What is it about?
The paper contrasts the effects of plate tectonics and Venus-style tectonism on the sea level of a planet. Plate tectonics and other mechanisms have altered global sea-level over geological time. However, the Earth is the only planet we know of that has this style of tectonism. Therefore, we ask the question if plate tectonics was replaced with the style of tectonism seen on Venus, would it alter sea level in the same way and to the same extent? We then compare the effect of altering sea-level on global albedo and temperature. Finally, we compare the effect of sea-level rise with various extinction and innovation events in the history of the Earth, asking what the effect of modest changes in sea level would be on speciation and species-area relationships of living organisms. The idea of the paper is then to link up geological events with biological ones, in a manner pursued in earlier papers.
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Why is it important?
The paper is the first to look at the effect of Venusian tectonism on sea level change for a hypothetical planet with oceans but lacking plate tectonics. The paper is also the first to compare tectonic styles with their impact on biological systems.
Perspectives
The paper grew out of a rather throwaway thought experiment during the 2020 lockdown. I was completing a larger paper on species-area relationships and continental growth (in press with Astrobiology) and I thought about whether plate tectonics was essential for biological evolution (irrespective of any generic influence on habitability). Norm Sleep (at Astrobiology) was extremely helpful and it was a pleasure to get feedback from him as the idea for the paper developed.
Dr David Sinclair Stevenson
Carlton le Willows Academy
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The impact of tectonic-style on marine transgression and evolution, International Journal of Astrobiology, April 2021, Cambridge University Press,
DOI: 10.1017/s1473550421000082.
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