About 41,000 ago, planet Earth became a much more hostile place than it is now. He magnetic shield that protects us from solar wind and Cosmic radiation It weakened until almost disappearing, and the magnetic poles, those references that the compasses use, abandoned the Arctic and Antarctica to roam all the globe. This event, known as the Laschamp excursionhe plunged the planet into An unprecedented radiation environment for almost two millennia.
Our ancestors lived differently. The Homo sapiens I know They expanded by Eurasiaand the Neanderthals In their last millennia of existence, they lived under a very different sky. A new and revolutionary study published in Science Advances The space environment of the Earth has first rebuilt in 3D During this chaotic period. The results not only show us what the planet was like, but they offer fascinating clues about how our ancestors could have survived and even prospered.
A broken magnetic shield and auroras about Ecuador. The Earth’s magnetic field is like an invisible shield generated by the planet’s liquid iron core. It protects us from a constant flow of charged particles emanating from the Sun. without it, The atmosphere would be swept and life on the surface, bombarded by harmful radiation.
During the Laschamps event, This shield weakened until it reached just 10% of its current force. According to the simulation of the team led by Agnit Mukhopadhyay, this had two spectacular consequences related to the magnetosphere and the poles.
The magnetosphere contracted dramatically. The protective bubble that surrounds us shrunk almost half of its normal size. At its weakest point, the limit of this shield (the Magnetopause) was only 15,500 km from the surface, a dangerously close distance.
The poles went crazy. He Magnetic axis More than 75 degrees leaned. This caused the Earth’s magnetic field to become “multipolar”, with several North and South weak poles distributed by the planet, a configuration More similar to Uranus or Neptune than to that of our current land.
Logically they had consequences. The most visible consequence of this magnetic chaos was the migration of the auroras. Normally confined to the polar regions, the lights of the north and the south expanded and wandered throughout the globe. The simulation shows that the Auroral oval moved from the Arctic, passing through Western Eurasia, until it reaches northern Africa.
At the same time, in the southern hemisphere Las Auroras moved over Australia and New Zealand. In the peak of the event, the auroras were probably a global phenomenon, visible from almost any point on the planet.
Adapt or die. See auroras From the Sahara it may sound poetic, but the reality was much more bleak. Those lights meant that the “open field lines” were no longer only on the uninhabited poles. They covered regions densely populated by prehistoric humans such as Europe. This implied a much greater exposure to Ultraviolet radiationwith all its associated hazards such as burns, skin cancer, eye damage or even fetal development problems.
This is where the study connects geophysics with archeology in a fascinating way. The researchers point out that the Laschamps event coincides with notable changes in human behavior, which could be interpreted as adaptations to this new and radiant world.
Appearance of custom clothing. The Homo sapiens From the Auriñaciense culture they developed tools such as bone needles and scrapers, associated with the manufacture of tight clothing.
This clothes, unlike the simple skins or layers that are believed to use the Neanderthals, offered a Much more complete protection against UV radiation without sacrificing mobility. This innovation could have conferred on sapiens A competitive crucial advantage.
Generalized ocher use. The ocher, a mineral pigment of iron oxide, becomes much more common in the archaeological sites of this era. It is known that ocher is an effective topical sunscreen. Its extended use could have been a direct response to protect the skin.
The Boom of Rock Art. The event also coincides with the appearance of some of the first cave paintings known figuratives. The hypothesis is that, to protect themselves from radiation, humans spent much longer within caves, which could have encouraged the development of this cultural and symbolic expression in the safety of the gloom.
The inevitable: the disappearance of the Neanderthals. This fact occurred just at the end of this period and that is why it was almost safely A multifactorial process. However, this study suggests that its possible inability to adapt to high levels of radiation, in contrast to the cultural innovations of the Homo sapiensit could have been another factor in its decline.
If it occurred today, it would end up in Apocalypse. Although a geomagnetic event like Laschamps is not imminent, the Earth’s magnetic field It has weakened around 10% in the last 180 years and The magnetic north pole is moving at a record speed. If a similar event occurred in our current society, we would face an apocalypse.
A weakened magnetic shield would leave our completely exposed communications and GPS satellites. The global electricity would suffer massive overloads that would cause generalized and lasting blackouts. And all this would be added to an alteration in the atmosphere that could lead to very important climatic changes.
A look at the future of our planet. The Laschamp excursion study is not just a window to our deep past. It is a warning about the fragility of our world and a reminder that Earth is a dynamic and sometimes violent system. 41,000 years ago, our ancestors survived thanks to their ingenuity. Today, our survival would depend on a technology that, ironically, would be the first to fall.
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