Image: Can a Time Capsule Outlast Geology? A ridiculous but instructive thought experiment involving deep time, plate tectonics, erosion and the slow death of the sun By Peter Brannen edited by Seth Fletcher Stuff is old where I live, in greater Boston. Clapboard houses that list with age bear plaques touting the former residence of the town cordwainer or victualler. The gravestones, worn rough by New England winters, lay crooked, too, bearing similarly outmoded biblical names—a Lemuel here, an Ephraim there. Old, too, are the local churches that commended many of these souls to the great hereafter. If we want to leave a time capsule, say, for inhabitants of the next supercontinent to find 250 million years from now, just like we find fossils from Pangaea 250 million years ago, then the ocean floor is a terrible repository. Mindful of my eon-old local rock, and given a charge from Scientific American to figure out how far into the deep future one could possibly even hope to send a time capsule here on Earth, I stumbled upon the humbling work of Steve Holland of the University of Georgia. I reached him at his office, and he gamely decided to play along with my thought experiment. Read the full article: Can a Time Capsule Outlast Geology? This article is part of a package in collaboration with Forbes on time capsules, preserving information and communicating with the future. Read more from the report. Type of News/Audience: Department News Read More: Scientific American
