• My Glacial/Interglacial pump

    From JTEM is so reasonable@21:1/5 to All on Mon Aug 14 10:26:27 2023
    Ah, I pine for ye days of old...

    My original model, gleamed from everything I stole
    from everyone else, was a Glacial/Interglacial pump.

    It worked like this:

    The glaciers grew, sea level dropped and vast stretches
    of land opened up along the coast and out to sea. our
    ancestors could suddenly walk from continent to
    continent, (what used to be) island to island. Our ancestors
    spread everywhere, following these new coastlines as if
    they were highways. But then...

    The the interglacial period would arrive. The glaciers
    melted, sea level rose, vast stretches of coast were
    swallowed up... links between continents and islands
    vanished. This drove our ancestors inland where they
    settled, adapted and then later interbred with the fresh
    arrivals the next time this all happened again.

    It helped that the glacial periods -- the time spent on
    the coastline, the beaches -- was significantly longer
    than the interglacial periods.

    So I saw a pump: Sea level drops, drawing people out
    onto to newly formed "Highways." Sea level rises,
    pushing everyone back inland...

    I'm the first to admit that I'm over simplifying here. That,
    breakaway groups had to be pushing inland from the
    start, long before even the Quaternary Period (and the
    glacial/interglacial cycle) began. This was partly due to
    catastrophes, such as super volcanic eruptions, and
    partly just happenstance.

    I miss the simplicity of the olden days...




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    https://jtem.tumblr.com/post/725527049879552000

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