Scientists discover new 'Meghalayan age' in Earth's history
London, July 18: Geologists have classified the last 4,200 years as being a distinct Earth age and are calling it a new chapter -- the "Meghalayan Age" -- the onset of which was marked by a mega-drought that crushed a number of civilizations worldwide.
The new classification came about after stalagmites on the floors of caves in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya were discovered that were considered as a significant proof for the latest distinction, the BBC reported on Wednesday.
Earth's existence of 4.6-billion-year is divided into slices of time. Each slice corresponded to significant happenings -- such as the break-up of continents, dramatic shifts in climate, and even the emergence of particular types of animals and plant life.
The current age in which we live is called the Holocene Epoch, which reflects everything that has happened over the past 11,700 years -- since a dramatic warming kicked us out of the last ice age, the BBC reported.
But the Holocene itself can be subdivided, according to the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS).
The ICS is the official keeper of geologic time and it proposed three stages be introduced to denote the epoch's upper, middle and lower phases. These all record major climate events.
The Meghalayan, the youngest stage, runs from 4,200 years ago to 1950. It began with a destructive drought, whose effects lasted two centuries, and severely disrupted civilizations in Egypt, Greece, Syria, Palestine, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley and the Yangtze River Valley, the BBC report added.
To win the classification, a slice of geological time generally has to reflect something whose effects were global in extent and be associated with a rock or sediment type that is clear and unambiguous.
For the famous boundary 66 million years ago that marks the switch in period from the Cretaceous to Tertiary, this "golden spike" is represented by traces in sediments of the element iridium. This was spread across the planet in the debris scattered by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs.
For the Meghalayan, the spike is epitomized in specific chemical signatures, the finest example of which can be seen in the layers of stalagmites on the floors of caves in the northeastern Indian state of Meghalaya.
It was likely triggered by shifts in ocean and atmospheric circulation, the ICS said.
The Meghalayan Age is unique among the many intervals of the geologic timescale. Its beginning coincides with a global cultural event produced by a global climatic event, said Stanley Finney, Professor at Long Beach State University and Secretary-General of the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS), which ratified the ICS proposal.
The middle phase of the Holocene will be referred to as the Northgrippian, and runs from 8,300 years ago up to the start of the Meghalayan. The onset for this age was an abrupt cooling, attributed to vast volumes of freshwater from melting glaciers in Canada running into the North Atlantic and disrupting ocean currents.
The oldest phase of the Holocene -- the exit from the ice age -- will be known as the Greenlandian. The International Chronostratigraphic Chart, the famous diagram depicting the timeline for Earth's history will be updated, the BBC reported.
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Sidhu’s diet-based cancer cure for wife called 'unscientific' by doctors of Tata Memorial Hospital
New Delhi, Nov 23: Cancer patients should not delay or stop their treatment by following unproven remedies, oncologists at Tata Memorial Hospital said after former India cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu claimed at a presser that his wife Navjot Kaur defeated stage 4 cancer with dietary and lifestyle changes.
In a statement posted on X, the Director of Tata Memorial Hospital, Dr C S Pramesh, said, "Parts of the video imply that starving the cancer by not eating dairy products and sugar, consuming haldi (turmeric) and neem helped cure her 'incurable' cancer."
These comments have no high quality evidence to support them, the statement signed by 262 oncologists from the Tata Memorial Hospital, both past and present, said.
While research is going on for some of these products, currently there is no clinical data to recommend their use as anti-cancer agents, it added.
"We urge the public to not delay their treatment by following unproven remedies, but rather to consult a doctor, preferably a cancer specialist, if they have any symptoms of cancer. Cancer is curable if detected early and proven treatments for cancer include surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy," read the statement issued in "public interest".
Posting a clip of from Sidhu's press conference on X, Dr Pramesh said, "Please don't believe and get fooled by these statements regardless of who it comes from. These are unscientific and baseless recommendations. She got surgery and chemotherapy that were evidence based which is what made her cancer-free. Not the haldi, neem etc."
PSA: Please don't believe and get fooled by these statements regardless of who it comes from. These are unscientific and baseless recommendations. She got surgery and chemotherapy that were evidence based which is what made her 🤞cancer-free. Not the haldi, neem etc pic.twitter.com/7gDgN1TzZ8
— Pramesh CS (@cspramesh) November 22, 2024
