Let me assure you that you’re safe. Whew! I know. That’s relief from the big weight of possible global extinction. And my assurance? How can you trust that I’m right, that you should have no worries about a major extinction event? That is, no worries barring runaway pandemics that spare no member of our species.
Well, you’re not a tetrapod. Yep. Walking bipedally exempts you. And I say that in light of a recent finding by Rampino et al. (2020) that non-marine tetrapods undergo an extinction event with a periodicity of 27.5 million years. * We’re talking over the last 300 million years. Eight of the last ten extinction events occurred simultaneously with massive outpourings of flood basalt. And bummer. Three of the extinction events associated with the formation of so-called Large Igneous Provinces (like the Deccan Traps in India) were also associated with comet/asteroid impacts. Double whammy. Flood basalts erupted onto the surface with attendant bad-for-you gases accompanied by some mountain of material from outer space crashing onto the planet. Some critters just weren’t born under the right stars. But you…
You don’t have to worry. If the average time between non-marine tetrapod extinctions is 27.5 million years, and the last such extinction occurred about 16.6 million years ago, feel free to walk Fido, a tetrapod. Although there is always considerable volcanic activity, there are no currently recognizable massive eruptions of flood basalts, such as that of 252 million years ago, the time of the Great Dying. And if all outer space has to throw at us is that Chelyabinsk meteor back in February, 2013, or the suspected near miss of 99942 Apophis nine years from this writing, you really don’t have to put extinction level event (ELE) on a plate already covered by a hefty serving of pandemic. ** If you don’t have the virus or if you’ve had it and survived, you can breathe easy. And you have that added measure of your not being a tetrapod. (Don’t tell tail-wagging four-legged Fido who is happy to be out for that walk in the park)
So, 1) No great outpourings of flood basalts at this time, 2) No imminent threats from outer space, and 3) No extra set of legs. You’re okay—for now. Of course—and I don’t want to put in that proverbial fly—the Rampino study identifies an average periodicity, and we all know that averages, such as the average human lifespan for a place, come from a range of numbers: Someone dies young; someone dies old; a bunch of people die between young and old. Not that I want to frighten you after telling you that you are safe from an extinction event.
Just remember in case I am wrong that personal extinctions aren't global extinctions and that THIS IS NOT YOUR PRACTICE LIFE.
*Rampino, Michael R., Ken Caldeira, and Yuhong Zhu. 10 Dec. 2020. A 27.5-My underlying periodicity detected in extinction episodes of non-marine tetrapods. Historical Biology: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2020.1849178
**And be assured that if you are around in 2036 or 2068 the chances of Apophis hitting Earth are really quite small, maybe 1 in 150,000—of course, there are people who win the PowerBall lottery against odds of 1 in tens of millions (just sayin’).
Well, you’re not a tetrapod. Yep. Walking bipedally exempts you. And I say that in light of a recent finding by Rampino et al. (2020) that non-marine tetrapods undergo an extinction event with a periodicity of 27.5 million years. * We’re talking over the last 300 million years. Eight of the last ten extinction events occurred simultaneously with massive outpourings of flood basalt. And bummer. Three of the extinction events associated with the formation of so-called Large Igneous Provinces (like the Deccan Traps in India) were also associated with comet/asteroid impacts. Double whammy. Flood basalts erupted onto the surface with attendant bad-for-you gases accompanied by some mountain of material from outer space crashing onto the planet. Some critters just weren’t born under the right stars. But you…
You don’t have to worry. If the average time between non-marine tetrapod extinctions is 27.5 million years, and the last such extinction occurred about 16.6 million years ago, feel free to walk Fido, a tetrapod. Although there is always considerable volcanic activity, there are no currently recognizable massive eruptions of flood basalts, such as that of 252 million years ago, the time of the Great Dying. And if all outer space has to throw at us is that Chelyabinsk meteor back in February, 2013, or the suspected near miss of 99942 Apophis nine years from this writing, you really don’t have to put extinction level event (ELE) on a plate already covered by a hefty serving of pandemic. ** If you don’t have the virus or if you’ve had it and survived, you can breathe easy. And you have that added measure of your not being a tetrapod. (Don’t tell tail-wagging four-legged Fido who is happy to be out for that walk in the park)
So, 1) No great outpourings of flood basalts at this time, 2) No imminent threats from outer space, and 3) No extra set of legs. You’re okay—for now. Of course—and I don’t want to put in that proverbial fly—the Rampino study identifies an average periodicity, and we all know that averages, such as the average human lifespan for a place, come from a range of numbers: Someone dies young; someone dies old; a bunch of people die between young and old. Not that I want to frighten you after telling you that you are safe from an extinction event.
Just remember in case I am wrong that personal extinctions aren't global extinctions and that THIS IS NOT YOUR PRACTICE LIFE.
*Rampino, Michael R., Ken Caldeira, and Yuhong Zhu. 10 Dec. 2020. A 27.5-My underlying periodicity detected in extinction episodes of non-marine tetrapods. Historical Biology: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2020.1849178
**And be assured that if you are around in 2036 or 2068 the chances of Apophis hitting Earth are really quite small, maybe 1 in 150,000—of course, there are people who win the PowerBall lottery against odds of 1 in tens of millions (just sayin’).
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