{"id":90017,"date":"2025-07-25T00:41:22","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T00:41:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/90017\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T00:41:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T00:41:22","slug":"weird-space-weather-seems-to-have-influenced-human-behavior-on-earth-41000-years-ago-our-unusual-scientific-collaboration-explores-how","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/90017\/","title":{"rendered":"Weird space weather seems to have influenced human behavior on Earth 41,000 years ago \u2013 our unusual scientific collaboration explores how"},"content":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published at The Conversation.<\/a> The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Our first meeting was a bit awkward. One of us is an archaeologist<\/a> who studies how past peoples interacted with their environments<\/a>. Two of us are geophysicists<\/a> who investigate<\/a> interactions between solar activity<\/a> and Earth\u2019s magnetic field<\/a>.<\/p>\n

When we first got together, we wondered whether our unconventional project, linking space weather and human behavior, could actually bridge such a vast disciplinary divide. Now, two years on, we believe the payoffs \u2013 personal, professional and scientific \u2013 were well worth the initial discomfort.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Our collaboration, which culminated in a recent paper in the journal Science Advances<\/a>, began with a single question: What happened to life on Earth <\/a>when the planet\u2019s magnetic field<\/a> nearly collapsed roughly 41,000 years ago?<\/p>\n

Weirdness when Earth\u2019s magnetic shield falters<\/p>\n

This near-collapse is known as the Laschamps Excursion<\/a>, a brief but extreme geomagnetic event named for the volcanic fields<\/a> in France where it was first identified<\/a>. At the time of the Laschamps Excursion, near the end of the Pleistocene epoch<\/a>, Earth\u2019s magnetic poles didn\u2019t reverse as they do every few hundred thousand years<\/a>. Instead, they wandered, erratically and rapidly, over thousands of miles. At the same time, the strength of the magnetic field dropped to less than 10% of its modern day intensity.<\/p>\n

So, instead of behaving like a stable bar magnet \u2013 a dipole<\/a> \u2013 as it usually does, the Earth\u2019s magnetic field <\/a>fractured into multiple weak poles across the planet. As a result, the protective force field scientists call the magnetosphere became distorted and leaky.<\/p>\n

The magnetosphere<\/a> normally deflects much of the solar wind<\/a> and harmful ultraviolet radiation that would otherwise reach Earth\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n

Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!<\/p>\n

So, during the Laschamps Excursion when the magnetosphere broke down, our models suggest a number of near-Earth effects. While there is still work to be done to precisely characterize these effects, we do know they included auroras<\/a> \u2013 normally seen only in skies near the poles<\/a> as the Northern Lights <\/a>or Southern Lights \u2013 wandering toward the equator, and significantly higher-than-present-day doses of harmful solar radiation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The northern lights are seen above\u00a0Bear Lake, Alaska (Image credit: United States Air Force photo by Senior Airman Joshua Strang)<\/p>\n

The skies 41,000 years ago may have been both spectacular and threatening. When we realized this, we two geophysicists wanted to know whether this could have affected people living at the time.<\/p>\n

The archaeologist\u2019s answer was absolutely.<\/p>\n

Human responses to ancient space weather<\/p>\n

For people on the ground at that time, auroras<\/a> may have been the most immediate and striking effect, perhaps inspiring awe, fear, ritual behavior or something else entirely. But the archaeological record is notoriously limited in its ability to capture these kinds of cognitive or emotional responses<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Researchers are on firmer ground when it comes to the physiological impacts of increased UV radiation<\/a>. With the weakened magnetic field, more harmful radiation would have reached Earth\u2019s surface, elevating risk of sunburn, eye damage, birth defects<\/a>, and other health issues<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In response, people may have adopted practical measures: spending more time in caves, producing tailored clothing for better coverage, or applying mineral pigment \u201csunscreen\u201d made of ochre to their skin. As we describe in our recent paper, the frequency of these behaviors indeed appears to have increased<\/a> across parts of Europe, where effects of the Laschamps Excursion were pronounced and prolonged.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Neanderthals would have dealt with space weather, much as we do today. (Image credit: athree23 via Wikimedia Commons)<\/p>\n

At this time, both Neanderthals <\/a>and members of our species, Homo sapiens, were living in Europe, though their geographic distributions likely overlapped only in certain regions. The archaeological record suggests that different populations exhibited distinct approaches to environmental challenges, with some groups perhaps more reliant on shelter or material culture for protection.<\/p>\n

Importantly, we\u2019re not suggesting that space weather alone caused an increase in these behaviors or, certainly, that the Laschamps caused Neanderthals to go extinct, which is one misinterpretation of our research<\/a>. But it could have been a contributing factor \u2013 an invisible but powerful force that influenced innovation and adaptability.<\/p>\n

Cross-discipline collaboration<\/p>\n

Collaborating across such a disciplinary gap was, at first, daunting. But it turned out to be deeply rewarding.<\/p>\n

Archaeologists are used to reconstructing now-invisible phenomena like climate. We can\u2019t measure past temperatures or precipitation directly, but they\u2019ve left traces for us to interpret if we know where and how to look<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But even archaeologists who\u2019ve spent years studying the effects of climate on past behaviors<\/a> and technologies<\/a> may not have considered the effects of the geomagnetic field<\/a> and space weather. These effects, too, are invisible, powerful and best understood through indirect evidence and modeling. Archaeologists can treat space weather as a vital component of Earth\u2019s environmental history and future forecasting.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

An infographic showing the effects of space weather on Earth, affecting various infrastructures we take for granted. (Image credit: ESA\/Science Office,CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO)<\/p>\n

Likewise, geophysicists, who typically work with large datasets, models and simulations, may not always engage with some of the stakes of space weather. Archaeology adds a human dimension to the science. It reminds us that the effects of space weather don\u2019t stop at the ionosphere<\/a>. They can ripple down into the lived experiences of people on the ground, influencing how they adapt, create and survive.<\/p>\n

The Laschamps Excursion wasn\u2019t a fluke or a one-off. Similar disruptions of Earth\u2019s magnetic field have happened before and will happen again. Understanding how ancient humans responded can provide insight into how future events might affect our world \u2013 and perhaps even help us prepare.<\/p>\n

Our unconventional collaboration has shown us how much we can learn, how our perspective changes, when we cross disciplinary boundaries. Space may be vast, but it connects us all. And sometimes, building a bridge between Earth and space starts with the smallest things, such as ochre, or a coat, or even sunscreen.<\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This article was originally published at The Conversation. The publication contributed the article to Space.com’s Expert Voices: Op-Ed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":90018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[159,783,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-90017","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-science","9":"tag-space","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114911096496952824","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90017","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}