July 15, 2025
Is Climate Change Caused by the Earth's Magnetic Field?
Timothy Birdnow
Here is an interesting story about how the Earth's magnetic field cycles influence our planetary oxygen levels.
What I find interesting is, if oxygen is dependent on the magnetic field, what of atmospheric CO2? Our magnetic field is crapping out right now, and that means in the core of the planet itself. Could this not lead to more carbon dioxide outgassing? Maybe our estimates of atmospheric CO2 are not accurate as it may not be anthropogenic.
After all, both Venus and Mars have atmospheres composed almost entirely of CO2 and that without a single SUV or coal-fired electric plant. And Mars is much colder than it has any business being..
FTA:
I would add we are in a period with extremely low carbon dioxide levels. But we've seen a modest increase in the last century, just as the magnetic field has been crapping out. Coincidence?
If oxygen outgassing has been reduced then we would see a rise in CO2. It's inevitable.
BTW the atmosphere rose from 280 parts per MILLION of CO2 to 422 PPM. That sounds scary until you realize that it went from 0.028% 0.042% of the atmosphere. It's a trace gas. We now have four molecules out of every ten thousand rather than 2.6 molecules in the atmosphere.
Also, we only measure atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa observatory, which sits on the lip of an active volcano. Go figure. (The percentages are tracked by the Keeling Curve. See here.)
If outgassing of oxygen has decreased we may well find more CO2 outgassing at a volcano. But then that would kill a great scary story to tell around the campfire with a flashlight in your face.
Here is an interesting story about how the Earth's magnetic field cycles influence our planetary oxygen levels.
What I find interesting is, if oxygen is dependent on the magnetic field, what of atmospheric CO2? Our magnetic field is crapping out right now, and that means in the core of the planet itself. Could this not lead to more carbon dioxide outgassing? Maybe our estimates of atmospheric CO2 are not accurate as it may not be anthropogenic.
After all, both Venus and Mars have atmospheres composed almost entirely of CO2 and that without a single SUV or coal-fired electric plant. And Mars is much colder than it has any business being..
FTA:
The history of the Earth’s magnetic fields is recorded in magnetized minerals. When hot minerals that rise with magma at gaps between spreading tectonic plates cool down, they can record the surrounding magnetic field. The minerals retain the field record as long as they are not reheated too severely. Scientists can deduce historic oxygen levels from ancient rocks and minerals because their chemical contents depend on the amount of oxygen available when they were formed. Data for both Earth’s magnetic field and oxygen extend over comparable ranges in databases that myriad geophysicists and geochemists have compiled. Until now, the authors of the new study say, no scientists had made a detailed comparison of the records.
"These two datasets are very similar,” said coauthor Weijia Kuang, a geophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Earth is the only known planet that supports complex life. The correlations we’ve found could help us to understand how life evolves and how it’s connected to the interior processes of the planet.”
When Kuang and colleagues analyzed the two separate datasets, they found that the planetary magnetic field has followed similar rising and falling patterns as oxygen in the atmosphere for nearly a half billion years, dating back to the Cambrian explosion, when complex life on Earth emerged.
Continents, Chemistry, and What’s Next
"This correlation raises the possibility that both the magnetic field strength and the atmospheric oxygen level are responding to a single underlying process, such as the movement of Earth’s continents,” said study coauthor Benjamin Mills, a biogeochemist at the University of Leeds.
The researchers hope to examine longer datasets to see if the correlation extends farther back in time. They also plan to investigate the historic abundance of other chemicals essential for life as we know it, such as nitrogen, to determine whether they also support these patterns.
"These two datasets are very similar,” said coauthor Weijia Kuang, a geophysicist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "Earth is the only known planet that supports complex life. The correlations we’ve found could help us to understand how life evolves and how it’s connected to the interior processes of the planet.”
When Kuang and colleagues analyzed the two separate datasets, they found that the planetary magnetic field has followed similar rising and falling patterns as oxygen in the atmosphere for nearly a half billion years, dating back to the Cambrian explosion, when complex life on Earth emerged.
Continents, Chemistry, and What’s Next
"This correlation raises the possibility that both the magnetic field strength and the atmospheric oxygen level are responding to a single underlying process, such as the movement of Earth’s continents,” said study coauthor Benjamin Mills, a biogeochemist at the University of Leeds.
The researchers hope to examine longer datasets to see if the correlation extends farther back in time. They also plan to investigate the historic abundance of other chemicals essential for life as we know it, such as nitrogen, to determine whether they also support these patterns.
I would add we are in a period with extremely low carbon dioxide levels. But we've seen a modest increase in the last century, just as the magnetic field has been crapping out. Coincidence?
If oxygen outgassing has been reduced then we would see a rise in CO2. It's inevitable.
BTW the atmosphere rose from 280 parts per MILLION of CO2 to 422 PPM. That sounds scary until you realize that it went from 0.028% 0.042% of the atmosphere. It's a trace gas. We now have four molecules out of every ten thousand rather than 2.6 molecules in the atmosphere.
Also, we only measure atmospheric carbon dioxide at Mauna Loa observatory, which sits on the lip of an active volcano. Go figure. (The percentages are tracked by the Keeling Curve. See here.)
If outgassing of oxygen has decreased we may well find more CO2 outgassing at a volcano. But then that would kill a great scary story to tell around the campfire with a flashlight in your face.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
07:11 AM
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