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Periodicity in marine phosphorus burial rate

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Abstract

There have been arguments both for and against a periodicity of 26-33 million years (Myr) in terrestrial and extraterrestrial records1,2,3,4,5. The best way to identify such periodicity is the analysis of geomarine evolutionary records6. We have analysed the marine sedimentary phosphorus burial rate (PBR), as fluctuations in this rate are strong indicators of the coupling of climate, continental weathering and ocean primary productivity7. We find a statistically significant harmonic component of 33±3 Myr against the estimated robust background noise spectrum, supporting the idea that geo-marine processes are cyclic.

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Figure 1: Rate of phosphorus accumulation for all areas and sediment types.
Figure 2: Robust multi-taper spectral analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Theoretical Geophysics Group, National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, 500 007, India

    R. K. Tiwari & K. N. N. Rao

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  1. R. K. Tiwari
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  2. K. N. N. Rao
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Tiwari, R., Rao, K. Periodicity in marine phosphorus burial rate. Nature 400, 31–32 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/21807

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