Cyclostratigraphy and Astrochronology in 2018

Hinnov, Linda A.

Abstract

After more than a century of doubt and equivocation, cyclostratigraphy – the stratigraphic record of astronomically forced paleoclimatic change – has come to be widely accepted in the geosciences. Cyclostratigraphy depicts a paleoclimate system that is intimately connected with and pervasively tuned to the variations of co-occurring astronomical and geophysical parameters that have affected the Earth through geologic time. Cyclostratigraphy provides a proprietary record of planetary orbital motions, and is the sole repository of evidence for interplanetary orbital resonance and chaotic interaction throughout Solar System history. Cyclostratigraphy has also recorded the evolution of Earth's rotation rate and mass distribution, and by consequence, the orbital dynamics of the Moon. For the most recent ten million years, cyclostratigraphy has been precisely correlated to quantitative astronomical models, and for hundreds of millions of years prior to that, has been matched to models with a progressively decreasing but still significant measure of confidence. This has led to the rise of astrochronology, which assigns cyclostratigraphy to a specific time scale based on its correlation to astronomical solutions. Modern astronomical solutions are highly consistent, indicating that the theory of Solar System dynamics has been described as completely as possible for 0 to at least 50 million years ago (Ma). This indicates that cyclostratigraphy can be correlated to the full Earth orbital eccentricity and/or inclination solution over 0–50 Ma, to contribute a high-precision astrochronology for the geologic time scale. For times prior to 50 Ma, astronomical models deviate substantially from one another as predicted by the Lyapunov time of the Solar System, and depict chaotic behavior, for example, between Earth and Mars. On the other hand, specific planetary orbits, notably those of Jupiter and Saturn, theoretically remain stable over much longer periods of time; these have led to the recognition of “metronomes” in Earth's orbital motions, specifically,
and
, which when identified in cyclostratigraphy can provide practical extensions to the Astronomical Time Scale for hundreds of millions of years into the past.

Citation

Hinnov, L. A. (2018). Cyclostratigraphy and Astrochronology in 2018. In M. Montenari (Ed.), Stratigraphy & Timescales (1-80). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.sats.2018.08.004

• Online Publication Date: Sep 17, 2018
• Publication Date: 2018
• Deposit Date: Jun 5, 2023
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Pages: 1-80
• Series Title: Cyclostratigraphy and Astrochronology
• Series ISSN: 2468-5178
• Book Title: Stratigraphy & Timescales
• Chapter Number: 1
• ISBN: 978-0-12-815098-6
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.sats.2018.08.004