The Boring Billion with Prof. Dietmar Müller (478)
6/13/202628 min
In this episode, we speak with Dietmar Müller about the "Boring Billion", a seemingly quiet period in Earth's deep history that may have been crucial for the evolution of complex life. Drawing on his latest research, Müller explains how plate tectonics, passive continental margins, and volcanic outgassing shaped Earth's slow carbon cycle and gradually oxygenated the oceans during the mid-Proterozoic era.
Müller also reflects on how young the science of plate tectonics really is, and discusses the open-source EarthByte tools his team at the University of Sydney has developed to model Earth's ancient geological past.
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First 90 secondsKarl Kruszelnicki· Host0:00
I'm Dr. Karl, coming to you from the lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first Australians and traditional custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work. [upbeat music] G'day, Dr. Karl here, Short Leash of Science, University of Sydney. And today, we're talking with Professor, have I got the pronunciation correct, Dietmar Muller, or Muller?
Dietmar Müller· Guest0:26
Muller.
Karl Kruszelnicki· Host0:27
Muller. So that sounds Germanic. And you wrote this amazing paper called Mid ... How do you pronounce this? Proterozoic? Proterozoic?
Dietmar Müller· Guest0:37
Correct.
Karl Kruszelnicki· Host0:37
Mid-Proterozoic Expansion of Passive Margins, that's, that's important, and Reduction in Volcanic Outgassing Supported Marine Oxygenation and Eukaryogenesis. Oh my God, I, I just couldn't believe it because obviously, it's painfully obvious, you're talking about stuff happening in the boring billion. Is that correct?
Dietmar Müller· Guest0:57
That's correct.
Karl Kruszelnicki· Host0:58
So you're a professor of- Geophysics ... geophysics. And what's the difference between geophysics and geology?
Dietmar Müller· Guest1:04
Well, geologists look at rocks in the field, their structure, their composition. Whereas geophysics, um, look at seismic images, uh, magnetic gravity data, and they also run computer models. They, they wind time back.
Karl Kruszelnicki· Host1:19
Ah. So you really wind time back. So what, what would you call this field of geology and geophysics that you're writing in? What would you call it?
Dietmar Müller· Guest1:26
I would call it deep time geology.
Karl Kruszelnicki· Host1:29
Deep time.