Inversions of the Earth's Magnetic Field: History, Mechanisms and Climatic Consequences

Developed within the interdisciplinary framework of The Reconceptualization Epoch project, this paper introduces a radical electrodynamic model of the geomagnetic history of the Earth. The author deconstructs the mainstream hydromagnetic dynamo theory and the conventional view of magnetic inversions as rare catastrophic events, demonstrating on the basis of the Phanerozoic palaeomagnetic scales that the state of frequent inversions is the natural norm of the planet's magnetic field, whereas the long epochs of a stable polarity are critical “magnetic blockings”. Under the tenets of the author's time-spatial determinism, a principle of the “mirrored” reading of the palaeomagnetic scales is introduced: the current state of the Earth (the last ~780 thousand years, the Brunhes–Matuyama epoch) is treated as inversional, rather than normal. On this basis, a direct connection is established between the alternation of the inversional and counter-inversional magnetic states and the periodicity of the mass extinctions (from the Ordovician–Silurian to the Cretaceous–Paleogene and the modern one), as well as the palaeoclimatic cycles: internal heating, the expansion of the geoid, and the “shock” coolings at the counter-inversions. As an explanatory mechanism of the tectonic deformations and the periodicity of the extinctions, a topological model of the Earth’s transition from the icosahedral to the dodecahedral wave framework (IHES) is proposed. A separate section is devoted to the critique of geochronology: the dependence of the processes of atomic fusion and decay on the configuration and intensity of the surrounding magnetic field is substantiated, which casts doubt on the absolute datings of the radioisotope and ice-core scales; the “paradox of precession” shows the inconstancy of the chronological standard itself. In the context of the observed linear decline of the geomagnetic field intensity over the last 150 years, a heuristic forecast is formulated of the inevitability of an imminent global phase transition (counter-inversion), capable of triggering abrupt palaeoclimatic shocks.