Environ Geol (2006) 50: 899-910

DOI1

0. 1 007/s00254-006-0261-x

L. F. Khilyuk
G. V. Chilingar

0n global forces of nature driving the Earth's
climate. Are humans involved?

Received: 18 August 2005
Accepted: 27 Febrtary 2006
Published online: 11 May 2006
O Springer-Verlag 2006

Abstract The authors identify anddescribe the following global forcesof nature driving the Earth's climate:(1) solar radiation as a dominant

L. F. Khilyuk G. V. Chilingar (E)Department ol Civil and Environmental

external energy supplier to the
Earth. (2) outgassing as a major
supplier of gases to the World Ocean
and the atmosphere, and, possibly,13) microbial activities generating
and consuming atmospheric gases at
the interface of lithosphere andatmosphere. The writers provide
quantitative estimates of the scopeand extent of their corresponding

Engineering, University of Southern
California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
E-mail: gchiling@usc.edu

Tel.: + 1-323-9328369
Fax: + l-323-9343024

lntroduction

Identification and understanding of global forces ofnature driving the Earth's climate is crucial for developing adequate relationship between people and nature,and for developing and implementing a sound course ofaction aimed at survival and welfare of the human race.
The latter is especially important in the light of presentday public debates on causes and ways of mitigation of
the current global atmospheric warming.

After the Kyoto Protocol had been announced in
1997 (Kyoto Protocol 1997), many researchers aroundthe world criticized its provisions (that imposed drastic
restrictions on anthropogenic carbon dioxide emission indeveloped countries) as meaningless and catastrophic.
Logical and quantitative comparison analyses presented
in the publications of Robinson et al. (1998), Soon et al.
(2001), Bluemle et al. (20f.ll), Baliunas (2002), Sorokhtin(2001), Sorokhtin and Ushakov (2002), Gerhard (2004),
and Khilyuk and Chilingar (2003, 2004) showed that thetheory of currently observed global atmospheric warming as a result of increasing anthropogenic carbon

effects on the Earth's climate.
Quantitative comparison of thescope and extent of the forces ofnature and anthropogenic influenceson the Earth's climate is especially

important at the time of broad-scale
public debates on current global
warming. The writers show that -r"hehuman-induced climatic changes are
negligible.

Keywords Global forces ofnature ' Climatic changes ' Energy
fluxes ' Earth's outgassing

dioxide (and the other greenhouse gasses) emlsslon ls amyth. This myth proved to be an enduring one.
The Earth's climate is a generic term for a relatively
stable long-term state of the Earth's atmosphere. The
main parameters that describe the Earth's climate
quantitatively are the atmospheric temperature andpressure averaged over certain areas and chosen timeintervals. They are determined by the energy and matter
flows from inside and outside of the terrestrial body,matter transformation over the Earth's surface (at theinterface between lithosphere and atmosphere), andparameters of the Earth's atmosphere and the World
Ocean.

Solar radiation supplies the major energy influx to the
Earth's atmosphere that determines the Earth's heating
and cooling, and the outgassing supplies the major
matter influx to the Earth's atmosphere that determines
its physical and chemical properties.
The matter transformation at the Earth surface andin the World Ocean is caused by evolutionary physicalchanges, chemical reactions, and activities of live matter.
In addition to these factors, the terrestrial body experi-

900

ences orbital deviations and spatial mass redistributionthat influence the Earth's climate considerably.
The authors identify and describe the global forces ofnature driving the Earth's climate and compare theireffects with anthropogenic influences on the Earth's
climate.

upper estimate for the possible atmospheric temperature
increase due to anthropogenic activities. Even ifthe entire

Solar radiation reaching the Eadh's body

The totai avetage solar energy flux currently reaching
the Earth's surface, So:1.75x1024 ergfs, is determinedby the so-called solar constant sxl ,37 kW/m2:
t.:ZxtO6 erg/cm2 s (Horrell 2003). The total heat flux
through the Earth's surface due to energy generated in
the mantle and the crust is estimated al about
4.3x1020 erg/s (Sorokhtin and Ushakov 2002), which
is approximalely 0.0257o/o of the total Earth's solar
irradiation. The world total energy production in theyear of 2003 was equal to 1.34x1020 erg/s (Key World
Energy Statistics 2004), which is about 0.0077% of
the total solar irradiation reaching the Earth's body.
Comparison of the above figures clearly shows that thesolar radiation is the dominating source of energy supply
to the Earth's atmosphere and hydrosphere. One caneasily estimate that the solar radiation supplies morethan 99.95oh of total energy driving the world climate.
Thus, heating and cooling of the atmosphere is mostly

due to variations in insolation of the terrestrial body
(Hoyt and Schaten 1997).
The effect of solar irradiation on global atmospherictemperature can be evaluated using the adiabatic modelof the heat transfer in the Earth's atmosphere (Sorokhtin and Ushakov 2002; Khilyuk and Chilingar 2003). To
analyze temperature changes attributed to variations inenergy and matter flux, one can use the following convenient form of this modelr@)lro:6lso)t/o(p(h)lpo)"(l)where (/z) is global atmospheric temperature at any
given altitude h; Ts is the present global temperature atsea level; Zo:288 K; S is the total solar energy flux
reaching the Earth's surface; 56 is the. total present
average solar energy flux; 56: l.75xl0'* erg/s; p(l) is
global atmospheric pressure at the altitude h; and ps rs
the global average atmospheric pressure at the sea level@6: I atm).

For a rough estimate of the global atmospherictemperature change at the sea level attributed to thenatural variations in insolation S, Eq. I can be rewritten
in the following form
L,rData in Table I computed using Eq. 2 allow one totranslate the variations in the Earth's insolation into
corresponding changes in the Earth's global temperature
at sea level.
As shown in Table l, one percent increase in current
solar radiation reaching the Earth's body translates directly into approximately 0.86 K increase in the Earth's
global temperature. Using Eq. 2, one can also find an: r - r^" :r^lrszso;r/+r]-t' "' - l]I : zss[{s/sot'/oL' " -()\

world energy gene.al.d by humans (1.34x1020 erg/s)
would be utilized only for heating the Earth's atmosphere, the corresponding atmospheric temperature increase would not exceed 0.01'K at the sea level (based on
Eq. 2).If, in addition, one takes into consideration thatchanges in the global atmospheric temperature are closely

correlated with the changes in solar activity (Fig. I ), thenone has to conclude that the solar irradiation is thedominant energy supply driving the Earth's climate (seealso Hoyt and Schaten 1997; Kondratiev 1992).

0rbital deviations and the Eadh's mass redistribution
Parameters of the elliptic Earth's orbit (orbital eccentricity, obliquity, and precession index) are changing
over geologic time. The terrestrial mass redistribution
also results in changes of the orbital parameters specifically of the precession index (Marov 1986).
Changes in orbital parameters result in corresponding changes in the Earth's insolation. The current yearly
difference between aphelion (the farthest departure fromthe Sun) and perihelion (the closest approach to the Sun)is about 3 million miles, which amounts to about a 6o,/o
difference in the Earth's insolation from the month ofJanuary to the month of July (http://www.earthobservatory.nasa. g ov lLtbrary I Giants/Milankovitch.html).
Paleoreconstructions show (Barron 1994) that the variations in the global average Earth's insolation attributed
to the planet's orbital deviations can reach up to l0% of
the "long-term" average radiation level (Fig. 2). Therefore, maximal orbital deviations result in exactly thesame effect on the global temperature as 10% change insolar irradiation. Thus, the resulting effect of orbital
deviations on the global temperature can be evaluatedusing the same adiabatic model of the Earth's atmosphere (Sorokhtin and Ushakov 2002; Khilyuk andChilingar 2003).
Analyzing Fig. 2 (Barron 1994) and using Eq. 2, one
can determine that during the last 500,000 years theglobal temperature deviated 7.5 K (from the long-term
average value) at least 4 times, and more than 20 times

this deviation was about 4 K due to changes in the
Earth's orbital parameters. This leads one to an
important conclusion on considerable variability of theTable I Global temperature changes attributed to variations in the Earth's insolation
S/So

A7(K)

0.85

0.90

-11.5

-7.49

0.95
-3.',l',l

0.99

1.00

1 .01

1.05

1

.10

1.15

-0.86

0.00

0.86

3.71

7.49

I1.5

(Vinogradov 1967; Holland 1984; Sorokhtin and Sorokhtin 2002). This process is going on at the present

0.4

O

2
o

C

IE

c)

20c

0'2

o)

P o,o

C

C)

J

223

E.0.,
6

O
O
E

7C q.t
I

c)

C

24a.)

o

c -0.6oE'B-o.s

-E
o
U)

26

o
750

1800

I

850

1900

1950

2@0

Time, yeor

Fig. I Moving I l-year average terrestrial temperatures (Northern
Hemisphere) shown as deviations in 'C from the 1951-1970 meanvalue (left vertical axis and thick line) and the solar magnetic cycle
lengths (riglzl vertical axis and thin /lne) (modified after Robinson
et al. 1998, Fig. 3)

Earth's climate over geologic time due to natural changes in the Earth's insolation caused by orbital deviations
and geologic insignificance of recent globai warming
period with the global temperature increase of 1'F=0.56 K
during the last century (EPA global warming site 2001).
The Eadh's outgassing

Most of atmospheric gases are generated in the inner
layers of the Earth (mostly in the mantle) over geologic

history and are transferred to the upper systems(atmosphere and hydrosphere) by outgassing. Outgassing is a process of upward migration of various gases
generated in the mantle and the Earth's crust andseeping through the Earth's surface into the atmosphereand the World Ocean (Khilyuk et al. 2000). Most of thegasses (methane, carbon dioxide, water vapor, hydro-time.

The rate of outgassing is determined by the rate of
tectonic activity. As a universal measure of the rate ofglobal tectonic activity one can use the rate of heat flux
through the Earth's surface, because its level indicatesthe magnitude of total energy generated in the mantle.
If, for some reason, it is not possible to estimate thevalue of the heat flux, then the rate of oceanic floor
spreading (in the spreading zones) can be substituted forit. The rate of spreading is directly translated into therate of displacement of the tectonic plates that presently
averages 4.5-5 cmlyear (Sorokhtin and Ushakov 2002).
Main gasses generated in the mantle and on the ocean

floor are: carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen.
Carbon dioxide (CO2) dissolves mostly in the oceanic
water and transforms to abiogenic methane (CHa) andcarbonate (2MgCO3) (Sorokhtin and Sorokhtin 2002)
through the following chemical reactions:
4FezSiO+ f l2Mg2SiO+ * 18H2O + CO2 * 4Mg6
lsi4O10l lOHl8 (serpentine)* 4Fe203 (hematite)+ CH4 + 183.41kcai/molof heat(3)

4Mg2SiOa (olivine) * 4HzO + 2CO2

+ Mg6lSiaOro]tOHla (serpentine) + 2MgCO,+ 72.34kcallmol of heat

(4)

2CaAl2Si2Os (anorthite) + 4H2O + 2CO2

- Ala[SiaOy6] [OH]a (kaoline) -t 2CaCOt* I l0 kcal/mol of heat

(5)

These reactions are accompanied by a very large amountofheat release. This heat contributes considerably to theheat flux through the Earth's surface. Thus, the rate ofabiogenic CHa generation on the ocean floor in the
spreading zones can be used as a measure of global
tectonic activity. In turn, the rate of the Earth's tectonic
activity can be used as a measure of the Earth's outgassing rate.

CHa gas enters the atmosphere, contributing to thegreenhouse effect and depleting ozone concentration
through the following reaction:gen, helium, and others) formed in the process ofchemical reactions under different physicochemical
conditions are continuously migrating upward and CH+ + Or f Solarradiation- COz * HzO + Hz (6)forming the atmosphere throughout the geologic history. The Earth's atmosphere and hydrosphere were Due to a high level of current tectonic activity, there is aformed about 4 billion years (BY) ago by outgassing pronounced increase in the current methane gas gener-

902

SOLAR INSOLATION

cr^
Luor

-L -

oz
zo
=3
(Itr
ur<

Id
tra

Qz
z-

evolution of the nitrogen partial pressure in the atmosphere is presented by the curve 2.
Total mass of CO2 degassed from the man-tle throughout geologic history is estimated at 4.63x1023 g, and theCO2 mass remaining in the mantle is estimated at
4.48x1023 g (Sorokhtin and Ushakov 2002). Therefore,
the total mass of CO2 in the present Earth's system

is about 9.11x1023 g (Sorokhtin and Ushakov 2002;.roo L500

TIME BEFORE PRESENT (1,00O Yrs)

Fig. 2 Variations in insolation (W/m2) due to deviations of the
Earth's orbital parameters (modified after Barron 1994, Fig. l3)

ation at the oceanic floor (Yasamanov 2()0.1). Yasamanov estimates that about 5x1015 g/year of CHa are currently released to oceanic water at the spreading zones of
mid-ocean ridges only. He believes that the increasing
concentration of methane leads to significant increase in
the atmospheric carbon dioxide content that considerably amplifies the atmospheric greenhouse effect.
Gases accumulating in the atmosphere and the rate ofoutgassing determine the properties of gaseous atmospheric mixture, in particular, changing the density andthermal capacity of the air. One can assume that: thegreater the rate of outgassing, the higher the atmospheric pressure. According to the adiabatic theory ofheat transfer in the atmosphere (Khilyuk and Chiiingar
2003), the latter leads to increase in the atmosphericglobal temperature.
Studying the origin and evolution of the Earth's
atmosphere, one needs to take into account that theprimordial Earth's matter contained only traces of volatile elements (H2, He) and compounds. A11 other volatile compounds (H2O, CO2, o2, HCl, HF), except
possibly N2, w€re mostly degassed out of the Earthmantle throughout geologic history (Sorokhtin andSorokhtin 2002).
Outgassing could start only after fusion of the upper
layers of the Earth's matter and beginning of the Earth's
tectonic activity (about 4 billion years ago). Under
plausible assumption that the rate of Earth's degassing is
proportional to its tectonic activity and realistic estimates of the original amounts of volatile components ingaseous primordial atmosphere and solid matter of the
Earth, Sorokhtin and Sorokhtin (2002) modeled degassing of N2, CO2, H2O, and 02, out of the mantle andtheir accumulation in atmosphere and hydrosphere. The
results of their modeling demonstrated, for example,
that the nitrogen of contemporary atmosphere contains
55oh of the relic gas and 45oh of the gas of magmatic

Khilyuk and Chilingar 2004). Accumulation of CO2 in
the upper geospheres (atmosphere, hydrosphere, and theEarth's crust) is shown in Fig. 4. Figure 5 illustrates theevolution of the CO2 partial pressure in the atmosphere.
To estimate the amount of total anthropogenic CO2
emission, one can use an excellent compendium of dataon estimates of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emission
from the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center,
Oak Ridge Nationai Laboratory, TN, USA (Marland
et al. 2002). The estimates in this compendium are expressed in million metric tons of carbon. The data set
comprises the annual releases of CO2 from 1751 lo 2002.
They can be roughly sorted out into two groups: before
the year of 1900 and after the year of 1900. The data ofthe
first group exhibit linear growth of the emission in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, whereas the data fromthe second group show exponential growth of theanthropogenic CO2 emission in twentieth century. Thisobservation allows one to use a piece-wise approximation
for the data of compendium: a linear function for the firstgroup and an exponential function for the second group.

Using the endpoints of the domain intervals forevaluation of the coefficients of the approximating
! 1.6
d

.t

o

21.2

1

in

o

4

\

tr

P o.g
o

A

-4

g
o

d
I O.4

7

d
6

o

-4-3-2-101
Time, Billion Years

Fig.3 Evolution ol the partial pressure of nitrogen in theatmosphere: 1 under hypothesis that the entire Earth's atmosphereorigin. Geologic evolution of the relative content of nitrogen mass was ol primordeal origin, 2 most probablescenario, -J under hypothesis that the entire atmonitrogen in the atmosphere (under three different intermediate
spheric nitrogen mass was degassed lrom the mantle. On the
hypotheses of the origin of the dominant amount of N2)

is shown in Fig. 3. The most probable "intermediate"abscissa 0 (zero) represents present time (modified alter Sorokhtin
and Ushakov 2002)

903

bo_
.!

4i

d'4
o

,z -';

q3
!
',1
.:'

2

3

I'

u

rBl

z

/i"

1./

o

t

the second function over the interval [100, 202] results in
253,543x706:2.53543x10r1 ton. The latter number
indicates that the total anthropogenic COz emission in thetwentieth century is about one order of magnitude higher
than that in nineteenth century. Adding these two numbers together, the total anthropogenic carbon dioxide
emission throughout the human history is estimatedat about 2.81x1011 metric tons of carbon. Recalculating
this amount into the total anthropogenic carbon dioxide

4.,:1-=--tr,-., uitron t ur',Fig, 4 Mass ol carbon dioxide in the Earth's crust: 1 mass ol the
carbon dioxide degassed lrom the mantle, 2 mass ol the carbon
dioxide accumulated rn the carbonate rocks of the Earth's crust, J
total mass of carbon dioxide accumulated in carbonates andbiogenic rocks, 4 mass of water accumulated in the Earth's crust,5mass of organic carbon present in rocks recalculated as carbon
dioxide (modified alter Sorokhtin and Sorokhtin 2002)

equations, the writers obtained the following piece-wisefunction (considering that CO2 emission prior to theyear of 1800 is negligible in comparison with later data):

C: 8 * 5.26ttf t € [0, 100] andt:0is takenfor
theyearof 1800, andc : 534eoo2s(t-too) i1r € [loo,2o2](1)where I is time, in years, and C is the annual carbon
dioxide emission rate in 106 metric tons of carbon/year.
The writers used this approximating function (F,q.7)
for computing a rough estimate of the total anthropogenic
carbon dioxide emission throughout human history.
Integrating the first function over the interval [0, 100],
one obtains 21 ,100x106:2.71x10t0 ton. Integration of

o
o

A
oE

photosynthesis ability of ancient microorganisms. Nevertheless, even qualitative reconstructions based only on
geochemical data present clear picture of continuously
increasing oxygen content in the atmosphere (Sorokhtin
and Ushakov 2002). The reconstruction of accumulationof oxygen in sedimentary rocks and in the atmosphere(Sorokhtin and Ushakov 2002) is presented in Fig. 6.
Evolution of the atmospheric composition and pressureis shown in Fig. 7.
In the light of debates on global warming (Milloy2005), one should notice the gradual reduction of

atmospheric pressure on the geologic time scale between
approximately -0.3 and 0.5 billion years. This meansthat we live in the cooling geologic time and the globa1
warming observed during past 150 years is just a shortepisode in geologic history. According to Sorokhtin andUshakov (2002), the cooling period will continue in the
future due to life-activities of the nitrogen-consuming
bacteria that transfer the atmospheric nitrogen into soils
with subsequent burial in sediments. In approximately
0.6 BY, when endogenic oxygen starts degassing intensively because of formation of the core matter Fe'FeO
according to the following reaction:

2Fe:O+-3Fe.FeO+50,

x.
oo

(8)

the atmospheric pressure will rapidly increase over
40 atm. This will result in sharp increase in the global
temperature to over 80'C (Fig. tt). The impact of thishostile environment on highly organized species will be

EO

-^
6b
do
d-

emission in grams of CO2. one obtains the estimate
1.003x10t8 g, which constitutes less than 0.00022"h of thetotal CO2 amount naturally degassed from the mantle
during geologic history. Comparing these figures, one canconclude that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emission
is negiigible (indistinguishable) in any energy-mattertransformation processes changing the Earth's climate.
Evaluation of the atmospheric oxygen content evolution throughout the geologic history encounters agreat deal of uncertainty because this process was affected considerably by many fuzzy factors, such as

6

their extinction.

-4-3-2-101

lnner sources of the Eadh's energy

Time, Billion Years

Fig. 5 Evolution ol the partial pressure ol carbon dioxide in theatmosphere (modified after Sorokhtin and Sorokhtin 2001)

The Earth is a "heat machine". To originate and sustain
large-scale matter-energy transfers and transformations

in the inner layers, an astronomic amount of heat has tobe continuously generated in the mantle and the core of
the Earth.
To generate gasses, the upper silicate mantle mattermust be in a plastic (semi-molten) state (Sorokhtin andUshakov 2002). The mass of this plastic matter has to be

dI)

N
j
C)

y, 1.0Xotc)

sufficient to develop vertically-oriented convectionalflows in the mantle. The mass of mantle constitutes
about 6loh of the Earth's total mass of 5.979x1027 g(Britannica Student Encyclopedia 2005). To raise atemperature of this huge mass of the mantle matter tothe melting point, an enormous amount of heat shouldbe generated. What are the sources of energy that can

d

=tr
3 0.5
o
o
d

+r
o
a
a
d

z,

-+

-2

-J

-/

O

Time, Billion Years

2'

Fig. 6 Accumulation of oxygen in the sedimentary rocks and in theatmosphere, and its origin (modified after Sorokhtin and Ushakov
20t't2, p. 411)

9+
9"
o

\/

ot
q
o

tr1
o

N2*At

/H.c

-4-3-2-10

Widespread belief that the necessary energy is supplied by the process of radioactive decay of physicallyunstable elements cannot pass a simple verification test:
the estimated total heat flux through the Earth's surface
many times surpasses the heat flux that can be generated
in the process of radioactive decay of the entire amountof radioactive matter of the Earth. By estimates of
Vacquier (1990), the heat from radioactive decay of theentire radioactive matter of the planet can supply atmosl 25o/o of the observed total heat flux through the
Earth's surface. In addition, the main mass of radioac-

tive matter (about 90o/o of the total in the Earth) is
concentrated in the upper layers of the continental crust(Khain 2003). This means that the heat generated byradioactive decay cannot play a leading role in driving
the matter-energy transformations in deep layers of the
mantle. For example, it is absolutely insufficient togenerate energy for heating a l4lge mass of the mantle

IA

generate this heat?

1

Time, Billion Years

Fig. 7 Evolution of composition and pressure of the Earth's
atmosphere (modified after Sorokhtin 2005a, h)

120

Io roomatter (approiimately 4.006x1027 g) to the temperaturesfrom 100"C (at the top of the mantle layer) to 2,100"C(at the bottom) and to originate and sustain the mantle
matter convection. Therefore, one needs to identify asignificantly greater source ofenergy to drive all physicaland chemical transformations in the mantle.
This source of energy was first identified and described by Sorokhtin (1972) and Dubrovskiy and Pankov (1972) as the gravitational matter differentiationthat results in heat generation in the process of redistribution of the Earth's matter over the terrestrial body

E80

throughout geologic history. This redistribution occurs

t60
E

through chemical and physical transformations, driving
denser matter toward the center of gravity of the Earth.
This process is a manifestation of the universal principleof minimum potential energy for a closed system: in the
Earth's body, a denser matter migrates toward the center of gravity to minimize lhe Earth's body potential

E40
b20

.9

'\.J

o

3o
a

i -ro

energy.

-40

4-3-2-101

Gravitational matter differentiation supposedly had
Time, Billion Years

Fig. 8 Temperature evolution of the Earth's atmosphere (averageatmospheric temperature at sea level) (modified after Sorokhtin
and Ushakov 2002)

started in the Archaean time (about 4 BY ago) withzonal melting of an original Earth's matter (Sorokhtin
and Ushakov 2002) that was caused by the heat inherited from the proto-planetary "disk" and also accumu-

905

lated during the accretion period. According to the most
likely and popular hypothesis, the Earth's celestial bodywas formed as a result of homogeneous accretion of acold matter from the proto-planetary cloud (Safronov1972). This cold matter was continuously heated bynumerous impacts of planetesimals in the process ofmatter accretion, releasing huge amount of heat. As aresult, the temperature in some peripheral zones of thetidal energy transforms into tectonic heat of the Earth asa result of inner matter friction in tidal humps, which
run around the globe and deform the Earth's body

(Khain 2003).

At the present time, the bulk of the tidal energy isreleased in shallow seas with a considerably smaller part
released in deep oceans and the Earth's asthenosphere.
Current rate of the tidal energy release is estimated at

proto-planet coagulum was raised above the melting
point of iron oxides, forming iron pools in the "subsurface areas" of the proto-planetary coagulum.
One can get an idea about an amount of heat generated on these impacts using data from a recent NASA
deep impact probe experiment (http://www.spacetoday.org). The NASA copper-clad projectile was relatively small (mass of aboul372 kg). It dissipated energy
equivalent to the energy of explosion of 5 ton of TNT,
on impact with Comet Tempel 1 on July 4, 2005. The

2,5x10te erg/s (for comparison, the total heat flux
through the Earth's surfaie is presently 4.3x1020 erg/s).
Two thirds of this energy is dissipated in the shallow seas

impact instantly increased the temperature at the area ofcoliision by several thousand degrees.
The early Earth's matter zonal differentiation during
the Archaean time resulted in extreme gravitational
instability of the planetary body: a hrgh-density peripheral
ring layer consisting of the molten iron was formed due tozonal melting and was positioned above a lighter materialof the core. This instability could be resolved in only one

radioactive decay.
Sorokhtin and Ushakov (2002) estimated that 90"h ofenergy feeding tectonic activity ofthe Earth is generated

way: by squeezing out the core matter through theequatorial belt to the Earth's peripherals and sinkingof the heavy molten iron to the center of the planetarybody, gradually forming an iron core. This process
was accompanied by a huge energy release (about 5.5x1037 erg; Sorokhtin and Ushakov 2002). This energy was
mostly used for additionai heating of the Earth's interior,speeding up the core separation proeess.
After separation of the Earth's matter into two parts:

metallic core and silicate peripherals, the process ofsqueezing out of the heavy iron oxides from the mostly
silicate "mantle" into metallic core accelerated due tobaric diffusion differentiation mechanism. This is themost productive mechanism of gravitational matter
differentiation. Under high pressures and temperaturesat the mantle bottom (about 0.89 Mbar and 2,700 K ala depth of 2,000 km) the atoms of iron and oxygen
diffuse through crystalline grid of solid silicate compounds and form the iron oxides, which accumulate in
the Earth's core. This process of baric diffusion (orbarodiffusion) is accompanied by huge release of heat

energy (151.6 cal per I g ofreleased Fe2O at the bottomof lower mantle; Sorokhtin and Ushakov 2002). There-

fore, gravitational matter differentiation in the interiorof the Earth is a major source of the Earth's inner heat.
In addition to energy of radioactive decay and gravitational matter differentiation, the Earth's interior isalso heated by dissipation of tidal energy caused bygravitational influence of the Moon (solar gravitational
influence is insignificant and can be neglected). Kinetic

due to the friction between the bottom currents and thesea floor (McDonald 1964, 1965). The part of tidal energy dissipated in the mantle does not exceed 6o/o of thetotal released tidal energy. This means that the impact ofdissipated tidal energy on the Earth's interior heating is
insignificant, and that the main sources ol the tectonic
Earth's heat are gravitational matter differentiation andby the process of gravitational differentiation of the
Earth's material; 9"h is generated in the process ofradioactive decay; and about I %o is produced in theprocess of tidal interaction between the Earth and theMoon.

Smoothing role of the World Ocean

The mantie degassing began in the Archaean time
(4 billion years ago). One of the main constituents of thedegassed mixture was water vapor. After accumulationof sufficient amount of water vapor in the atmosphere(under appropriate atmospheric pressure and tempera-ture conditions), the first aquatic basins were created,which (about 3.6 billion years ago) developed into a
unified shallow ocean. As a result, the Earth's global
surface temperature began increasing rapidly (Sorokhtin
and Sorokhtin 2002).

A huge mass of water in the contemporary World
Ocean (approximately |.37x1024 g) slows down all processes of heat and mass transfer between the mantle andthe atmosphere and accumulates the excess of solar energy. The top 200 m of the world ocean store 30 times

more heat than the atmosphere [http://www.a-ce.mmu.ac.uk/eae/Climate.html]. Presently, observed
global atmospheric heating was also accompanied by theoceanic water warming. During 40 years period from1969 to 2000, the upper 300 m of the World Ocean
warmed on the average by 0.56'F (NOAA News Online
2000).

Global oceanic currents transfer heat from theequatorial warmer regions of the ocean to the cold polarwaters and thus mix these waters, reducing oceanic and906

atmospheric temperature differences between varlous
climatic zones.
Contemporary oceanic water contains 50*60 times
more carbon dioxide as the atmosphere (Sorokhtin
2001). When the global temperature rises, the solubilityof the carbon dioxide in the ocean water decreases, andpart of the carbon dioxide content of the ocean water istransferred into the atmosphere, creating an illusion thatthe increased concentration of the carbon dioxide heating the atmosphere is a result of anthropogenic activity(Sorokhtin 2001; Khilyuk and Chilingar 2003). All land
plants produce food from photosynthesis that utilizes
carbon dioxide and water in the presence of solar radiation. Oceanic plankton consumes carbon dioxide forphotosynthesis and building the shells. Consumed carbon dioxide is replaced by the gas of magmatic origin
and by the atmospheric gas (if the global temperaturedrops).

Interplay of the energy and matter fluxes between theWorld Ocean and the atmosphere has a pronounced
smoothing effect on the Earth's climate Because of theworld ocean one can talk about iong-term climatic
patterns. Otherwise, all the climatic changes would occur much sharper and faster, and it would be impossible
for the forces of nature to originate and sustain long-

02 I 2. | 4.02 I microbial-observatory.

html). The purpose ofthis study was to extract from the wetlands (dominantsource of natural methane) and artificially grow thecolonies of bacteria and to determine the impact ofenvironmental conditions on the life of colonies.
Recently, the team of researchers (from Penn State

University and University of California, Los Angeles,
USA) discovered vastly proliferated methane-consumingarchaeobacteria (Orphan et al. 2001, 2002). These bacteria are possibly responsible for consuming most of themethane gas at the bottom of the World Ocean.

Microbial activities play an important role in thetransit of nitrogen from the atmosphere to the Earth's
surface and vice versa. Only bacteria are able to consume and accumulate nitrogen directly from atmosphere. They fix it to organic molecules, making proteins(nitrogen fixation process). All other live species consume and accumulate nitrogen via food chain, fromproteins produced by bacterial activity in the process ofcomposing air can alter the Earth's climate. Recent
discoveries in microbiology revealed a broad proliferation of methane-generating and methane-consuming
bacteria and also (which is even more important)nitrogen fixation.
Bacteria living on the roots of some plants can fix
nitrogen by producing proteins (http://www.starsandseas.com/SAS%20Ecology). Animals can get necessary
nitrogen by eating plants. The remains of plants andanimals can be buried in oceanic sediments, transferring
nitrogen into the solid matter of the Earth. It is not clear
yet what is the scope of life activities of such bacteria.
Recently, microbiologists discovered new microbial
species consuming nitrogen: spirochetes (corkscrew
bacteria) living in termite guts and fresh and sea waters(Lillburn et al. 1999, 2001). Huge population and vast
termite proliferation worldwide make spirochetes livingin their guts and generating proteins a major supplier ofnitrogen for the Earth's live matter.
Some soil bacteria, however, consume NO3 (nitrates)
and convert them into nitrogen returning the nitrogengas into the atmosphere. The latter process is ca11ed
denitrification. Therefore, increase or reduction of thenitrogen content in the atmosphere may be determinedby the balance between bacterial activities in the processes of nitrogen fixation and denitrification.

forces should affect the Earth's climate.

Glacial spells: ice ages

term trends in changing average global temperature that
determine the Earth's climate.

Microbial activity at the interface of lithosphereand atmosphere

From all the live species, only bacteria can directly
influence the mass and content of the gaseous mixture of
the Earth's atmosphere on a global scale. Considerable
changes in concentrations and contents of various gases

abundance of denitrifying and nitrogen-consuming
bacteria. Therefore, the interplay of these "microbial"

Methane gas entering the atmosphere from suchnatural sources as (l) wetlands, (2) rice paddies, (3)cattle digestion, (4) termite digestion, and (5) marineorganisms is actually generated by bacteria. There
were only few episodic studies on methane-generating
bacteria in spite of the fact that life activity of thesebacteria considerably contribute to the total balance ofthe methane gas in the atmosphere" Among the publicized research works on methane-generating bacteria,

one should mention the Cornell University study

initiated in 2002 with the support of National Science

Foundation (http://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/

In the geologic history, there were flve major ice ages:
2.5 billion years, 600 million years, 440 million years,
and 2.5 million years ago (http://www.geosciences.ou.
edu/-6ro..r/tes/paleoclimate2.html). During the ice ages,
large thick shields of ice may cover the entire continents.
This had a pronounced impact on the Earth's climatechanging the sea level (total oceanic water volume),
climatic belts, and distribution of biota.
Traditional explanation of the development of ice
ages in the past geologic epochs is based on so-called
Milankovitch cycles (http://www.earthobservatory.

901

variations in Earth's insolation due to semi-cyclic variationsin the Earth's orbital parameters (orbital eccentricity.
obliquity, and precession of the Earth's axis). These
parameters exhibit semi-cyclic changes with average
periods ranging from 20 to 100 thousand years. Corresponding changes in temperature at the Earth poles canreach up to 15 K (Sorokhtin 2005a, b).
nasa. gov/Library/Giants/Milankovitch)-periodic

These periodic variations in the orbital parameters
are well correlated with occurrence of glacial periods(http://www.geosciences.ou.edu/). They contradict,however, the irregular, increasingly more frequent
occurrence of main ice ages in the geologic past during
the last billion years (Chumakov 2001, 2004). Consequently, one needs alternative (to oscillating insolation)
explanations for the pronounced drop in global atmo-(approximately 0.055 K) obviously could not cause theinitiation of ice age.
The main constituent of the Earth's atmosphere
during the last 2.5 billion years was (and continues
being) nitrogen. The present partial pressure ofnitrogenis about 0.755 atm. Three hundred million years ago, thenitrogen content was even higher than the present level.
Its partial pressure was approximately 0.95 atm, at the
total atmospheric pressure of about 1.1 atm (Sorokhtin
2005er, b). This means that only pronounced persistent
drop in the atmospheric nitrogen content can explain a
non-periodic ice age occurrence. In other words, certain

global mechanisms must exist in the Earth's systemtransforming gaseous nitrogen of the atmosphere into
the solid matter, which is buried in the oceanic sediments.

spheric temperature.
According to the adiabatic theory of heat transfer in

One of the most plausible explanations is the highnitrogen consumption by the nitrogen-consuming bac-determined by the decrease in atmospheric pressure. The
latter implies that there are some global mechanisms
reducing the partial pressures of the Earth's atmosphericsediments reducing the partial pressure of nitrogen (andthe atmosphere, atmospheric temperature drop is

constituents.

One of the proposed hypotheses (http://www.geosciences.ou.edu/) on the causes of pronounced atmospheric pressure reduction leading to major ice ages is apersistent drop in atmospheric carbon dioxide content
during the Earth's geologic past. Possible mechanisms

include long-term weathering of silicates and rapid
burying of large amounts of organic matter, preventing
contained carbon from oxidation. "This might occur
about 300 million years ago when large coastal swamps
were buried" that led to considerable reduction of theatmospheric carbon dioxide content and consequent
temperature drop (http://www.geosciences.ou.edu/).
One can easily refute this hypothesis by noting that,allhat time, the atmospheric CO2 content was very low(its partial pressure did not exceed I matm, and theglobal atmospheric pressure and temperature were close
to their present values) (Sorokhtin and Sorokhtin 2002).
Even if the entire content of CO2 was removed from theatmosphere at lhal time, this could not have led toconsiderable temperature drop necessary for the initiation of ice age. Corresponding temperature drop can beconveniently estimated based on the adiabatic model. At
the sea level, the temperature change can be computed
using the formula (Khilyuk and Chilingar 2003)

LT ;t TaLp

(9)where Ap is the atmospheric pressure change in atm, T
and AZ are the global temperature and temperaturechange at the sea level, respectively, and a is the adiabatic exponent.
After substitution of Z:288 K, a:0.1905, and

Ap: 10-t atm into Eq. 9, one obtains LTx5.49x10-2 K'This insigniflcant global atmospheric temperature drop

teria. In this way, the gaseous nitrogen of the atmosphere can be transferred into the solid matter of thethus the total atmospheric pressure) and lowering
global temperature of the Earth. Considering this process to be irreversible, Sorokhtin (2t)054, b) presented
the hypothesis on bacterial nature of the ice ages. Having

used simple exponential model of nitrogen degassing

and having estimated the total content of nitrogen in the

Earth's system, he developed plausibie scenarios ofevolution of partial atmospheric nitrogen pressure andcorresponding global temperature changes throughout
the geologic history (Figs. 3, 8). In these scenarios, all
the glacial periods that occurred since 900 million years
ago were attributed to nitrogen-consuming bacteria.
The bacterial hypothesis gains additional support
after discovery of nitrogen fixation by symbiotic andfree-living in fresh and salt-water spirochetes (Lillburn
et al. 1999, 2001). This process of nitrogen transferfrom the atmosphere to the Earth's crust, however, isreversible. For example, some soil bacteria consume
nitrates and convert them into gaseous nitrogen (http:l I
www.starsandseas.com/SAS%20Ecology). In this process of denrtrification, nitrogen returns back into theatmosphere, To support the Sorokhtin's hypothesis, one
needs at least to estimate balance between "nitrogen-consuming" and "nitrogen-generating" bacteria activities and prove that the consumption prevails. This

problem, which is very important in the context ofevaluation of the causes of global climatic changes, is yet
to be studied.
Present developments in the bacterial transport ofchemical elements and compounds through the Earth's
system are in the embryonic stage. Characterizing thelevel of knowledge on methane-generating bacteria, forexample, Segelkin (2002) noted: "They have been at it
for millions of years, but practically nothing is known
about wetland bacteria that turn organic matter into the908

Fig. 9 Clobal average temperature changes in twentleth centurv (modified after EPA
Global warming slte: Climate
US National Climatic Data
Center 2001)

'l -4

lr
6

o

=
o

F
CD

1.2
1

0.8
0.5
o.4

o

J
E

o
o

6
o
(,
o

yet
sreenhouse gas, methane"' Microbiologists should
conandgeneratewhich
irow the bacteria,
ut-otineric gases, and study the-impact of various!"i*.-""0."-.
;;;i;;;"tialin itscarbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the changes
content were not driving the Earth's global temperature(Jenkins 3001, P' l2l l) .
changes'^^futureif;it *"flng tendency will probably last in thecooling
the
in
live
we
thit
*.utt.
(Fig. 8). The Iatter
observed during;;i.;i" period and the global warming
just-ashort episodeisy"utt
iiJ lrr"ti"ppttximately f50(2002)
Ushakov
andSorokhtin
globali;ih. s;ilgic history.
Oo *" li"" in the time of global warming or
cooling period will be lasting in the fucoolingS"rJ"ittt"tiheiure due to life-activities of the nitrogen-consumlng
of
span
time
fl"t.iiu rnut transfer the atmospheric nitrogen into soils
aondepends
The answer to this question

coiditions on giowth and decav of
microbial colonies and their proliferation'

burial in the sediments'
th. obs"rved atmospheric changes' The latest 150 years- with subsequent
0.6 BY, when endogenic oxygenofperiodapprbximately
In;;;. iand ih.,t.u. future will probablv be) ola currentlv
rtutit iii."tively degassing because of forming of the
major causes;bb"i;;r;-g (Fig. 9). The
pelpeo by reaction of Eq' 8, the atmo3ur"i""O globil'warming are: rising.solar. irradiation co.e matter
hand' if rpttlti" pressure wili ripidly increase- to .over 40 atm';;Jlt;;d;ng tectonic alctivitv' on the otherincrease of the global temperlast three miilennia, then one can ob- ifrlt *ifi result in sharpor"
80oC (Fig' 8) In such a hostile environ-t" overclear cooling trend in the Earth's climate (Ke;;;;""on.ia..s1he"1996: Hovt and Schaten 1997; Sorokhtin and "t"lment. highly'iforganized species will extincr'.
iswin^s%."lfrii":oO:,'sotothtin and Ushakov 2002; Gerhard
that period'
ZOA+; fttify"k and Chilingar 2004)' Du!1qwith a ciear
K3
wereth. gloUut iemperature deviations
about 2 K
bytemperature
globali."ti' tf decreasing(Figs. 10, 11).

'- itrit treni started at least 7,000 years ago' Friedman(2f105) studied the oxygen isotope composition of Gulf
irf ,qgJ" fr.achrock- (carbonati cement)'. He showedforthat the temperature oi ambient sea water decreased

ufpto*itrlut"iy half of the Holocene' According towater
F'.iJ*u" 1ZOOS, p' 849), the average Red Seainterval
an
over
17'C
to
33
from
;";;;;;decieased
the ages of;-;;;;;;t-ately 4,500 vears-between
tendencv
general
the
Thus,
ki.
lbzi6is ana z.esp.z3
surface) seems
ir-, ttre Rea Sea area (and over the Earth's

the
io nuu. been towaid global cooling' Combining(1996)
Keigwinofprl"i-un', findings witlr the results(see Fig. l0), onehay conclude that the latest coolingInas-comprises most of the Holocene'seoloeic time;';;h-';t-thein. a.a"t"d temperature change occurred
time of relativefu stable concentration of;;;;g

Finaliy,.

we move our horizon 2-3 billion years

forward.'we should expect the atmospheric overheating
()
o
o
d

I
o
o

o.

o
I

o

.,L
000
-1

-500

0

500
Time, Year(with time^in the Sargasso .Sea
Fig. 10 Surface temperature-50of...""f"ii." of about years) as determined by isotopeatratios
in the sediments the sea.i-"itt "l -"tlrr. o.gutti.-t buriedthe
average.temperature overhorizontal ine represents
ii""i.
1996)
Keigwinafter(modifiedperiod'.fr.
1,O-OO v"uttInspection of the global atmospheric temperaturechanges during the last 1,000 years (Fig. I l) shows thatthe global average temperature dropped about 2oC overthe last millennium. This means that we live in thecooling geologic epoch (which comprises most of the
Holocene), and the global warming observed during thelatest 150 years is just a short episode in the geologic

o
o
o

E+2
o

E
o

6

a
e

history. The current global warming is most likely a

t+t

o
o
o

combined effect of increased solar and tectonic activities
and cannot be attributed to the increased anthropogenic
impact on the atmosphere. Humans may be responsible
for less than 0.01'C (of approximately 0.56'C (1"F) total
average atmospheric heating during the last century)

co
o

EO
It
o
a
6

(Khilyuk and Chilingar 2003, 2004).
The global natural processes drive the Earth's climate: "Climate will change, either warmer or colder,

o

o
E -l
o

E

over many scales of time, with or without human

!

o

(,
.2

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

years

Fig. 11 Simplified diagram of global atmospheric temperaturechange over the last 1,000 years (modified after Gerhard 2004)

interference" (Gerhard 2004). Any attempts to mitigate
undesirable climatic changes using restrictive regulations
are condemned to failure, because the global naturalforces are at least 4-5 orders of magnitude greater thanavailable human controls. In addition, application ofthese controis will lead to catastrophic economic consequences. Estimates show (http://www.JunkScience.com)

up to 300"C in the remote future due to catastrophic
increase of the relative content and the partial pressureof oxygen in the atmosphere. This oxygen will be degassed out of the iron oxides as a result of chemical
reactions accompanying gravitational matter differentiation in the Earth's inner layers.
Gonclusions
The writers identified and described the global forces ofnature driving the Earth's climate: solar irradiation as adominant energy supplier to the atmosphere (andhydrosphere); outgassing as a dominant gaseous matter
supplier to the atmosphere (and hydrosphere); andmicrobial activities at the interface of the lithosphereand atmosphere. The scope and extent ofthese processes
are 4-5 orders of magnitude greater than the corresponding anthropogenic impacts on the Earth's climate(such as heating and emission of the greenhouse gases).

that since its inception in February 2005, the Kyoto
Protocol has cost about $50 billion (about $10 billion amonth) supposedly averting about 0.0005oC of warmingby the year 2050. Thus, the Kyoto Protocol is a good
example of how to achieve the minimum results with the

maximum efforts (and sacrifices). Impact of available
human controls will be negligible in comparison with theglobal forces of nature. Thus, the attempts to alter theoccurring global climatic changes (and drastic measuresprescribed by the Kyoto Protocol) have to be abandoned as meaningless and harmfui. Instead, moral andprofessional obligation of all responsible scientists andpoliticians is to minimize potential human miseryresulting from oncoming global climatic changes.

Acknowledgements The authors express their sincere gratitude toProlessor Oleg Sorokhtin ol Moscow University lor granting permission to use some ol the materials in his unpublished manuscripts. The support olthis research provided by Dr. Jemmy Yu is
also greatly appreciated.

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