November 2, 2024

How Earth’s Faint Magnetic Field Fostered the Rise of Complex Life

The authors propose that the weakening of the magnetic field might have led to the increase in oxygen, which is believed to have supported the advancement of some of the earliest complex organisms.Ediacaran Fauna and Oxygen IncreaseBetween 600 and 540 million years earlier, life on Earth consisted of soft-bodied organisms known as the Ediacaran fauna, the earliest recognized complex multicellular animals. Plagioclase crystals include tiny magnetic minerals that protect the intensity of the Earths magnetic field at the time they are formed. Analysis of the crystals revealed that, at their point of development, the Earths magnetic field was the weakest ever taped– some 30 times weaker than both the present magnetic field intensity, and that determined from similar crystals formed around 2,000 million years ago.Link Between Magnetic Field and Oxygen LevelsThe authors integrated their outcomes with previous measurements to establish that the Earths magnetic field was at this weak level for at least 26 million years, from 591 to 565 million years ago.