The tilt that turned the world upside down in the time of the dinosaurs could repeat itself at any time due to the effects of plate tectonics on Earth.
New research by geobiologist Ross N. Mithchell of the Department of Geosciences and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology (USA) shows that the sudden tilt of the Earth occurred about 84 million years ago , that is, the end of the Cretaceous period – the age of the dinosaurs.
According to Business Insider, the planet suddenly tilted up to 12 degrees when a large tectonic plate sank, changing the weight distribution of the planet. As many previous studies have shown, the earth’s crust is actually made up of many pieces called “tectonic plates”.
These pieces are constantly moving during the “plate tectonics” process, causing the Earth’s surface to constantly change. Tectonic plates can collide, burrow into each other, pulling the continents and oceans they carry on their backs.
The tilting and righting of the Earth took place between 79 and 86 million years ago, which seems like a long time, but for the history of the planet it has been like the blink of an eye.
The whole globe has not been moved: the iron core remains stationary, while the mantle and mantle rotate slightly, creating a misalignment that shakes up the latitudes. It is conceivable that the magnetic north pole suddenly leaves the position of the geographic north pole and then returns to its original position.
As the planet rebalanced itself, the two mantle shells also immediately returned to their original positions.
According to Nature, none of the above tilt was revealed by paleomagnetic data, which is ancient rocks formed by the cooling of lava between two adjacent tectonic plates. This rock contains magnetic minerals whose texture matches the orientation of the Earth’s magnetic poles at the time of solidification, so the change in the planetary axis is clearly recorded.
Because Earth’s tectonic activity is still ongoing, scientists believe it will continue to have similar tilts.
