Abstract
Claims of paleodata periodicity are many and controversial so that, for
example, superimposing Phanerozoic (0–541 My) mass-extinction periods
renders life on Earth impossible. This period hunt coincided with the
modernization of geochronology which now ties geological timescales to
orbital frequencies. Such tuneup simplifies energy-band (variance-)
stratification of information contents, enabling separation of
astronomical signal from any harmonics. Variance-based spectral analysis
techniques can achieve this, such as the Gauss–Vaníček method favored
by astronomers for resilience with even extreme data gaps. I thus show
on diverse data (geomagnetic polarity, cratering, extinction episodes)
that many-body subharmonic entrainment causes the Earth to respond to
its astronomical forcing resonantly, so that the 2π-phase-shifted axial
precession p=26 ky, and its Pi=2πp/i; i=1,…,n harmonics, are
resonantly responsible for virtually all paleodata periods. This
resonantly quasiperiodic nature of strata is shown co-triggered by the
p’/4-lockstep to the p’=41-ky obliquity (also 2π-phase-shifted, to
P’=3.5-My superperiod). For verification, residuals analysis after
suppressing 2πp (and thus Pi, too) in the current polarity-reversals
GPTS-95 timescale’s calibration extending to end-Campanian (0–83 My)
successfully detected weak signals of Earth-Mars planetary resonances,
reported previously from older epochs. The only significant intrinsic
residual signal is 26.5-My Rampino period — carrier wave of crushing
deflections that, during Transformative Resonant Events (TRE), decimate
strata to quasiperiodicity — co-responsible for polarity reversals and
whose detection confirms geomagnetism overall ergodicity. The (2πp, Pi)
resonant response of the Earth to orbital forcing is the long-sought,
energy-transfer mechanism of the Milankovitch theory — now a special
case (applicable to the current episode) of Earth-Moon-Sun system
resonant dynamics springing from the 1–40 My very long band.
Fundamental system properties — 2π-phase-shift, ¼ lockstep to a
forcer, and discrete time translation symmetry (multiplied or halved
periods) — previously were thought typical of a discrete time crystal,
which here then appears unremarkable.