Cyclicity in Earth sciences, quo vadis? Essay on cycle concepts in geological thinking and their historical influence on stratigraphic practices

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Abstract

Abstract. The archetype of a cycle has played an essential role in explaining observations of nature over thousands of years. At present, this perception significantly influences the worldview of modern societies, including several areas of science. In the Earth sciences, the concept of cyclicity offers simple analytical solutions in the face of complex events and their respective products, in both time and space. Current stratigraphic research integrates several methods to identify repetitive patterns in the stratigraphic record and to interpret oscillatory geological processes. This essay proposes a historical review of the cyclic conceptions from the earliest phases in the Earth sciences to their subsequent evolution into current stratigraphic principles and practices, contributing to identifying opportunities in integrating methodologies and developing future research mainly associated with quantitative approaches.

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Pleistocene Temperatures

Cesare Emiliani (1955)

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An astronomically dated record of Earth’s climate and its predictability over the last 66 million years

Thomas Westerhold, Norbert Marwan, Anna Joy Drury … (2020)

Much of our understanding of Earth’s past climate comes from the measurement of oxygen and carbon isotope variations in deep-sea benthic foraminifera. Yet, long intervals in existing records lack the temporal resolution and age control needed to thoroughly categorize climate states of the Cenozoic era and to study their dynamics. Here, we present a new, highly resolved, astronomically dated, continuous composite of benthic foraminifer isotope records developed in our laboratories. Four climate states—Hothouse, Warmhouse, Coolhouse, Icehouse—are identified on the basis of their distinctive response to astronomical forcing depending on greenhouse gas concentrations and polar ice sheet volume. Statistical analysis of the nonlinear behavior encoded in our record reveals the key role that polar ice volume plays in the predictability of Cenozoic climate dynamics.