ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE Sidebar: The Geodiscontinuity...

[Johnny1A.2]

ORICHALCUM UNIVERSE Sidebar: The Geodiscontinuity...

There are at least several tens of millions of worlds in the Greater Milky Way galaxy that were transformed by the Familiar Eldren into (more or less) Earth-like planets by the Familiar Eldren. Additional such worlds are to be found in most of the satellary galaxies of the Milky Way as well, and possibly in some of the other galaxies of the Local Group. Once terraformed and established with Earth-derived biospheres, these worlds followed their own pathways of biological and planetological evolution. In some cases the biospheres eventually died out. In others the biospheres endured, but the surface environment became rather un-Earth-like as the ages passed. Some worlds are so much like Earth that a naked, unequipped Human could at least in principle potentially survive there indefinitely, others have thriving Terrigen biospheres but would kill an unprotected Human instantly. Every shading in between is to be found somewhere in the galaxy as well.

The Familiar Eldren also, much later, scattered humanoid life from Earth, both Human and near-Human, across several thousand fairly Earth-like worlds, planets that Terrestrians would eventually come to refer to as 'hearth worlds'. Subsequently, many of these worlds became centers of further settlement upon achieving star flight, or being found by those who had achieved star flight. In 2124, there are probably at least hundreds of thousands of humanoid-inhabited worlds in the Milky Way.

These worlds vary widely, as noted, but all of them, every single one, has one thing, on feature, in common. With one single exception, every one of these living worlds displays a Geodiscontinuity.

The term 'Geodiscontinuity' is what the Terrestrian biological and geological science communities call this feature. Other humanoid-inhabited worlds have their own terms for it.

The Geodiscontinuity is that point in the strata that marks the time when the Familiar Eldren terraformed the planet. The distinctness of the Geodiscontinuity varies from world to world, depending on the conditions extant before the terraformation, but it is always fairly clear in the 'record of the rocks', once a society is advanced enough to recognize it. It marks the point where the atmosphere (if any), hydrosphere (if any), chemical environment, temperature regimes, and a thousand other factors were very suddenly transformed, on a planet-wide scale.

Sometimes, the planet simply had no atmosphere and/or surface water until that sudden transformation. Sometimes, an extant atmosphere or ocean was radically change in composition, density, temperature, etc. Sometimes no plate tectonics existed until that time. In all cases, the transformation is incredibly sharp, usually marking a period of no more than a thousand Terrestrial years, sometimes substantially less.

In all cases, signs of life appear in the record of the rocks immediately above the Geodiscontinuity (unless subsequent geological changes inverts the layers, as can happen). Not only does life appear suddenly and without prequel, it is complex, specialized life, of a huge variety of different forms and occupying many different sophisticated niches. The fossil record speaks of an entire complex, integrated planetary biosphere appearing over the course of a few Terrestrial centuries.

Many societies do not recognize the full significance of the Geodiscontinuity until they achieve interstellar travel, or are contacted by those who already have such technology. After all, absent interstellar (or occasionally interplanetary, for those exceptional star systems with multiple terraformed planets), the local humanoids have nothing with which to compare their fossil record.

Once interstellar travel is achieved, and other living worlds are discovered, the Geodiscontinuities of the other worlds become known. Though the details vary widely, the Geodiscontinuity is always present. Sometimes it marks a relatively recent transformation, no more than a few tens of millions of years. In other cases, the Geodiscontinuity presages a living fossil record hundreds of megayears deep. In no known case is there a Geodiscontinuity older than about 450 million Terrestrial years back, however.

As noted above, there is one known exception to the rule that there is always a Geodiscontinuity present on a world with a Terrigen biosphere. That exception, of course, is Earth itself.

MORE LATER.