Highlight-2

Highlight 2: Earth’s axial precession frequency and tidal dissipation, 0-2.46 billion years ago (Project 1)

From Zhou et al. (2024): Continental shelves and supercontinents are hypothesized to generate oceanic tidal dissipation resonances (Tyler, 2021; Farhat et al., 2022). Large resonances may have resulted from the breakup of Rodinia and formation of Gondwana (700 Ma to 400 Ma) and the assembly of Pangea (400 Ma to 250 Ma). Four Mesoproterozoic inversions of cyclostratigraphic data (A-D in Fig. 1) using TimeOptMCMC (Meyers and Malinverno, 2018) reveal evidence for a potentially significant tidal dissipation resonance from 1500 Ma to 1300 Ma (Fig. 2). This result deviates from existing tidal dissipation models, which indicate resonances developing primarily during the Phanerozoic (post-538 million years ago), and suggests the discovery of a resonance related to the assembly of Nuna.

Fig. 1: Precession frequency (rate) k from cyclostratigraphy using TimeOptMCMC (Meyers and Malinverno, 2018) over the past 2.46 billion years compared with three models (F2022=Farhat et al., 2022; L2004=Laskar et al., 2004; W2015=Waltham, 2015). Red-filled circles are inversions from Zhou et al. (2024). Red-filled diamonds are from inversions in prior studies (Zhou et al., 2022; Meyers and Malinverno, 2018). Black-filled diamonds are from cyclostratigraphy processed with other methods. Error bars and shading ranges are ±2σ. The dashed line rectangle is focus of Highlight 1. (This is Figure 3 from Zhou et al., 2024.)

Fig. 2: Tidal drag factor computed from the inversions in Fig. 1, compared with two models (F2022=Farhat et al., 2022; T2021=Tyler, 2021). Red-filled circles with ±2σ error bars are tidal drag factor based on reconstructed Earth-Moon distance. The blue solid line (F2022) has two resonances; the pink dashed line (T2021) indicates one. (This is Figure 5 from Zhou et al., 2024.)

References:

Farhat, M., Auclair‐Desrotour, P., Boué, G., Laskar, J., 2022, The resonant tidal evolution of the Earth‐Moon distance. Astronomy and Astrophysics, 665, L1, https://doi.org/10.1051/0004‐6361/202243445

Laskar, J., Robutel, P., Joutel, F., Gastineau, M., Correia, A.C.M., Levrard, B., 2004, A long-term numerical solution for the insolation quantities of the Earth: Astronomy & Astrophysics, v. 428, p. 261–285, https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20041335

Meyers, S. R., Malinverno, A., 2018. Proterozoic Milankovitch cycles and the history of the solar system. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(25), 6363–6368. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1717689115

Tyler, R.H., 2021, On the Tidal History and Future of the Earth–Moon Orbital System, The Planetary Science Journal, 2(70), https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/abe53f

Waltham, D., 2015, Milankovitch period uncertainties and their impact on cyclostratigraphy. Journal of Sedimentary Research, 85(8), 990–998, https://doi.org/10.2110/jsr.2015.66

Wu, Y., Malinverno, A., Meyers, S.R., Hinnov, L.A. (2024), A 650-Myr history of Earth’s axial precession frequency and the evolution of the Earth-Moon system derived from cyclostratigraphy, Science Advances, 10(42), https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.ado2412

Zhou, M., Wu, H., Hinnov, L.A., Fang, Q., Zhang, S., Yang, T., Shi, M. (2024), Earth-Moon Dynamics from Cyclostratigraphy Reveals Possible Oceanic Resonance in the Mesoproterozoic Era, Science Advances, 10(31), https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adn7674

Zhou, M., Wu, H., Hinnov, L.A., Fang, Q., Zhang, S., Yang, T., Shi, M. (2022), Empirical Reconstruction of Earth-Moon and Solar System Dynamical Parameters for the Past 2.5 Billion Years From Cyclostratigraphy, Geophysical Research Letters, 49, e2022GL098304, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GL098304

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