Lead
"The earth will not disappear because of the demise of humanity. ”
This is a famous quote by the British science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke, and a warning against human arrogance.
Although human society is thriving, five mass extinction events in the history of the planet have revealed the fate of the great reshuffle that ushered in after the supremacy of species.
Scientists fear that a sixth mass extinction is brewing and that humans could be victims.
What kind of traces will be left behind when humans disappear?
Billions of years from now, will there still be a trace of human beings on Earth?
1. The extinction of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period.
There have been five mass extinctions in Earth's history, the latest being 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, which led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
And in the coming sixth mass extinction, humans will likely become victims.
So in the past 100 million years, in addition to vertebrates, has there been any new evolution of other organisms?
In fact, the evolution of living things becomes slower and slower over time, and the rate of evolution is very slow unless special circumstances occur.
Therefore, the types of organisms on the earth are basically the products of the period of the biological explosion.
During the explosion of organisms, there were many species of life in the ocean, which were absolutely dominant, and the life on land was also diverse, but mainly arthropods and mollusks.
Later, some marine animals climbed from the water to land and became the first vertebrates, which evolved into reptiles by walking on land on all fours.
On the basis of reptiles, some animals have evolved feathers and thus become birds.
Dinosaurs were a type of reptile and the first sauropod dinosaurs that evolved into upright walking dinosaurs that stood on their strong hind limbs.
Dinosaurs, which have always lived on Earth, evolved a variety of new species during the Jurassic period, such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Tyrannosaurus rex.
By the time of the Cretaceous period, dinosaurs had dominated the land, and there was no creature on land that could compete with the dinosaurs.
However, at the end of the Cretaceous period, an asteroid hit the Earth, triggering a series of drastic changes in the geological environment, causing the Earth's biodiversity to plummet and many organisms to become extinct, including dinosaurs.
This is also the fifth mass extinction on Earth, and the latest, almost "recent" history, which is only 65 million years from now.
And now, the earth is ushering in a new mass extinction, which will be a catastrophe unprecedented for mankind in millions of years, and human beings may become victims.
And now the upcoming sixth mass extinction may also be caused by an asteroid hitting the earth, but no human beings have found an asteroid large enough to fly towards the earth.
However, human beings may also be the culprits of mass extinctions, and the ecological environment of the earth can no longer withstand the destruction of human beings.
Although the earth's ecological environment is endlessly inclusive, with the continuous development of human beings, the earth's ecological environment has undergone earth-shaking changes and has never been so fragile.
In the process of human development, other creatures are like "nurses", sacrificing many of their own kind for the development of human beings, and now, the sharp decline in the number of biological species on the earth also means that a mass extinction is brewing.
After the disappearance of humans, most of the electronic devices on the planet will lose energy and stop functioning, but there are still some places that will continue to operate, such as nuclear power plants.
2. Leakage from nuclear power plants.
Nuclear energy is released in the fusion reaction, and then converted into electrical energy through various equipment for human production and life.
In this process, the amount of uranium isotopes decreases until they are all depleted, so that the nuclear power plant loses the raw materials to absorb energy and can no longer produce energy from nuclear reactions.
Therefore, in a nuclear power plant, the electrical energy required for uranium isotopes and electronic equipment is stored and used separately.
The construction and use of nuclear power plants need to go through strict regulations and inspections to ensure the safety of nuclear power plants.
Once a safety incident occurs at a nuclear power plant, it can lead to serious consequences, such as a nuclear power plant leak.
After the failure of a nuclear power plant, the energy absorbed by the uranium isotope will be continuously released, and this energy will react with the surrounding elements to produce a series of gases, liquids and solid substances, some of which are harmful to the human body.
These substances will also spread outward, pollute the surrounding environment, and cause harm to the surrounding organisms, which will continue for a long time, and there are still some places that are uninhabitable due to the effects of nuclear radiation.
Human beings have lived on the earth for millions of years, and during this time, the impact of human beings on the earth has been very huge, and this impact will be with you forever, casting a shadow on the living environment of the earth.
After the disappearance of human beings, the electronic devices on the earth will gradually stop functioning and eventually lose energy completely, but they will still remain on the earth and become "human relics".
After the failure of a nuclear power plant, uranium isotopes continue to release energy for a long time, which reacts with surrounding elements, such as oxygen and water, to produce some gases and liquids, some of which are harmful to life on Earth.
Some gases and liquids will spread outward, polluting the earth's environment and causing harm to life on the earth, and these hazards will continue for a long time.
And these hazards will allow the creatures on the earth to evolve adaptation methods, thus forming a new ecosystem, and human beings will become the regret of the new ecosystem.
3. Human traces on Earth.
In addition to the impact that nuclear power plant leaks will have on the ecological environment of the earth, where humans live, they will also leave traces of human beings, which will last on the earth for a very long time, such as electronic components.
The main materials used in the production of electronic components are copper metal, which is used as a wire, and semiconductor silicon, which is used to make chips for electronic components, and silicon plates are the most basic components in electronic components.
The manufacturing process of silicon panels is very mature and its stability is very good, so silicon panels can survive for hundreds of years, or even longer, in any environment.
After the disappearance of humans, electronic components will survive on Earth for billions of years due to their very long survival time, becoming "human relics".
The components in these electronic components are made of metal materials, and although the metal does not last as long as the silicon plate, it can also exist for hundreds of years, so during this time, the metal parts will gradually "disappear".
Because the stability of the silicon plate is so good, it will remain on the earth after the metal parts "disappear".
2. Traces of human civilization.
In addition to electronic components, buildings built by humans during their lifetime will also leave traces of humans, such as silica.
Where humans live, metallic materials such as iron, copper, and aluminum, which are used in the production of buildings, oxidize with substances such as water, carbon dioxide, and oxygen to form silica.
Silica lives for a very long time, so it will remain on Earth billions of years after humans disappear.
During the survival time of silica, it will gradually merge with the soil and become a part of the soil, and it will gradually merge with the rock and become a part of the rock, so as to preserve the traces of human civilization for a long time.
epilogue
The earth will not disappear because of the demise of human beings, but the extinction of human beings is not impossible, and the impact of human beings on the earth's environment may also lead to their own extinction.
The earth will continue to exist and evolve, and new organisms may rise again after the disappearance of humans, but traces of human civilization will also persist on the earth.
But over a long period of time on Earth, these traces will gradually blur and blend into the natural environment.