Michael R. Rampino is a Geologist and Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at New York University, known for his scientific contributions on causes of mass extinctions of life. Along with colleagues, he's developed theories about periodic mass extinctions being strongly related to the earth's position in relation to the galaxy. "The solar system and its planets experience cataclysms every time they pass "up" or "down" through the plane of the disk-shaped galaxy." These ~30 million year cyclical breaks are an important factor in evolutionary theory, along with other longer 60-million- and 140-million-year cycles potentially caused by mantle plumes within the planet, opining "The Earth seems to have a pulse," He is also a research consultant at NASA's

Goddard Institute for Space Studies The Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) is a laboratory in the Earth Sciences Division of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center affiliated with the Columbia University Earth Institute. The institute is located at Columbia University in Ne ...

(GISS) in New York City. Rampino's research has been concentrated in several areas including: studies of

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

on various timescales; the products and dynamics of volcanic eruptions and their effects on the global environment; and the relationship of large asteroid and comet impacts, and massive flood-basalt volcanism, with mass extinctions of life. His most recent work has sought a connection between geologic events and astronomical processes, including encounters of Earth with

dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...

in the Galaxy. Rampino's interest in

Astrobiology Astrobiology (also xenology or exobiology) is a scientific field within the List of life sciences, life and environmental sciences that studies the abiogenesis, origins, Protocell, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the univ ...

is evidenced by the text, “Origins of Life in the Universe”, co-authored with Robert Jastrow (Cambridge University Press, 2008), and a new book, “Cataclysms: A New Geology for the 21st Century” (Columbia University Press, 2017). Rampino received his B.A. from Hunter College of CUNY and a Ph.D. in geological sciences from Columbia University. He was a

post-doc A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). Postdocs most commonly, but not always, have a temporary academ ...

at the NASA,

in New York City and

Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is a research, research institution specializing in the Earth science and climate change. Though part of Columbia University, it is located on a separate closed campus in Palisades, New York. The obs ...

in Palisades, New York studying climate change. He was an Associate Research Scientist at the NASA, Goddard Institute for 5 years, studying the effects of volcanic eruptions on climate, before taking up his present position at NYU. At New York University, Rampino taught the popular astrobiology course, “Earth, Life & Time” on the evolution of the Universe which has since been discontinued. He won an NYU "Golden Dozen” teaching award in 2011. He was instrumental in convening three American Geophysical Union Chapman Conferences on “Volcanoes and Climate” in 1992 (Hilo, Hawaii), 2002 (Santorini, Greece) and 2012 (Selfoss, Iceland) and two international meetings on “Small Bodies in the Solar System” in Mariehamn, Sweden (1994) and in Hikon, Japan (1997). He has been a visiting professor at

Tohoku University is a public research university in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. It is colloquially referred to as or . Established in 1907 as the third of the Imperial Universities, after the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, it initially focused on sc ...

and

Yamaguchi University is a Japanese national university, national university in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It has campuses at the cities of Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi and Ube, Yamaguchi, Ube. History The root of the university was , a private school founde ...

in Japan, the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...

and

University of Urbino The University of Urbino Carlo Bo (, ''UniUrb'') is an Italian university located in Urbino, in the region of Marche, in north-eastern central Italy. The main campus occupies numerous buildings throughout the historic Urbino town center and the ...

in Italy, and the

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...

in Austria and a lecturer for the annual Urbino Summer School in

Paleoclimatology Paleoclimatology ( British spelling, palaeoclimatology) is the scientific study of climates predating the invention of meteorological instruments, when no direct measurement data were available. As instrumental records only span a tiny part of ...

. Rampino's research has been funded by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

, the

United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...

, the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS) is an American scholarly organization and learned society founded in 1743 in Philadelphia that promotes knowledge in the humanities and natural sciences through research, professional meetings, publicat ...

, and the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

Fields of study

Climate change on various timescales

Rampino has been interested in climatic changes on time scales ranging from decades to hundreds of millions of years (

). Early work centered on multi-year climate cooling after explosive volcanic eruptions, the post-glacial rise in sea level over the last 10,000 years, and glacial/interglacial climate and sea level over the last 150,000 years. In papers with

Ken Caldeira Kenneth Caldeira (born 1960) is an American atmospheric scientist. His areas of research include ocean acidification, climate effects of trees, intentional climate modification, interactions in the global carbon cycle/climate system, and sustain ...

at the

Carnegie Institution The Carnegie Institution for Science, also known as Carnegie Science and the Carnegie Institution of Washington, is an organization established to fund and perform scientific research in the United States. This institution is headquartered in Wa ...

, he explored the relationships of seafloor-spreading rates, atmospheric and climate in the very warm mid-Cretaceous Period 100 million years ago. They also considered the so-called “Goldilocks Problem” of Earth's habitability. More recent research is focused on the effects of flood-basalt volcanism and asteroid/comet impacts on climate and biological evolution. Rampino proposed the radical idea that some “glacial” deposits in the geologic record are actually impact-related debris flows.

Effects of volcanic eruptions on the global environment

Rampino has investigated the climatic and environmental effects of stratospheric aerosol clouds produced by explosive volcanic eruptions. With his colleagues

Stephen Self Stephen Self is an American volcanologist (born in Britain,) best known for his work on large igneous provinces, explosive eruptions, and on the global impacts of volcanism. Education and career Self graduated from Leeds University in 1970, wi ...

, now at

UC Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

and Richard Stothers of the

he studied the volcanic production of atmospheric sulfate aerosols using volcanological measurements of magmatic sulfur release, observations of volcanic aerosol clouds, and the record of atmospheric phenomena and climate changes after volcanic eruptions from historical accounts (including the ancient literature), and from the record of volcanism contained in polar ice cores These studies included detailed field investigations of the historic

1883 eruption of Krakatoa Beginning on 20 May 1883, and ending on 21 October 1883, the volcanic island of Krakatoa, located in the Sunda Strait, had repeated, months long Types of volcanic eruptions, volcanic eruptions. The most destructive of these eruptions occurred o ...

, the 1963 eruption of

Mount Agung Mount Agung (, ) is an active volcano in Karangasem Regency, Bali, Indonesia. It is located southeast of Mount Batur volcano, also in Bali. It is the highest point on Bali, and dominates the surrounding area, influencing the climate, especially ...

and the

1815 eruption of Mount Tambora In April 1815, Mount Tambora, a volcano on the island of Sumbawa in present-day Indonesia (then part of the Dutch East Indies), erupted in what is now considered the most powerful volcanic eruption in recorded human history. This eruption, with ...

in Indonesia, and their climatic aftermath. The famous “

year without a summer The year 1816 is known as the Year Without a Summer because of severe climate abnormalities that caused average global temperatures to decrease by . Summer temperatures in Europe were the coldest of any on record between 1766 and 2000, resultin ...

” in 1816, during which

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley ( , ; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel ''Frankenstein, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an History of science fiction# ...

was forced to stay indoors to write ''

Frankenstein ''Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' is an 1818 Gothic novel written by English author Mary Shelley. ''Frankenstein'' tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a Sapience, sapient Frankenstein's monster, crea ...

'', followed the great Tambora eruption. One focus of investigation is the huge “ supereruption” (a word coined by Rampino and Self) of Mount Toba (now

Lake Toba Lake Toba (, Toba Batak: ᯖᯀᯬ ᯖᯬᯅ; romanized: ''Tao Toba'') is a large natural lake in North Sumatra, Indonesia, occupying the caldera of the Toba supervolcano. The lake is located in the middle of the northern part of the island of ...

) in Sumatra ~74,000 years ago. This event may have created a severe “

volcanic winter A volcanic winter is a reduction in global temperatures caused by droplets of sulfuric acid obscuring the Sun and raising Earth's albedo (increasing the reflection of solar radiation) after a large, sulfur-rich, particularly explosive volcanic eru ...

” (another term coined by Rampino) leading to a human population crash predicted from studies of the human genome. Such large eruptions threaten civilization.

Asteroid and comet impacts, massive volcanism and mass extinctions of life

Rampino became interested in the catastrophic effects of asteroids and comet impacts when it was discovered that the Chicxulub asteroid impact event (66 million years ago) had created the huge

Chicxulub crater The Chicxulub crater is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is offshore, but the crater is named after the onshore community of Chicxulub Pueblo (not the larger coastal town of Chicxulub Puerto). I ...

in Mexico, and led to the extinction of many forms of life, including the

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

s. Rampino has studied the globally distributed evidence for the Chicxulub impact with fieldwork in Europe, the western United States, Mexico and the Caribbean. After a periodic 26-million year cycle was proposed for mass extinctions of life in 1984, Rampino and Stothers reported a similar cycle in the ages of impact craters on the Earth. To explain the cycles, they proposed the “ Shiva Hypothesis” in which the 30-million year oscillation of the Solar System through the dense Galactic plane leads to periodic comet showers on Earth. More recent work has centered on the severe

Permian–Triassic extinction event The Permian–Triassic extinction event (also known as the P–T extinction event, the Late Permian extinction event, the Latest Permian extinction event, the End-Permian extinction event, and colloquially as the Great Dying,) was an extinction ...

(252 million years ago), with fieldwork in South Africa, Hungary, Japan, India and China, particularly focused on the so-called “fungal event” marking the devastation of Late Permian vegetation. Rampino and colleagues found evidence that the mass extinction of 96% of marine species and much of life on land may have occurred in a brief period of only a few thousand years, suggesting some sort of cataclysm It turns out that this extinction occurred at the same time as the massive eruption of the Siberian

Flood basalt A flood basalt (or plateau basalt) is the result of a giant volcanic eruption or series of eruptions that covers large stretches of land or the ocean floor with basalt lava. Many flood basalts have been attributed to the onset of a hotspot (geolo ...

s. In 2017, Rampino and colleagues, studying the record of the great extinction, discovered a coincident worldwide layer rich in nickel that had been released by emanations from the huge eruptions. He and Caldeira concluded that most of the mass extinctions in the last 260 million years seem to have been associated with environmental catastrophes caused by either large impacts or flood-basalt eruptions. In 2017–18, Rampino contributed popular articles on mass extinctions, impacts and the Galaxy to

American Scientist ''American Scientist'' (informally abbreviated ''AmSci'') is an American bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Honor Society. In the beginning of 2000s the headquarters was moved to ...

and

Astronomy Magazine ''Astronomy'' is a monthly American magazine about astronomy. Targeting amateur astronomers, it contains columns on sky viewing, reader-submitted astrophotographs, and articles on astronomy and astrophysics for general readers. History ''A ...

Connections between geologic events and Earth’s interactions with Dark Matter

In 1993, Rampino and Caldeira reported a ubiquitous 26-million year cycle in geologic

plate tectonic Plate may refer to: Cooking * Plate (dishware), broad, mainly flat vessel commonly used to serve food * Plates, tableware, dishes or dishware used for setting a table, serving food and dining * Plate, the content of such a plate (for example: r ...

and volcanic activity. More recently, Rampino related this cycle to the Solar System's oscillation through the plane of the

Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...

Galaxy, which has a similar period. He attributes the Earth's internal-activity cycle to the planet's encounters with clumps of mysterious

in the

Galactic plane The galactic plane is the plane (geometry), plane on which the majority of a disk-shaped galaxy's mass lies. The directions perpendicular to the galactic plane point to the galactic poles. In actual usage, the terms ''galactic plane'' and ''galac ...

. Astrophysicists suggested that the dark matter particles can become trapped within the Earth where they self-destruct, releasing large amounts of heat and leading to periodic pulses in the planet's internal geologic activity. Thus, geologic activity on the Earth may be modulated by astrophysical circumstances.

Media

Rampino has appeared in many documentaries produced by PBS

NOVA A nova ( novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. All observed novae involve white ...

(Mystery of the Mega-Volcano, and Volcano!), BBC Horizon (Under the Volcano), the

Discovery Channel Discovery Channel, known as The Discovery Channel from 1985 to 1995, and often referred to as simply Discovery, is an American cable channel that is best known for its ongoing reality television shows and promotion of pseudoscience. It init ...

(Three Minutes to Impact; Amazing Earth), the

National Geographic Channel National Geographic (formerly National Geographic Channel; abbreviated and trademarked as Nat Geo or Nat Geo TV) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by the National Geographic Global Networks unit of Disney Enter ...

(Earth-Staying Alive), the

History Channel History (formerly and commonly known as the History Channel) is an American pay television television broadcaster, network and the flagship channel of A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Disney General Entertainme ...

(Story of Moses and the Plagues of Egypt), Japanese TV (Space and Life) and has appeared on local and national news programs (ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, PBS, Fox News, and others). He is listed in the Internet Movie Data Base (

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

) for appearances in Supervolcanoes (2000); Mystery of the Minoans (2001); The Day The Earth Nearly Died (2002); Last Days of Earth (2006); Inside the Volcano (2006); Krakatoa (2008); Super Volcano: Yellowstone's Fury (2013); Doomsday Volcanoes (2013); What on Earth? (2015); The Dark Matter Enigma (2017); and X-Ray Earth: Volcanic Cataclysms (2020).

Books

Rampino has published two books, a text for a course on Astrobiology (Jastrow and Rampino, 2008) and a popular portrayal of the effects of catastrophic events on Earth history and the history of life (Rampino, 2017). He was co-editor of the conference volume �
Climate: History, Periodicity and Predictability
�� published in 1987.

Selected Articles

* Rampino, M.R., et al., 2019a, “What causes mass extinctions of life? Impact cataclysms, flood-basalt volcanism and ocean anoxia: Correlations and cycles”: Geological Society of America Special Paper 542, p. 271-302. * Rampino, M.R., et al., 2019b, “End-Permian stratigraphic timeline applied to the timing of marine and non-marine extinctions”: Palaeoworld, doi.org/10.1016/l.palwor.2019.10.002 * Rampino, M.R., and Shen, S-Z., 2019, “The end-Guadalupian (259.8 Ma) biodiversity crisis: the sixth major mass extinction?” Historical Biology. doi.org/10.1080/08912963.2019.1658096 * Rampino, M.R., 2020, “Relationship between impact-crater size and severity of related extinction episodes”: Earth-Science Reviews, v. 201, no. 102990. * Rampino, M.R., et al., 2020a. “Proxy evidence from the Gartnerkofel-1 core (Carnic Alps, Austria) for hypoxic conditions in the western Tethys during the end-Permian mass-extinction event”: Chemical Geology, v. 533, no. 119434 * Rampino, M.R., et al., 2020b. “A 27.5-million year underlying cycle detected in extinctions of non-marine tetrapods”: Historical Biology doi.org/10.1080/0891.2020 * Rampino, M.R., and Prokoph, A., 2020, “Are impact craters and extinction episodes periodic? Implications for planetary science and astrobiology”: Astrobiology, v. 20, p. 1-8. * Rampino, M.R., and Caldeira, K., 2020, “A 32-million year cycle detected in sea-level fluctuations over the last 545 Myr”. Geoscience Frontiers, v. 11, p. 2061-2065. * Rampino, M.R., et al., 2021a, “A pulse of the Earth: A 27.5-Myr underlying cycle in coordinated geological events over the last 260 Myr”: Geoscience Frontiers, v 12, no. 101245. * Zhang, H., Rampino, M.R., et al., 2021, “Felsic volcanism as a factor driving the end-Permian mass extinction”. Science Advances, v. 7, no. eabh 1390 (2021). * Rampino, M.R., 2022, “Does the Earth have a pulse? Evidence relating to a potential underlying ~26 to 36-million-year rhythm in interrelated geologic, biologic and astrophysical events”: Geological Society of America Special Paper 557, p. 347-369. * Rampino, M.R., et al., 2022. “Reply detection of a 27.5-My cycle in extinctions of non-marine tetrapods in light of a similar cycle in marine extinctions and coordinated geologic events”. Historical Biology, v. 34, p 212-215. * Rampino, M.R., Caldeira, K., and Rodriguez, S., 2023, “Cycles of ~32.5 My and ~26.2 My in correlated episodes of continental flood basalts (CFBs), hyper-thermal climate pulses, anoxic oceans, and mass extinctions over the last 260 My: Connections between geological and astronomical cycles”: Earth-Science Reviews (in press).

External links

Michael Rampino: How long will life last on Earth?

* ttps://astrobiology.com/2021/06/the-earth-has-a-pulse.html The Earth has a pulse
Non-marine mass extinctions occur with periodicity of 27.5 million years study

Earth Cataclysms, December 19, 2017: Earth Cycles and Changes, August 2, 2021: Professor Michael R. Rampino discusses planetary upheavals and extinctions.

Professor Michael R. Rampino updated his latest findings on the Earth's "pulse" and catastrophes.

La Asombrosa Tierra, El Pasado Catastrofico - Discovery Channel video

Astronomy.com podcast: How long will life last on Earth?

NYU news: NYU professor's research reveals significance of Earth's movements

Science20: Gradual Evolution Not Supported By Geological History, Says Geologist

YouTube: What caused mass extinctions

Newsweek: Did Dark Matter Kill the Dinosaurs? How Mass Extinctions Are Linked with Universe’s Mystery Ingredient

New Scientist: Cataclysms: A life spent chasing planetary catastrophe

* ttps://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2015/11/the-next-mass-extinction/413884/ The Atlantic: The Chilling Regularity of Mass Extinctions
PlanetSave: Earth's Interior Affects Long-Term Sea-Level and Climate Change

Futurity: Does Darwin's theory hold up?

ICR: NYU Prof Sides with Matthew, Not Darwin, on Fossil Record

IFL Science: A Massive Impact Crater May Be Hiding Near The Falklands

* ttps://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/03/23/2853633.htm?site=news&topic=latest ABC Australia: Volcano helped dinosaurs gain upper hand
Historical Climatology: The Global Cooling Event of the Sixth Century. Mystery No Longer?

The Washington Post: Solar Cycle Of Cataclysms

* ttps://www.americanscientist.org/author/michael_robert_rampino American Scientist: Michael Robert Rampino

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rampino, Michael R. Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American geologists New York University faculty Hunter College alumni Columbia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni American planetary scientists