 208, 1095–1105 (1980).
Hsü, K. J. Nature 285, 201–203 (1980).
Ganapathy, R. Science 216, 885–886 (1982).
Alvarez, W., Asaro, F., Michel, H. V. & Alvarez, L. W. Science 216, 886–888 (1982).
Keller, G., D'Hondt, S. & Vallier, T. L. Science 221, 150–152 (1983).
Negi, J. G. & Tiwari, R. K. Geophys. Res. Lett. 10, 713–716 (1983).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rampino, M., Stothers, R. Terrestrial mass extinctions, cometary impacts and the Sun's motion perpendicular to the galactic plane. Nature 308, 709–712 (1984). https://doi.org/10.1038/308709a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/308709a0
This article is cited by
-
Generation of a galactic chronology with impact ages and spiral arm tangents
Scientific Reports (2024)
-
Long-term cycles of the Solar System concealed in the Mesozoic sedimentary basin record
Science China Earth Sciences (2023)
-
The breakup of a long-period comet is not a likely match to the Chicxulub impactor
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
A review of comet and asteroid statistics
Earth, Planets and Space (2014)
-
Did dark matter kill the dinosaurs?
Nature (2014)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.