NASA researchers have found that the Earth's magnetic field and the concentration of oxygen in the atmosphere have changed almost in parallel over the last 540 million years. This relationship is very strong, but its nature remains a mystery.
Scientists have analyzed two types of data: the level of oxygen in different geological periods (according to coal left after forest fires); The power of the geomagnetic field (according to magnetic information in ancient rocks). Explanations of this dependence are possible: the magnetic field protects the atmosphere from losses into space, maintaining a stable level of oxygen, as well as protects living organisms from harmful cosmic radiation. The movement of lithospheric plates, which affects both the magnetic field (through the dynamo effect in the liquid nucleus) and the geochemical cycle that controls the amount of oxygen.
The authors of the study consider the magnetic field to be more likely to be more likely to have an oxygen level, but also suggest that there is an unknown common process that controls both phenomena at the same time.
